A Room of One's Own

The role of the women was portrayed very well in Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Woolf focused on the importance of money to a woman in the Renaissance. I couldn’t help but think about the fact that money has always been important to women. An example of this is Mrs. Dalloway. She chose Richard over Peter because he was more secure and had better standing in society. Perhaps I should rephrase myself, material goods have always been important to women. They alone define a woman’s worth and depth in the eyes of the rest of society. So what is the difference between Woolf’s, Room of One’s Own and every materialistic socialite throughout history? The will to write. For the first time women were breaking the mold and daring to do what only men could do, unthinkable in those times. Women couldn’t write and if they could, certainly not as well as men. Because women were not allowed to write so much talent has been lost throughout history. Woolf’s creation of Shakespeare’s sister is very powerful. It made me think not only of what would have happened without Shakespeare’s mark on literary history but of what we have missed out on. There were most likely dozens of women who obtained the ability to write as well as Jane Austen who have been lost in the crowd. I would be willing to bet that more than once, a woman sat in the audience at one of Shakespeare’s productions who was just as talented, but trapped in the cramped role that society had placed on her gender.

Woolf further explains exactly how drastic the limitations placed on women are in chapter 3, “Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband” (43). To think that I may have never had the chance to read Pride and Prejudice because Jane Austen never learned to read and write is devastating. So many women were limited and confined to a simple lifestyle while their husbands read and wrote right in front of them.

I fell in love with the metaphor that Woolf came up with to describe fiction, “Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners” (41). The spider’s web is perfect because they are flexible and almost transparent. In my opinion a good fiction work must have some resemblance to reality (attached at four corners) and they should also have uniqueness about them. They do not have to conform to a specific “shape” or story.

Like Woolf, I adore Jane Austen. It was not until reading A Room of One’s Own that I understood what it is that I love so much about her work. She and Shakespeare share the unique ability to write without being affected or bogged down with their own emotions. While Jane Austen wrote some of the greatest love stories of all time, it is important to note that they are not full of sappy romance. It is equally important to realize that thought in most of her books the couple lives “happily ever after” Jane Austen’s love life did not work out as smoothly. Still, Austen was not bitter and was able to write timeless pieces due to her ability to take her emotions out of the equation.