In Virginia Woolf’s “A Room Of One’s Own” the narrator is on a quest to support and explain Woolf’s thesis that for a woman to be able to write fiction she must have financial means and a space of her own to do her writing. The narrator is not Woolf herself; in fact she could be any woman. She is representative of any and all women who embark on such a search for answers on the matter, and what obstacles she would face both literally and figuratively on that journey. In fact, the narrator’s journey is riddled with obstacles deterring her from access to full understanding on the subject matter. However, these same obstacles serve to support Woolf’s thesis in within their mere existence. Though it should be noted that although limited, the narrator’s does access to a more expansive pool of knowledge because of her financial security and independence. She is also consciously aware of this, which also serves to reinforce Woolf’s initial thesis. Any and all freedom that a woman can attain from patriarchal ideals will allow for further intellectual expansion.

The narrator goes as far as to invent the existence of an equally genius sister of Shakespeare, Judith Shakespeare, to emphasize how women are hindered intellectually by an oppressive belief system that is fundamentally rooted within a society, and is consequentially embedded into it’s politics. The rights of women are therefore controlled and delineated by a male hierarchy. Shakespeare’s fictitious sister experiences exemplify the existent inequality in the treatment of the sexes, and how women’s capabilities are stunted by it. “To have lived a free life in London in the sixteenth century would have meant for a woman who was a poet and playwright a nervous stress and dilemma which might well have killed her. Had she survived, whatever she had written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and morbid imagination. And undoubtedly – her work would have gone unsigned.” (367)

What is interesting however is that although the narrator acknowledges the patriarchal system’s hindrance of women’s intellectual development, she does not blame men themselves for it. “Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority.” (357) But one must ask oneself if such differentiations are possible. Can such a system exist without the active participation of an oppressive party? The narrator states that to be equals both sexes must “shoulder their way along the pavement” that it “calls for gigantic courage and strength”, and more importantly “confidence in oneself” (357). But how can self-confidence become a hallmark in the female psyche and identity when the ruling system in place perpetuates the belief of female inferiority?

This reading from Virginia Woolf, A room of one’s own is about Virginia’s view, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (339), and the process she went through to conclude at this opinion. She admits that this “leaves the great problem of the true nature of fiction unsolved” (339). The whole essay is her explanation on how she concluded on the fact that women need money and that they are unequal to men. “I propose making use of all liberties and licences of a novelist, to tell you the story of the two days that preceded my coming here” (340).

She chooses not to answer to the problem of women and fiction and she instead tries to go deeper by talking about different famous writers. The “I” she uses in her story is not her. It is not important what is the name that we choose to give her, but she talks about her experiences and her thoughts so that the reader can see where her opinion started. She reviews the state of scholarship, both theoretical and historical, concerning women. She also elaborates an aesthetics based on the principle of “incandescence”. I believe that she uses the imagery of light and fire in chapter 1 because she wants to describe her aesthetic side of view.

Something that I really liked is how careful Woolf was in chapter 2, not to blame men for the unfair treatment of women. She blames the universe and its violence stating “life for both sexes—and I look at them, shouldering their way along the pavement—is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength. More than anything, perhaps, creatures of illusion that we are, it calls for confidence in oneself” (357).

In chapter 3, Woolf continues talking more about the relationship that women had with literature during the time of Elizabeth. She writes “Here am I asking why women did not write poetry in the Elizabethan age, and I am not sure how they were educated; whether they were taught to write; whether they had sitting rooms to themselves; how many women had children before they were twenty-one; what, in short, they did from eight in the morning till eight at night” (364).

I would like to raise a question on that last part. What are the differences that the relationship between women and literature in the Elizabethan years are with today. Do you think that female writers have the exact same value as male writers in the 21^st century? Also, during our semester we read about female writers that weren’t wealthy but they still wrote great literature. Do you think that nowadays is more important to be wealthy than centuries before in order to be able to be a great writer?

“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf, Woolf stated that ” here then was I (call me Mary Beton, Mary Setion, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please – it is not  a matter of any importance)” in the chapter one. (340) It showed the readers that the narrator was a fictionalized character instead that she was not her. The lack of identity of narrator gave the readers that everyone could be the narrator. It also made the narrator more convincing. By using “I”, Woolf emphasized the fact that women were not treated equally as men were which due to the sexism and traditional bonds.

