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Submitted by poisonxsociety on May 1, 2005
Category: English
Words: 1653 | Pages: 7
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A Room of Ones Own
In 1928, Virginia Woolf was asked to speak on the topic of "women and fiction". The result, based upon two essays she delivered at Newnham and Girton that year, was A Room of One's Own, which is an extended essay on women as both writers of fiction and as characters in fiction. While Woolf suggests that, "when a subject is highly controversial-and any question about sex is that-one cannot hope to tell the truth," (Woolf 4) her essay is, in fact, a thought out and insightful reflection on the topic. The main point she offers is that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. Within the essay Woolf centers on the economic constraints that society inflicts on women, resulting in financial dependency on men and ignorance because of lack of education.
As for issues that are addressed within the writing, one of the first is noticed when Woolf is at the library and the reader begins to see the treatment of women, "I must have opened it, for instantly there issued, like a black guardian angel barring the way with a flutter of black gown instead of wings, a deprecating, silvery, kindly gentleman, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction." (Woolf 8) During the 1500's, women fought for their education; however the majority of men during this time questioned the thought that women should receive an education. Some men would make claims that women could learn, but that is was not a very good idea. Women felt that it was necessary for them to learn so that they can express themselves. This can be seen in A Handmaid's Tale, because the handmaids in the Republic were given next to no rights. They were not allowed in certain places, were not given the gift of education, and were, in a sense, subject to the male dominancy of the times.
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