Virginia Woolf uses a sarcastic, mocking tone to express her attitude toward women's place in society as she describes the two different meals she was served during a university visit. She uses two separate passages to compare and contrast the roles of men and women in society, showing how society regards men to be better than women. In the first passage, Woolf describes the lavish lives of men. She uses diction such as "counterpane," "branded," "retinue," "foliated" and "confection" to express a sophisticated and intellectual event as she describes the men's lunch. The superlative "whitest cream" portrays how men get the best treatment. Diction such as "succulent" describes the sensual joys that the meals bring to the men, who are well-deserving of this meal, and "silent serving-man" displays the elegance of men's lives. Woolf also employs a hyperbole to add to the flamboyance of the rice pudding by calling it a "confection." With sarcasm, she says calling it pudding would be an "insult" because it is too simple and would be inferior to men unless "confection" is added. Anaphora such as "no need to hurry, no need" depicts the relaxed, arrogant nature of men's mood. Other anaphora such as "how sweet, how trivial" shows how men have the luxury to enjoy life, and "had been emptied; had been filled," emphasizes the abundance men have as they could get more drinks. Woolf also uses lengthy sentences such as "The partridges succulent" to parallel the endless luxuries afforded to men. Overall, Woolf carefully chooses her words to describe subtly the abundance, variety, and lavishness of men's lives.
On the other hand, Woolf describes the plain lives of women through the meals they receive. With short sentences like "dinner was ready," she depicts the simplicity of women's lives, and with the sentences "Here was the soup" and "The plate was plain," she suggests the lack of freedom and independence the women had.
