A Room of One's Own

To begin I would first like to say that I myself found it very interesting to get a women’s point of view on the literature and history of the world. At first I found it hard to understand, but then I began to get inside the narrator’s mind. Woolf did an amazing job at basically transitioning you into the narrator. Now, I can begin to express my thoughts on the writing. I found it very intriguing the way that Woolf used the phrase “A women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (Norton 2092) to symbolize the strife of women throughout history. When I first read the line I only thought about the monetary value. I said to myself “Sure, give anyone, man or woman, money and a room of their own, and they will be able to write.” But then, after reading further I discovered the deeper meaning in the phrase. Woolf doesn’t see just the monetary view of the phrase. She sees it as if you have money, then you are educated and are in a sense free to express yourself through your writing. To support this I looked at the first section and the lunch and dinner scene. The lunch was extravagant with wine and dessert, and it inspired rich and optimistic conservation. The dinner, on the other hand, was just beef and prunes and inspired nothing. The lunch represented men and Oxbridge college with its rich history and abundance of well, while the dinner represented the women and Fernham college with its restrictions and lack of wealth and history. This was not the women’s choice, but what they had because of the men. Women were being restricted and constrained. They were being forced to conform to society. Having a room of your own is also very important because it shields you from the pressures and social obligations of the outside world. It is a place where women could be themselves and express their emotions without the anger and resentment by and towards men. I throughly enjoyed the essay and learned alot from it.