A ROOM OF HER OWN

LITERARY CRITICISMS OF VIRGINIA WOOLFS A ROOM OF OUR OWN

MICHELLE EVA MORHOLT

August 8, 2013
Essay #3
ENGL-2600-Su-13-Maenhardt
Salt Lake Community College
Prof. Stephanie Maenhardt

Virginia Woolfs 1929 lengthy essay, A Room of Ones Own, meticulously explains if
women are to have the opportunity to write fiction, then they must have two thingsmoney and
a sanctuary where they can work uninterrupted. A Room of Ones Own attempts to explore the
internal and external barriers women must overcome in order to produce quality literature. The
overarching thesis is best stated by Woolf at the end of her essay, Intellectual freedom depends
upon material things (Woolf, 8). Inspiration for this essay stems from lectures Woolf presented
at two prestigious womens educational institutions, Cambridge University Arts Society at
Newnham and Girton College in October 1928. The lectures requested central theme was asked
to focus on the topic of women and fiction. Woolf reflected on the meaning of what the words
meant (Woolf, 1) and in A Room of Ones Own, proposed three theories:
you may have meant it to mean, women and what they are like; or it might mean women and
the fiction they write; or it might mean women and the fiction that is written about the; or it
might mean that somehow all three are inextricable mixed together and you want me to
consider them in that light (Woolf, 1).
This systematic attempt to understand the prescribed goal of the lectures allows Woolf to
explore the universal history of women and define how autonomy, education, and freedom from
oppressive traditions are the essential keystones for women to produce any intellectual or artistic
greatness.
Woolf utilizes a partially fictionalized narrative to support and develop her thesis. The
imaginary narrator in A Room of Ones Own is asked to be called Mary Benton, Mary Seton,
Mary Carmicheal or by any name you pleaseit is not a matter of any importance (Woolf, 1).
By choosing to refrain from defining one true identity for the narrator, Woolf is able to impart
a universal tone to her essay. Through the one voice of a nameless narrator, the collective
thoughts and shared history of all women are simultaneously represented and expressed. This
lack of a central ego is a powerful literary device, one that sets a tone of seriousness. Audience
members and readers alike are permitted to realize the author/narrators analytical thoughts.

Consequentially, Woolf is able to construct a thesis that refrains from the emotions and reactions
that typically dictates the consciousness of systemically oppressed women dominated by a
gender-based power structure. Furthermore, refraining to label the central ego challenges the
most basic human desire and tendencyto be recognized as independent identity. Woolf is adept
in employing this stylistic device of ironythrough a nameless narratorshe is able to enlighten
and unite the individual experiences of all women, not just one woman.
Historically, despite their social-economic class, women had not the benefit of a formal
education. In fact, only until as recently as the twentieth century, has this privilege been extended
to females. Woolfs education fell in line with her contemporary social norms, and she was
denied the benefit of a formal institutionalized education. According to Peter Horts 1995
documentary, Virginia Woolf: Novelist, 1882-1941, Virginias father, Sir Leslie Stephen,
educated Virginia and her sister Vanessa, at home. He allowed them free reign over his library
a luxury Virginia did not squander.
After defining the thesis of A Room of Ones Own, Woolf creates a narrative, of how
she was sitting on the banks of a river of a fictitious college named Oxbridge (which one can
reasonably assume refers to Oxford and Cambridge, the two most prestigious educational
institutions in England) contemplating the task of composing her lecture. Lost in thought, I,
found myself walking with extreme rapidity across a grass plot. Instantly, a mans figure rose to
intercept me (Woolf, 1). Woolf continues, He was a beadle; I was a woman (Woolf, 2).
Eventually, she is chased off the premises. This story of trespassing on the grounds of a college
and being expelled is symbolic of how knowledge, education, and original thought were the
privilege and work of men. in the protection of their turfthey had sent my little fish into
hiding(Woolf, 2). This story lays the framework to support Woolfs thesis. She is treated as
a trespassing criminal; unwelcomed, not only on the physical grounds of the college, but also on
the turf of having access to an education and knowledge.

