Mod a Essay Hsc

Analyse how Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A elbow room of unmatcheds Own imaginatively portray individuals who challenge the set up values of their time. Literature is an evaluation of the established values of their time, a manifestation of the composers perspectives regarding key issues that characterised their zeitgeist. This is evident in Virginia Woolfs polemical essay, A Room of unmatcheds Own (1929), in which she portrays male anxiety towards women during the post-WWI period.Similarly, Edward Albees 1962 satirical drama, Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Afraid) projects an analogous fear of female office, although in post-WWII American society. In a further comparison, both composers focus on the importance of wealth in society, where Woolf considers the significance of material security with regards to fiction writing in side society in the 1920s, whilst Albee criticises materialistic values in relation to social conformity in American society in the 1960s.Since the l ate nineteenth century female suffrage movement that empowered women, men feared being displaced from their traditional positions of authority. Woolf conveys these established patriarchal values through A Room of Ones Own, in her examination of the phallocentric literary sphere of the 1920s, where anybody could write literature, save they were not women. The emblemic title mellowedlights womens need for material security as a pre-condition to writing fiction, arguing that historically, men have denied women opportunities for achieving economic equality.Woolfs ironic use of simile reinforces her hypothesis that if only Mrs Seton had learnt the great art of fashioning money and had left their money, like their fathers to found fellowships. This highlights the historical lack of edu purifyional and financial opportunities for women. Furthermore, Woolf blames patriarchal values for institutionalising discriminatory practices in side society. At the fabricated Oxbridge, a Beadle in dicates that this was the turf there was the path, symbolising the established gender exclusion in academia. Her thoughts interrupted, she expresses disappointment as they had sent my little fish into privateness.Through this metaphor, Woolf implies that mens protection of their turf denied women opportunities for creativity, portraying an ingrained contextual fear of female intelligence that was perceived as encroaching upon male dominance in every sphere of endeavour. Albees contemporary political satire, Afraid, also portrays male and female rivalry, incorporating textual features such as intense drama and blunt stage directions to convey the fierce gender conflict of his time. Whilst both texts were composed in post-war periods, Albees drama savagely critiques the established societal values of baseborn town American society in the 1960s.This is evident when Martha criticises George as a greatbigfatFLOP unable to rise up the departmental ranks. The use of crude colloquial l anguage and aggressive stage directions accentuates her frustration as she spits the word at Georges back, radiateing Marthas authority all over him, which symbolises womens growing influence in mainstream American society in the 1960s. Furthermore, Martha recalls the boxing match we had in an attempt to humiliate him, an allegory for the gendered power struggle.George reacts negatively, and to witness superiority, he takes a short-barrelled shotgun aims it at Martha and pulls the trigger. Coupled with this stage direction, Albees use of exclamatory punctuation in Georges childish point-scoring of prisoner of war Youre dead signifies his desperation to recover his masculinity. In this way, Albee portrays the constant quarrelling between George and Martha as a symbol of anxiety and dysfunctionality in America in the 1960s, render the national paranoia associated with the Cold War and nuclear warfare.Just as Woolf and Albee represent the gender conflict in post-war societies, they also criticise the wealth inequality and the greed of their time. Whilst Woolf reasons that discrimination against women often prevented them from writing fiction, she also considers that poor material conditions likewise limited their contri thoion to literature. Through the use of the modal verb to emphasise the importance of financial security, she expresses her public debate regarding material needs that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.The anecdote of the tailless cat is symbolic of the distractions that interrupted women in their writing, thus Woolf highlights the need for the privacy of a room of ones own in order to think of things in themselves. Furthermore, she decides that 500 pounds a year for ever seemed infinitely more important than the suffrage movement as it was more conducive to her writing fiction. No durable working like a slave, Woolfs simile highlights that food, house, and clothing are forever mine, reflecting the value of financial security in English society in the 1920s.Thus, Woolf sustains her thesis and highlights the importance of money and privacy, conveying the established attitude that a secure income ensured creative and intellectual freedom in English society. Alternatively, Albees political allegory reflects his criticism of the materialistic mores of American society in the 1960s, portraying human shallowness in a dramatic appraisal of the American Dream, an idea which has resonated within society since the founding of America.It epitomises a conservative national ethos that entailed the possibility of universal prosperity and the pursuit of happiness for all, thus some(prenominal) individuals sought to increase their wealth and social status. This materialistic idea is conveyed through Nick, who crudely boasts, my wifes got some money. In characterising Nick as the typical shallow jock, Albee undermines this concept of the self-made man, dramatising a soulless aspect of the American Dream. Additionally, Martha criticises Georges salary, mirroring the contextual attitudes of middle-class America, when status was associated with high income levels.She sneers at George, advising him not to waste good liquornot on your salary. Here, Marthas mocking tone captures her disappointment as she hopes that was an empty nursing bottle. However, the empty bottle also symbolises her despair as George is only on an Associate Professors salary. This brings to mind the social importance of income but unlike in Woolfs society, where womens economic security may liberate creativity, here economic success serves as a status symbol within the American Dream.Thus, literature, with its distinct forms and features, is influenced by varying contexts, portraying similar concerns that enhance our understanding of the established values of the time. Woolfs polemic, A Room of Ones Own (1929), may differ textually and contextually from Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962), which portrays a savage attack on American values, but both texts reflect male fear of women due to their growing influence in post war societies. Furthermore, they focus on the importance of wealth with regard to literary creativity in English society in the 1920s and the realisation of the American Dream during the 1960s.