Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A Room of One's Own Review
In A Room of One’s Own the one main reoccurring theme is inequality and power of men over women. This theme is prevalent when the narrator is unable to find hardly any history or scholarship on women. Not to mention the information that she did find had a biased perspective written by men. To further illustrate the theme of inequality, the narrator made up a story about a Judith Shakespeare, the sister of William Shakespeare. William was always able to pursue his ambitions where as Judith was restrained. When her father beats her for refusing marriage, Judith is an example of the power of men over women. By the end of the story the narrator comes to the conclusion that even though Judith may have had just as much if not more talent than William, since Judith was a woman, her talent was confined by the society that she lived in. Inequality is also portrayed in the statement, “A women must have money…to write fiction.” Not very many women had money back in old days. Women were discriminated against, not getting paid as much as men for the same job, therefore men had power over women. In conclusion, because men had power over women, there were not many successful women writers.
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2 comments:
Would you agree with the statement that women are still oppressed today and this is another reason why we (society) still don’t have as many powerful female leaders in the world? I believe that this is true because of the oppression of women in the past. Those who oppressed in the past still have a tendency to oppress today. Whether it be against the opposite sex or race it still happens. I am not saying that everyone in the world oppresses, because I think that we as society have taken big steps forward but I believe that is still happens in everyday life.
Yes, the library part is indeed interesting. I also find it interesting when she wants to go into the campus library but can't because she does not have a "fellow" with her to act as her sponsor (basically). One might argue that this shows not only elitism in general but elitism in a SEXIST setting! With this and many other examples, such as the Shakespeare-Shakespeare debacle that you mention in your blog post, "A Room of One's Own" is definitely filled with sexist discourse.
Oh, and just a warning: Be careful how you word your absolutes; those last three sentences seem like generalities. In a Chinese context, one might argue against your assertion that men had more power over women, as well as money, since you don't specify a setting. During the Cultural Revolution in China, and probably other periods, it was women who were getting the "cushy" jobs in revolutionary camps (though I don't know what the pay was; perhaps THAT was unequal), and women often had more power than men in some contexts, which was true even before the revolution of the 1950s and 60s.
Anyway, I get what you are saying, but be careful how you say it. For one thing, are you saying that that is Woolf's conclusion, or is that your own thought? Of course, the blog is not really a place for formal writing, but when you go to write your papers, you'll need to differentiate more clearly between your own thoughts/conclusions and the writer's. Finally, I would mention in your last sentence something along the lines of "...and since, as Woolf said, one needed money to write, there were not many successful women writers." I think that's an important distinction to make.
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