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Virgina Woolf “A Room of One’s Own”

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In this section of “A Room of One’s Own” the author analyzes the works of several female writers during the sixteenth century and notes that, “by some strange force, they were all compelled when they wrote, to write about novels” (P66). She goes on to derive several possible explanations as to why women chose to express their ideas through this specific medium – the first of which ties into her original claim that women need money and her own space to write fiction. Considering how middle class women were never able to write with a peace of mind as they never had a room of their own to write in, novels were seen as a hardier form of writing that could withstand all distractions.

Another reason as to why women may have been compelled to write novels may have been because of the malleability and sense of freedom that this gave them. The author makes note that the writings of male novelists were based on a sentence that was current at the time and that women needed to find an alternative way to write that would fit their own original perspectives. The author praises Jane Austen who “devised a perfectly natural, shapely sentence proper for her own use and never departed from it.” (P 77) She makes the point that the lack of tradition and inadequacy of tools gave women the freedom to create something of their own, steering away from the form that males established for themselves.

I find it interesting that Woolf suggests women should ignore men and write freely. In the last section she explains how women shouldn’t rebel against the “common sentence” used by name writers, but that they should ignore it and rest upon their own free thoughts. It gives off this notion that she believes men and women are equal in the sense that they have equal intelligence – they’re just different kinds of intelligence. Since women are innately different from their male counterparts in the way they feel and value, they must also write differently and form their own styles in order to be true to themselves and their own distinct experiences.

Notes from Underground (Part I)

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The narrator of Notes from Underground seems to be a man drowned in his own hyperactive mind and heightened conscious who has reached the point where it has paralyzed his sense of thinking. In this section of the reading he often makes comparisons between the normal man and himself – one of which focuses on his opinions about revenge.

The Underground Man points out a scenario of how a normal person may react when they are slapped in the face. Since the normal man immediately renders getting revenge as being the most reasonable response, they will take that course of action. The Underground Man criticizes these “men of action” because they take secondary causes, which in this case is revenge, to be primary ones and create a false notion in their heads that it is enough to justify their actions.

The Underground Man holds himself to high intelligence and explicitly states that he is the opposite of a normal man and classifies himself as a mouse – a wise and hyper-conscious animal. When a mouse is harmed by an attacker, it is powerless in the sense that anything it does will never amount to the same level of harm. However, the author tries to explain this inaction by saying that the mouse was able to realize that there was no primary cause for revenge, since there was no justice in revenge. He feels that his, as well as the mouse’s, level of consciousness is so sophisticated and developed to the point where this is too simple of a plan of action. Ultimately, the both of them will become so consumed by their own doubts and will be left spending their whole lives in humiliation. Despite this, he still views action as a sure sign of low intelligence.

I do agree with the narrator’s idea about inactivity when placed in this situation as revenge ultimately serves no good purpose. If everyone sets out to impose harm on their attacker, society will likely crumble as a result of our spontaneity and foolish impulses. A person is certainly more intelligent if they have the willpower to step away from a situation rather than demand self-satisfaction through getting revenge. Considering the hyperactive mind of the narrator, however, his reasoning is a bit different because he claims that the only reason he never has this desire to attack the assailant is because his mind goes in circles and he can’t seem to establish a “primary cause”. Perhaps this skewed personality of his has been successful in keeping him out of trouble and just like the mouse who will retract back into its mouse hole, he will  retract back into his underground hideaway.