A: Mocking to earnest: while the author ridicules the oracular woman, she assumes a serious tone when describing the woman of culture.
Explanation: In the first two paragraphs, the author’s contemptuous attitude toward the “oracular literary woman” is apparent. The author describes the behavior of such women as “the most mischievous form of feminine silliness,” and lines such as “she spoils the taste of one’s muffin by questions of metaphysics” clearly portray the oracular woman as an object of ridicule. On the other hand, when describing the “woman of true culture,” the author adopts a more earnest tone as she paints the virtues of this figure—her modesty, consideration for others, and genuine literary talent—in idealized terms. A writer’s shifts in tone from one part of a text to another may suggest the writer’s qualification or refinement of their perspective on a subject. In this passage, the author’s sincere, idealized portrait of the woman of true culture plays an important role in qualifying the argument of the passage: although the author agrees with the men in line 41 that the “literary form” of feminine silliness deserves ridicule, she rejects generalizations about women’s intellectual abilities that the oracular woman unwittingly reinforces. Embodying the author’s vision of what women could attain if they were given a “more solid education,” the figure of the cultured woman serves to temper the derisive (mocking) portrayal of women intellectuals in the first part of the passage.
Sinners have little left to mess up after they sin of course. It is almost like treading on “thin ice”. Like also meaning whatever they do next is the last straw.
