Question

servile people. it was not born in england among the saxons and the britons. it is not born today among the working classes. how, then, could it have been born among women whose work began, according to professor trevelyan, almost before they were out of the nursery, who were forced to it by their parents and held to it by all the power of law and custom? yet genius of a sort must have existed among women as it must have existed among the working classes. now and again an emily brontë or a robert burns blazes out and proves its presence. but certainly it never got itself on to paper. when, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then i think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious jane austen, some emily brontë who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. make a text - to - world connection to the passage.

Explanation:

The passage discusses the suppressed literary genius in women due to societal and legal - custom constraints. In the real world, throughout history, gender inequality has often hindered women from fully expressing their creative and intellectual talents. For example, in many historical periods, women had limited access to education and were expected to fulfill domestic roles, which suppressed their potential as writers, poets, etc. This is similar to the idea in the passage that many talented women were unable to have their works known.

Answer:

Throughout history, gender - based societal norms have suppressed women's literary potential, similar to what the passage describes.