Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own
Chapter Four of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own introduces some food for thought revolving around the idea of women’s liberation and how it has evolved over the last few centuries. The ideas discussed in the chapter highlighted how radical it was for women to have the desire to write, which is something people today don’t even think about because it is so normal for newer generations. This excerpt from Woolf amplifies this idea of women drifting away from their household “roles” of staying home, raising the children, cooking, sewing, etc., and wanting to become educated writers.
While reading, it was hard to imagine and relate to the life the women were living in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Today, many people dread writing for school because it is something women take for granted now. In the reading, there was an example of an uneducated woman attempting to write a letter, but it was one run-on sentence with misspelled words and incorrect grammar. This woman had the potential to be a successful writer who could get published, but couldn’t because she never had the opportunity to become educated in that field. Woolf stated, “Death was deemed better than the radicalness of a women publishing writing for money.” In other words, the idea that women no longer wanted to stick to their traditional roles at home and wanted to dedicate their time to writing instead, was so radical at the time that people claimed death was better. This mindset that many men had during that century makes you wonder if women were ever scared to publish books. We read and learn about the radical women who go against the norm and risk their life and family for it, but never learn about the women who were probably too scared to go against their husbands like that.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, middle-class women began to write poetry and by the nineteenth century, there were multiple shelves full of novels written solely by women. Since women of this time had very different experiences than men had, their writing brought ideas to the table that men almost always had opposite perspectives on, or had just never thought of things that way. This theme is elaborated on in the reading when she says, “The nerves that feed the brain seem to differ in men and women.” This concept is true in the sense that everybody has their own opinions and that men and women have different points of view on many aspects of life.
This reading from A Room of One’s Own opened my eyes to many ideas regarding women's liberation and how revolutionary the movement was for women as a whole.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own.
The idea that women's liberation has changed throughout the years is a perfect representation and analysis of chapter four of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. The first quote that you used fits the idea of limitations on women when it comes to publishing their work for money. Women worked to switch the awful stereotypes and negativity towards women doing what they want instead of simply taking care of the house and raising the kids. Women wanted a voice and freedom of speech. They wanted to encourage other women to not just sit idly by and accept their position but to stand up to men and change the dynamic. In the beginning of the eighteenth century women began to write poetry to get their thoughts out and then it evolved to having many different novels written by women. This goes to show that their efforts were not useless and weren’t taken in vain. Your second quote analyses one of the many differences preserved between men and women and why some think men are superior. It is truly sad that people thought of men to be more intelligent than women when in fact it was truly the other way around. I agree that this reading also opened my eyes to the many different ideas regarding women’s liberation and how big of a deal this revolution actually was.
ReplyDeleteThe entirety of your blog proficiently discusses the various struggles women encountered during this time period as mentioned in chapter four of Virginian Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I admire how you connected the past to the present day by explaining how women having the desire to write is considered a norm now. Their struggles were also so beyond problematic compared to today that it is hard to connect to as any individual in the 21st century and the fact that you also touched on that in your post allowed me to sense that there was a lot of critical thinking going on when you were writing your blog which is awesome! In addition, the two quotes you choose really sold home of the notion of just how different men and women functioned in society throughout this time period. The quote of “Death was deemed better than the radicalness of a women publishing writing for money" profoundly drives home the point of how little respect women had of ever becoming writers.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, your last quote further emphasized the differentiation of men and women and your analysis of the quote itself was astounding. Not only did you discuss how the opinions of men and women are different but their viewpoints are as well. They do not think the same and therefore cannot write about the same things men can. The fact that you mentioned how women brought ideas to the table that men had opposite perspectives allowed me to fully understand just how much you were able to grasp from the quotes you chose as well as the entire chapter itself. Overall, this blog was extremely insightful, did an excellent job connecting the material to the present day and was fun to read. Great job!