A Room of One’s Own

A Room of One’s Own

               A Room of One’s Own written by Virginia Woolf is considered as a landmark of twentieth century feminist thought. It analyses how the literary history have included the women in it and the struggle of women as artists by evaluating the social materials that are required for the writing of literature such as leisure time, privacy and financial independence. Woolf says that these conditions were unavailable for a woman in the Elizabethan era, which pullback the creative genius of women at that time.

               The imaginary setting of this essay invites into a discussion on the topic of Women and Fiction.  Her thesis is that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. For adopting this thesis she presents this essay through a partly-fictional narrative. She analyses the mental process of an imaginary narrator, who is searching for the same topic.

               The narrator starts from Oxbridge College, where she realizes the different educational experiences available to men and women. Then the day at British library brings the truth that every scholarship has written for men. The fictional character Judith Shakespeare is created for highlighting the how a highly intelligent woman has suppressed because of lack of opportunity.

               Woolf says that the gender consciousness of both women and men pullback the creative genius. Men derogate women to maintain the dominance in the society whereas women become angry about their inferior status. Woolf proposes that a real genius should possess an androgynous mind so that their writing will reflect both male and female.