“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”
This sentence, which appears at the start of Woolf’s essay, can be seen as ironic. Over history, women without money and a quiet space to work have still managed to write great literature. (Although these things can certainly help)
However, Woolf is referring to a mans view of how women write literature. In those days it was rare that a woman would have a great deal of money that belonged to her, as well as her own private space. In even earlier times this was even less common, yet women have still been able to write good literature.
“In the first place, to have a room of her own, let alone a quiet room or a sound-proof room, was out of the question, unless her parents were exceptionally rich or very noble, even up to the beginning of the nineteenth century”
Discrimination
“Ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a fellow of the college or furnished with a letter of introduction”
Woolf encounters, or at least mentions various acts of discrimination towards women throughout her essay. The first is that she is denied access to a library because she is a woman, which angers her greatly.
Another act of discrimination or at least a view of women being of a lower status than men was when she reads Professor Trevelyan’s essay “History of England”, and its views of wife beating:
“Wife beating, was a recognised right of a man, and was practiced without shame by high as well as low.”
This also highlights the difficulties which women must have faced when writing fiction at this time, along with professors marking examination papers, one of which said: “Irrespective of the marks he might give, the best woman was intellectually inferior of the worst man”
Questions
“What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art? – a thousand questions at once suggested themselves”
Throughout her essay, especially in the first two chapters, Woolf asks a lot of questions, mostly rhetorical and often sarcastic. This could represent how unable she is to understand, or unwilling to accept the role that women have been given in literature.
“Why are women poor? –Until it became fifty questions; until the fifty questions leapt frantically into mid stream and were carried away”
“It is useless to ask such questions; for nobody can answer them”
Irony and Sarcasm
“We burst out in scorn at the reprehensible poverty of our sex. What had our mothers been doing then that they had no wealth to leave us? Powdering their noses? Looking in shop windows? Flaunting the sun in Monte Carlo?”
Virginia Woolf uses a great deal of irony and sarcasm during her essay, and this quote incorporates both. She is taking the male view of that time that her sex is “poor” and using it ironically. Then she sarcastically suggests reasons why mothers did not have any money to leave their daughters, by suggesting ridiculous ‘typically ladylike’ things to do, such as “Powdering noses” and “looking in shop windows”
She also sarcastically mentions how women submit to their husbands without question, when she mentions the issue of earning money.
“It is not a matter that interests me very greatly, I had better leave it to my husband”
This sentence, which appears at the start of Woolf’s essay, can be seen as ironic. Over history, women without money and a quiet space to work have still managed to write great literature. (Although these things can certainly help)
However, Woolf is referring to a mans view of how women write literature. In those days it was rare that a woman would have a great deal of money that belonged to her, as well as her own private space. In even earlier times this was even less common, yet women have still been able to write good literature.
“In the first place, to have a room of her own, let alone a quiet room or a sound-proof room, was out of the question, unless her parents were exceptionally rich or very noble, even up to the beginning of the nineteenth century”
Discrimination
“Ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a fellow of the college or furnished with a letter of introduction”
Woolf encounters, or at least mentions various acts of discrimination towards women throughout her essay. The first is that she is denied access to a library because she is a woman, which angers her greatly.
Another act of discrimination or at least a view of women being of a lower status than men was when she reads Professor Trevelyan’s essay “History of England”, and its views of wife beating:
“Wife beating, was a recognised right of a man, and was practiced without shame by high as well as low.”
This also highlights the difficulties which women must have faced when writing fiction at this time, along with professors marking examination papers, one of which said: “Irrespective of the marks he might give, the best woman was intellectually inferior of the worst man”
Questions
“What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art? – a thousand questions at once suggested themselves”
Throughout her essay, especially in the first two chapters, Woolf asks a lot of questions, mostly rhetorical and often sarcastic. This could represent how unable she is to understand, or unwilling to accept the role that women have been given in literature.
“Why are women poor? –Until it became fifty questions; until the fifty questions leapt frantically into mid stream and were carried away”
“It is useless to ask such questions; for nobody can answer them”
Irony and Sarcasm
“We burst out in scorn at the reprehensible poverty of our sex. What had our mothers been doing then that they had no wealth to leave us? Powdering their noses? Looking in shop windows? Flaunting the sun in Monte Carlo?”
Virginia Woolf uses a great deal of irony and sarcasm during her essay, and this quote incorporates both. She is taking the male view of that time that her sex is “poor” and using it ironically. Then she sarcastically suggests reasons why mothers did not have any money to leave their daughters, by suggesting ridiculous ‘typically ladylike’ things to do, such as “Powdering noses” and “looking in shop windows”
She also sarcastically mentions how women submit to their husbands without question, when she mentions the issue of earning money.
“It is not a matter that interests me very greatly, I had better leave it to my husband”
