23 pages 46 minutes read

Virginia Woolf

The Mark on the Wall

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1917

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Essay Topics

1.

Explicate the vision of patriarchy “The Mark on the Wall” expresses. According to Woolf, what is the definition of patriarchy? How does it accomplish social, psychological, and intellectual tyranny? 

2.

Explicate the complicated notion of freedom within “The Mark on the Wall.” According to the story, what is freedom? What is the narrator in need of being freed from? What, according to the narrator, impinges upon her freedom, as well as the freedom at large of those belonging to her society? Within her internal intellectual system, is true freedom possible? 

3.

In many ways, “The Mark on the Wall” can be read as an articulation of an insurgent and distinctly feminine mode of writing, thinking, and being. Howdoes Woolf articulate a distinct and insurgentfeminine/feminist position within the story?

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