easy notes
A Room of One's Own, by
Virginia Woolf, is a mighty proposition for women's independence in creative
endeavors. While the innovation and courage found in the writing may be lost on
today's readers, the profundity of her work is best seen through the cultural
and historical lens of 1929. At that time, women were not allowed into
particular universities and libraries--let alone given the opportunity to
creatively express themselves.
Woolf was a keen critic in her day,
although her understanding of literature was likely unacknowledged by many a
man in the first half of the twentieth century. A Room of One's Own
gives the reader time in which to get to know the woman behind the many
biographies, novels and essays she wrote. It is as if the reader is alongside
her in her research, pondering her musings and wondering at her declarations.
"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." So Woolf challenges the patriarchal system that allows a man to choose any livelihood he desires, but often requires a woman to live her life in full support of his enterprise instead of deciding upon her own path.
Money and a Room of One's Own
Initially researched for lectures presented to the Arts Society at Newnham College and the Odtaa at Girton College in 1928, A Room of One's Own is more than just an essay on the correlation of women and fiction. Woolf insists that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction..." Specifically, she holds that a woman should have 500 pounds per year and a room with a lock on the door. For her own money, Woolf relied on an inheritance from her aunt; she claims it was given to her "for no other reason than that [she] share[d] her name." The sum was 500 pounds per year, for the duration of Woolf's life; the same amount she insists is vital to any woman wishing to write.
"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." So Woolf challenges the patriarchal system that allows a man to choose any livelihood he desires, but often requires a woman to live her life in full support of his enterprise instead of deciding upon her own path.
Money and a Room of One's Own
Initially researched for lectures presented to the Arts Society at Newnham College and the Odtaa at Girton College in 1928, A Room of One's Own is more than just an essay on the correlation of women and fiction. Woolf insists that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction..." Specifically, she holds that a woman should have 500 pounds per year and a room with a lock on the door. For her own money, Woolf relied on an inheritance from her aunt; she claims it was given to her "for no other reason than that [she] share[d] her name." The sum was 500 pounds per year, for the duration of Woolf's life; the same amount she insists is vital to any woman wishing to write.
Representative Women Writers?
George Eliot, Emily Brontë, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë are depicted by Woolf as "four great novelists" and she continually refers to their work as the ideal product of a woman's ability to write fiction. Throughout her research, Woolf compares and contrasts other authors to these four women. She points out that none of these women struggled financially, but Jane Austen in particular was forced to hide her writing. What would Austen have written if she had a room with a lock on the door?
"What effect has poverty on fiction?" Woolf asks. "Intellectual freedom," Woolf concludes, "depends on material things. Poetry depends on intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time." The accuracy of her statement is evident in the lack of published work written by women in developing countries even today.
"Imaginatively [a woman] is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant." This bold statement highlights the wealth of fiction and poetry written about women and the lack of it actually written by them.
She even turns the emphasis around when she says: "Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreams; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer." If this were the case, literature would be impoverished, and so she argues, it has been by closing the doors on women's writing.
George Eliot, Emily Brontë, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë are depicted by Woolf as "four great novelists" and she continually refers to their work as the ideal product of a woman's ability to write fiction. Throughout her research, Woolf compares and contrasts other authors to these four women. She points out that none of these women struggled financially, but Jane Austen in particular was forced to hide her writing. What would Austen have written if she had a room with a lock on the door?
"What effect has poverty on fiction?" Woolf asks. "Intellectual freedom," Woolf concludes, "depends on material things. Poetry depends on intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time." The accuracy of her statement is evident in the lack of published work written by women in developing countries even today.
"Imaginatively [a woman] is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant." This bold statement highlights the wealth of fiction and poetry written about women and the lack of it actually written by them.
She even turns the emphasis around when she says: "Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreams; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer." If this were the case, literature would be impoverished, and so she argues, it has been by closing the doors on women's writing.
To Walk in the Flesh: A
Room of One's Own
Woolf presents two criticisms on her own lecture. First, that no opinion has been expressed and second, that she has made too much of material things. But she concludes with a call to action. Shakespeare's sister, claims Woolf, who never wrote a word, "lives in you and in me... For great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh." She therefore encourages the women to whom she is speaking to write without boundaries on every topic imaginable.
Does the fact that times have changed discount the importance of her work to the modern world? Absolutely not. Woolf's work is still an important book in women's literature and feminist literary studies.
Woolf presents two criticisms on her own lecture. First, that no opinion has been expressed and second, that she has made too much of material things. But she concludes with a call to action. Shakespeare's sister, claims Woolf, who never wrote a word, "lives in you and in me... For great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh." She therefore encourages the women to whom she is speaking to write without boundaries on every topic imaginable.
Does the fact that times have changed discount the importance of her work to the modern world? Absolutely not. Woolf's work is still an important book in women's literature and feminist literary studies.
'A Room of
One's Own' Quotes
A Room of One's Own is one of Virginia Woolf's most famous works. Some of her most well-known sayings and phrases come from this short work. Here are a few quotes from Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
·
"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses
possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at
twice its natural size."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
·
"Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have
minded beyond reason the opinions of others."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
·
"Women, then, have not
had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on
money and a room of one's own."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
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