Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf was a very powerful and imaginative writer. In a "Room of Ones Own" she takes her motivational views about women and fiction and weaves them into a story. Her story is set in a imaginary place where here audience can feel comfortable and open their minds to what she is saying. In this imaginary setting with imaginary people Woolf can live out and see the problems women faced in writing. Woolf also goes farther by breaking many of the rules of writing in her essay. She may do this to show that the standards can be broken, and to encourage more women to write. An example of this is in the very first line when Woolf writes, "But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction-what has that got to do with a room of one's own(719)?" Why did Woolf start her story of like that? Maybe it was to show how different women really were from men. By starting out with this completely unconventional opening sentence she was already showing that the rules could be broken. Woolf starts her essay by explaining to her audience what she could have talked about and what other things her topic might mean, she is letting the audience be drawn in to her consciousness. Woolf wants them to know why
They just might mean simply a few remarks about Fanny Burney; a few more about Jane Austen; a tribute to the Brontes and a sketch of Haworth Parsonage under snow; some witticisms if possible about Miss Mitford; a respectful allusion to George Eliot; a reference to Mrs. Gaskell and one would have done. But at second sight the words seemed not so simple (719). Woolf also explains the duties of a speaker stating, "One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker (720)." By saying this, she is telling her audience that she is not going to just come out and say what she thinks, she is going to let them make their own decisions. Woolf starts her story off on a river bank on a beautiful day, although she is probably in a room somewhere typing it. I think Woolf does this because most everyone can relate to this as being a good place to sit down and think. When Woolf says, "Call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael, or by any other name you please (720)," she was trying to make the story relate any woman in the audience no matter who they were. Woolf has created a world where people can be comfortable and open minded about her sensitive subject. She could not get on stage and rage about how woman have been held back by men. Woolf would have scared all her listeners away with her radical view. By creating a place where her audience can have the problems she is talking about Woolf lets the audience formulate their own opinions. So if it is so hard for women to write why should they write? Well, Woolf wants them to write for her selfish reasons. She says like most women she grows tired of histories and biographies about great men. Woolf says there should be more b
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1210
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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