This story accomplishes to plant the seed of how crucial it is to have a room of ones
own: a place free of distractions, free of internal and external barriers that prohibit the ability for
a woman to think, develop, and compose her own independent conclusions. Moreover, perhaps
the deviation of social norms by her father in allowing his daughters to have access to an
education is also hinted at in this story. Important to note, Sir Stephen was careful not to stray
too far outside the lines of convention. His daughters education had not taken place in the
openbut rather occurred quietly, secretly, and safelyhidden within the confines of their
private home.
Woolf expands her thesis by explaining the significance of the narrators yearly 500
allowance inherited from an Aunt May Benton. With this inheritance, the chronicler is afforded a
sense of security, a freedom from having to engage in work that one does not wish to
do(Woolf, 3). Also, this inheritance enables a release of resentment and servitude toward
men.
what a change of temper fixed income will bring about. No force in the world can take
me from my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine forever. Therefore not
merely do effort and labour crease, but also hatred and bitterness, I need not hate any man;
he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man he has nothing to give me (Woolf, 3).
The ability for women to be financially independent is another liberty exclusive to our modern
age. Historically, women were indebted to men for stability and security. At this point in A
Room of Ones Own, Woolf had defined the twofold meaning underlying Women are always
poorer than men (Woolf, 4). Women who preceded the twentieth century were poor, both in the
development of their intellects and their financial statuses.
The third dimension Woolf explicates in her theory is why women do not produce great
works of literature; she simply reasons, there is no tradition to do so. Woolf carefully explains
how it was impossible for any woman, past, present or to come, to have the genius of
Shakespeare (Woolf, 5). After investigating British historian Professor Trevelyans 1926 work,

History of England, Woolf identifies a dichotomy which exists in literature: Imaginatively she
is of highest importance; practically she is of complete insignificance (Woolf, 4). Trevelyan
summarizes, women were property of men. Woolf also notes that Trevelyan, or any other
historians books, have little information pertaining to the everyday life of everyday common
women. Uneducated and unable to choose the course of their lives, including whom they marry,
women are depicted otherwise in literature.
She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from historysome 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 (Woolf, 4).
Woolf continues to assert that without the benefit of an education and being exposed to
LatinOvid, Virgin, Horace (Woolf, 5), Shakespeare himself would have been unable to
realize his genius. Shakespeare was a man who had the freedom to leave his rural roots and seek
his fortune in London. He was not encumbered by the expectation, like women are, to preserve
chastity and anonymity. This ability to assert a right to their successes is another type of freedom
prior to the twentieth century that could be enjoyed only by men. Again, tradition dictates the
course of women. Not only are women stifled by the tradition of being intellectually and
financially poor; they lack peer role models, and also the tradition that demands women to be
chaste and modest prohibits them to lay claim to their achievements. Woolf creates a sister for
Shakespeare, Judith, who processes the same genius as her brother. However, without the
freedoms that Shakespeare enjoys such as: wealth, education, predecessors, power to openly
assert talent, and seize accomplishments; Judith is destined to fail.
In Virginia Woolf: Novelist, 1882-1941, Virginia was described by her family to be a
sensitive and imaginative girl. Unfortunately, she did not have the happiest childhood. She lost
her mother, elder sister and father at a young age. She was also sexually abused by her halfbrothers, George and Gerald Duckworth, who were over 10 years her senior (Hort). Virginia
Woolf lived in an age of history where the ideas and conventions were rapidly changing. She

lived in a time where while traditions were still honored, they were also being confronted and
challenged. The advent of modernization, an increasingly educated middle class, and World War
I (which imparted the realization our world is indeed a small place and that nations are
interconnected), all contributed to an environment where exposure to new ideas could be quickly
exchanged and debated. The world and its peoples were evolving. The once easily identified and
separated classes of the pre-modern era were redefining societies norms and culture.
Woolf understood firsthand that Intellectual freedom depends on material things (8).
While Woolf did not need to work, due to the financial independence she enjoyed from her late
father, she took advantage of the opportunity from her societys development, and taught English
and Composition for three years at Morley College, an evening college for working-class men
and women (Hort). For the love of her work, and the chance to serve as a forerunner and role
model for future female writers, Woolf taught and shared her talents.
Woolf ends her lengthy essay A Room of One's Own with hope. She outlines that while
Shakespeares sister, Judith, died tragically and never wrote a word, Woolf implores her
audience to believe She lives in you and meBut she lives; for great poets do not die (Woolf,
8). Woolf impresses upon her audience the importance of the common life which is the real
life and not of the little separate lives which we live as individualshave five hundred pound an
yearrooms of our ownthe habit of freedom and the courage to write (8), the history of all
women can be redefined. Through a new age and its new citizens, Judiths potential will be
realized. Women will produce greatness. Women will succeed. Women will write. Women will
be their own peoplefree to thinkjust like the thankful woman who has penned this paper in
A Room of Her Own.

Works Cited

Hort, Peter. Virginia Woolf: Novelist, 1882-1941. London: Academy Media, 1995.
Howe, Elisabeth A. Close Reading: An Introduction to Literature. Boston: Longman/Pearson,
2010. Print.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1929.
Abbreviated version retrieved from Web. 30 July 2013.
http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/psych214/woolf.room.html