A gender prejudice used by Mrs. Ramsay in to the Lighthouse by , Virginia Woolf - Essay Example

She admired the political power of men. As a woman, she felt it was her role to create emotional support for her husband as males are responsible for the burden of rational thought and the creation of empire. Because of her strong belief in the separate roles of men and women, she desired that her daughters would follow in her footsteps and become wives. The way in which she viewed her daughter Lily through a critical eye is an example of her strong beliefs in prescribed gender roles. Through her revealing thoughts and her interactions with her family, Mrs.

Ramsay provides a resource for examining the idea of gender roles and prejudices towards women through Victorian belief systems. The way in which Mrs. Ramsay relates to her daughters is one of the key aspects of discussing the idea of the differences between male and female roles during the Victorian era. Mrs. Ramsay protects the masculine role through her instructions to her daughters on how to behave as women who will someday fulfill the same type of role in their own marriages. Mrs. Ramsay shows her admiration for men where political power is concerned when she states “Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection; for reasons she could not explain, for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance; finally for an attitude towards herself which no woman could fail to feel or to find agreeable, something trustful,” (Woolf 260).

The power that men held in the public sphere, primarily their political power, impressed Mrs. Ramsay and she felt it was her duty to establish a domestic space in which her husband could find support and sympathy so he could attend to his duties in the public sphere. Woolf writes “Already that summer he was "the kindest of men." He was "the first scientist of his age, my husband says." He was also "poor William—it makes me so unhappy, when I go to see him, to