A Room of One’s Own
This title literally sums up a large portion of what this text is all about. The central point that Woolf is emphasizing is that the women of the time flat out needed a room of their own, a privilege that men had without a doubt. A place where they could gather their thoughts and not be so distracted by everything else happening in the world. They never had the opportunity to let their mind wonder to write or create art. Figuratively Woolf also uses the room as a symbol for many larger issues. These included privacy, leisure time, and financial independence, each of which is an essential component of the countless inequalities between men and women during that time.
Something that really intrigued me was on page 353 when she talks about how “women do not write books about men.” Meanwhile men of all different classes and of different intelligences have all got to say their two cents and publish a book on their opinion of women. I never thought of this or even realized it and it had me stumped. Reading this I couldn’t help but feel that the reasoning of this was that men wanted to observe women as if they were some kind of lab rat and they were the scientist who needed to uncover some unknown truth or phenomena about them. As if what men had to say about women was so much more accurate and important than what women had to say about themselves.
When Woolf goes to create and talk about a woman named Judith Shakespeare, the imaginary twin sister of William Shakespeare, it stirred so much emotional in me. It got me upset.. not upset in that I pitied Judith, but upset in the way that its so sad to think that no matter how talented she could have been or how hard she could have tried for an equal chance that it just never would have happened. She could have had the same talent of her brother and it would have gone completely unknown. It makes me wonder how much more great literature and works of art we could have had today if those women were given a fair chance to express those talents.
One response so far
The part about William Shakespeare and his imaginary twin sister Judith really upset me too. Woolf made this comparison of William’s success versus Judith’s pity with such vigor and clarity that it instantly stood out to me as one of the most memorable and strongest passages of the reading.
I liked how she also made a comparison between the two sexes earlier in the reading when she talked about the food. She describes how the men all dined on salmon, ducklings, partridges, and drink wine and smoked cigars (343). While the women had plain gravy soup, the rump of a cow from a muddy market, and sprouts curled and yellowed (347). Even just the simplest description of the meals they ate said so much about the gender inequality and ‘value’ of each gender.
Even though she is delving into a serious topic throughout, I liked how she added a bit of humor here and there, in a sarcastic way, to also get her point across. Like “if I first had to read all that men have written about women, then all that women have written about men, the aloe that flowers once in a hundred years would flower twice before I could set pen to paper” (353). This use of humor in a playful yet still serious way aids in strengthening her argument rather than deterring from it, which really speaks to Woolf’s versatility and cleverness as an author.