Virginia Woolf A Room Of One's Own Summary

“A Room of One's Own” by Virginia Woolf is a breakthrough of twentieth-century feminism. It displays the history of women in literature through a series of analysis in which Woolf stresses that social and material necessities are vital in order for women to survive in the world dominated by the patriarchal. As a modernist writer, Woolf in her essay innovatively depicts an account of a woman’s thinking about the history of women. Woolf’s narrative process of using fictitious character heightens the importance of others in the essay so that it will reach out to the public. Woolf was given a topic on women and fiction which led her to the thesis of, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Throughout her findings …show more content…
This can be seen in the very first chapter when Woolf who addresses herself to the readers as Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any names as it is not a matter of importance. This sentence underlines the notion that women are still not recognized in the society. Women’s position in the society is of no worth. Woolf was reprimanded for walking on the lawn and was stopped from entering the library just because she was not accompanied by any men. The disparity between men and women begins at university, a place where one gains education. Men became women’s identity. The impression that women are inferior to men is implanted. During the Elizabethan period, it was impossible for women to acquire education but in the twentieth-century it was challenging for women to attain education. The prejudice between men and women in the nineteenth century could be noticed when men could build great higher learning institutions which provides first class facilities meanwhile women has to go through a lot of struggles to gather funds to build a learning institution for women. These complications symbolize the effects of an educational culture that restricts the space of a woman's intellectual exposure. Changes take place from time to time. Nearing the end of the novel, Woolf states the change in the novel written by women as there are more books in all sorts of genres. The idea of friendship between two women is altered as Woolf comes across to this sentence “Chloe liked Olivia.” Historically, women have been viewed only in relation to men in literature. Besides that women grew more complex in the nineteenth century. The depiction of women in “Life’s Adventure” states that women should have own identities and thus accentuate the groundbreaking of women in literature. Woolf’s observation comes to an end by stating the unification of the minds of both sexes which is known as