In the chapter one, the narrator had two expulsions because of the sexism in Oxbridge College. When the narrator was warned off the university lawn, instantly a man intercepted her. After she realized that the man intercepted her only because she was a woman. The man said that “Only the Fellows and Scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me [narrator]” (341) In addition, she was forbidden to enter the library. “he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction.” (342) Two expulsions could explain to the readers that the narrator was treated unequally just because  of her sex; It also was a symbol of education culture which was a invasion to the women’s mind. After that, Woolf used personification to describe the library which slept forever, moreover, the narrator made decision that she would not come back to the library at all in order to show how angry she was. (342) In the of period time, Woolf described the sound of music was sorrowful to set off the emotion of narrator because she was not treated as the same as men.

Woolf was carefully not to blame men for the unequal treatments towards women in the chapter two. Instead, she considered the reasons caused the gender inequality, such as women were not independent in finance. The narrator got five hundred pounds a year by her aunt, as a result, she did not need to do hard works to earn money and survive her life.  Instead, she thought that “I need not hate any men, he can not hurt me.”(360) She forgave men for their injustices to women when she was independent in her finance. She claimed that when she enjoyed the luxury of finance, she also got freedom. On the other hand, she thought that it was a reason for a woman why they could not write well because of lack of independent finance.

Woolf also found  that how unequally women were treated in history.  First of all, she stated that “Wife beating” was a right for men; then what effect was when a daughter refused to marry the man of her parents’ choice. Even though women who lived in upper class family,  they rarely were allowed to choose their husbands by themselves.(362) She thought that women were considered as the property of their families or husbands. How could they have ability to write well in the situation?

She conjured the imaginary character of Shakespeare’s sister to show that women could not be as well as men because they were treated in two different ways. Both Shakespeare and his sister lived in the same background. For Shakespeare, he could do what he wanted to do and people would support him. Compare to Shakespeare, the sister could not get education. Even though she read books, her mother would ask her to change her mind, instead of caring about housework. Woolf also described how other people reacted when they knew that a woman wanted to be a player in order to explain why a woman could not have the same achievement in any areas.

Do you agree or disagree that a woman has to be independently wealthy in order to write well?why?

In “Diary of a Madman”, Lu Xun began with an introduction from someone. The introduction gave the readers contents that those were journals about mental illness man. Though the journals, Lu Xun described the madman who suffered from paranoia thought people around him would “eat” him. Lu Xun used metaphor to connect cannibalism to explain a critical issue in society. By using the words “eating” people, the author exposed the nature of Chinese feudal ethical was ignorant.

In the first diary, the madman expressed, he “haven’t [hadn’t] seen it [moonlight] over thirty yeas” (244). It sounded that he talked in nonsense. That was because that it was impossible that human beings had never seen moonlight for three decades years. However, it was a symbol of spiritual awakening for madman. It made readers pay more attention on reading journals in order to know whether the man was actually mad or not. On the other hand, as a human being, the madman was afraid of Zhao family’s dog only when the dog stared at him. This demonstrated that he lived in panic.

Lu Xun used first point of view to describe how panic the madman was when people looked at him because he thought they would “eat” him.  Of course, the fact was that the people did not want to eat him; instead, all of images were his illusions. It expressed the madman’s spirit was destructed. Moreover, madmen described how people “ate” people from Wolf Cub Village by using verbs “beaten”, “gouged” and “fried” (246). It helped the madman infer that those people were cannibals.

As a result, madman stated leafing through history books to find why people “ate” people. He realized that every page educated people should “benevolence, righteousness and morality” (246). However, he began to make out eating people was filled in every simple lines. in addition, madman thought it was a very common thing to “eat” people in the period time. Shizhen Li stated that “fresh can [could] be eaten” and his older brother also explained “exchange [exchanged] children and eat [ate] them”(248). He was not sympathy when “a son, in order to count as a really good person, should slice off a piece of his own flesh, boil it and let them [ill parent] eat it”(252). Instead, he satirized the Chinese people were ignorant. They only followed statements form last generation or history books in order to expose the nature of Chinese feudal ethic was ignorant.

The diaries referred to corrupt Chinese government. Actually, the madman was distinct form others by opposing to “eat” people;  He was a symbol of courage to challenge the traditional secular society and anti- feudal democrat. In third diary, madman described that  “some have worn he cangue on the district magistrate’s order……by creditors” (245). For those people, they did not rise up against people who bullied them, instead they decided to imitate them and bully other people. the madman felt confuse and angry. He cursed cannibals and started with his brother (249). At the end of diaries, the author deeply hoped that there were some children who still had not eaten human flesh and appealed “save the children …”(253).

There was a fact that Chinese people did not have freedom of speech in the period time. However, the author used metaphor to connect cannibalism to explained that human’s spirits were destructed by last generation or history books without an obvious assault on the government.

If you were Lu Xun, how did you express the human’s spirits were destructed by Chinese feudal ethical without an obvious assault on the government?