Virginia Woolf’s “A room of one’s own” is an essay that she reads to a group of women from an all women college to discuss the relationship between women and fiction She uses different methods to get her point across: history to look for example, tragedy and modernism. She begins her story by detailing the step she took to come up with a conclusion which is that a woman must have money and a room to be able to write and told the audience with all the information she will provide at the end they should come up with their own opinion. As the story elaborate we learn about all the injustice women had to face if they want to be more than somebody’s wife or daughter and the outcome most likely a genius woman will face even if she follows her dream when she gives the example of a female Shakespeare instead of the male Shakespeare. She concludes by saying that women to be successful need a room of their own.
Thorough the text you can notice that the author get distracted many time and loses track of what she was saying before “ The sight of that abrupt and truncated animal padding softly across the quadrangle changed by some fluke of the subconscious intelligence the emotional light for me”(344). She still goes on explaining her reaction to seeing the cat and for a long period stops talking about the main reason of the essay. I think that she keeps getting interrupted to show what women have to deal with when they are trying to write and that is another reason why women need a room of their own to be able to write.
As the reading develop the setting that she is in get smaller, the beginning of the story takes part by a river where only fellows and Scholars are allowed she met a guard that looked at her in horror but she still continue to go on the path, later on she question herself on why didn’t she follow the rule. Then she went to London where she only stands by a window to look at people, even though she stay inside, she felt like she is understand the people and the city more. And finally the story ends when she is in her room.
At the end of the story I realize she is using the room as a metaphor for another issue. When you have a room of your own, you can live a private life, be independent in every way and not be interrupted every time; she also said that men have it so why can women have it too.
I thought it was very interesting that you noticed that the room was used as a metaphor. I didn’t even notice that, but now that you mention it, I can see what you mean. Since she uses different examples, like Shakespeare and the woman’s college. I originally thought that the room was a symbol of her oppression and how she is trapped as a woman. But you offered a greater metaphor which is very evident throughout the story.