The moment of which the first scoop of a pleasant dessert reaches your mouth, an

overwhelming sensation of sweetness concludes the meal with pleasantries. However, the
specialty stored within the deserts begins to dull away, engraved into a dinner tradition. Virginia
Woolf’s depiction of a confection “which [rises] the all sugar from the waves” at a men’s college
meal revitalizes the perfection of desserts. Woolf emphasizes the traditional overlooking of
multiplied opportunities offered to men compared to women, with gender dynamics burned into
tradition.
Woolf’s syntax differentiates the disparity between a meal at the men’s college and a
meal at the women’s college. Convoluted sentences stuffed with clauses upon end constitute of
Woolf’s exquisite visual, olfactory, and gustatory imagery, mirroring the food she describes at
the men’s college. There, similes pepper each food object like the “retinue of sauces and
salads” accompanying the main courses. Rather than a direct comparison between the
blandness of food at the women’s college with the feast at the men’s college, Woolf emulates
the meals she consumes. Contrary to the extravagantly saturated sentences of the men’s
college luncheon, Woolf maintains a dull and dreary passivity within the women’s college meal.
A bland “here was my soup” contains her utter unenthusiasm for the meal, in comparison to the
emotions evoked by the meal at the men’s college, inspiring sentiments that “we are all going to
heaven.” Although both meals are offered at universities, thus considered of equal prestige, the
men’s college holds a significant magnification of value in comparison to the women’s college.
While a substantial meal at the women’s college, Woolf’s subdued diction indicates a muted
attachment to the meal— “homely” but also merely “daily food.” Aspects of the meals like the
prunes are described to be so poor in nature that they are “not [even] given to the poor.” The
simplistic nature that “the plate was plain” conveys that the food was adequate but completely
incomparable to the heaping plates of partridges with “brown spots like the spots on the flanks
of a doe” along with “sprouts, foliated as rosebuds but more succulent.” Woolf’s selection of
particular similes contributes to the likening of the meals to the social dynamic between men
and women. While the meals at the women’s college are not detestable, the much more lavish
meals of the men’s college that are so often overlooked represents the overlooked role of
women in society. Slotted into tradition, Woolf’s connection between the meal at the men’s
college to natural sprouts and coins elicits both a complete picture of the dinner table, but also
the opportunities offered to men are free as the growth of rosebuds, and as valuable as coins to
a human— money, a necessity to operate in society. Additionally, Woolf stresses that women
exist within society’s tenets, but are constrained by their lack of opportunity. Women do possess
opportunities as demonstrated by the amounts of food that they are offered, but the meal is
portrayed as only existing for nourishment rather than the men’s meal which is concentrated
upon the sheer experience in relishing in all capable tastes. The ending of each passage
demonstrates that the man continues in contemplation as he sits at the window-seat, but the
women have all already left with the dining hall in preparation for the next day.
Woolf infuses in an economic gap between women and men as an undertone to the
direct comparison of the meals. With anaphoric repetition, Woolf highlights the ability for men to
bask within their meals, after a sequence of courses fit for royalty. Woolf almosts mocks the idea
that the partridges could be just “a couple of bald, brown birds on a plate” and that it would “be
an insult” to describe the pudding as simply rice and tapioca. Here, Woolf underscores the idea
that it is expected for the men to have meals beyond simple birds or sweets at their meals. But
for women, their meals are “plain” with “no pattern,” and beyond that, they are expected to be
complacent with their prunes and custard that even a coal-miner who has less would most likely
reject. While both are universities, Woolf characterizes the economic superiority that men
posses in society, because of how tradition has set them upon. An expectation of the lush meals
offered to men are passed off with the conversational tone that sandwiches the meal— a
reiteration of the casual manner of which men are endowed with numerable opportunities. Yet,
Woolf sandwiches the women’s meal with blunt statements of the meal— a testament to the
constraints of women, enough to survive, but barely bearable.