At the beginning of her essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf mentions Charles Lamb’s opinion about Milton’s poem “Lycidas” with its peculiar choice of words which seemed to him a sort of sacrilege (Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” 3). It is quite amusing, but in one of the poem’s lines, Milton refers to the image of “the grim wolf” that daily devours the hungry sheep (Milton, “Lycidas” 125-129). Of course, this phrase doesn’t concern Virginia Woolf at all, as she was born 150 years after the poem’s creation, and Milton himself by this phrase meant the Catholic Church, but such a literary coincidence appears quite prophetic, as if uniting together two writers. For Virginia Woolf, Milton’s “Paradise Lost” becomes a source of inspiration and
…show more content…
This intrusion proves to be unexpected and treacherous, as if penetrating into a forbidden place. Therefore, while depicting the place, Woolf refers to the dubious feeling of “the beauty of the world revealed” which is soon to perish, where there are two edges, “one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder” (Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” 8). It is possible to assume that in such a way, the writer emphasizes the poetic beauty of true wonders of the world, when literature is also a part of this divine splendor. That’s why she calls to go outside and enjoy the benefits of the surrounding reality stating that “the outside of these magnificent buildings is often as beautiful as the inside” (Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” 4). These words may be understood as the proof that a person shouldn’t be afraid to leave the peace and quietness of his room, in other words, to lose his paradise, and enter the broad world of dangerous challenges and wonderful
This intrusion proves to be unexpected and treacherous, as if penetrating into a forbidden place. Therefore, while depicting the place, Woolf refers to the dubious feeling of “the beauty of the world revealed” which is soon to perish, where there are two edges, “one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder” (Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” 8). It is possible to assume that in such a way, the writer emphasizes the poetic beauty of true wonders of the world, when literature is also a part of this divine splendor. That’s why she calls to go outside and enjoy the benefits of the surrounding reality stating that “the outside of these magnificent buildings is often as beautiful as the inside” (Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own” 4). These words may be understood as the proof that a person shouldn’t be afraid to leave the peace and quietness of his room, in other words, to lose his paradise, and enter the broad world of dangerous challenges and wonderful