Book Review on 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf

'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf

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    This book titled 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf is considered to be one of the major work of the 20th century feminist literature. This book is an extended essay based on a series of lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf at two women's colleges titled as "Women and Fiction." This book mainly deals with the difficulties faced by women especially in writing fiction and also other works of literature as well. In this book Woolf describes about the factors such as money and a room for a women as the essential things required and showcases it to the readers and also about the difficulties and restrictions faced by the women in acquiring it.

                    There is a line in this book which can be seen to echo all throughout this work, 

"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."

                    Now let us get into some of the striking points mentioned about Virginia Woolf in her work. Firstly, Woolf mentions about 'poverty of sex' which describes the importance of male companionship and is seen that it is one among the mandatory things for a woman to enter even into the public places such as the libraries as well as into the religious places or the places of worship such as the churches during her time. Next, she describes about how women viewed art. The term 'art' refers to all forms of art which includes writing and drawing. It is a well known and a well witnessed fact that any work of art in either created out of one's creativity or it is being dominated by one's feelings. It can be seen that women at first created any works of art which were mostly or almost entirely dominated by their feelings and especially anger because it was a time when they were suppressed by the men of their society.

                                         Then, it is seen that Woolf describes her desire to know about the status and condition of women in the society and especially that of the women of the Elizabethan era. She mentions about the terrible state of women and how they were either harmed physically, mentally or emotionally. It is seen that she comes to know all this through Professor Trevelyan's book on the Social History of England. It is seen that women were beaten by their husbands and there were laws that allowed wife-beating and termed it as a legal right of a husband to beat his wife.

    Then, it is seen that Virginia Woolf mentions the two terms, namely, 'anonymity' and 'secrecy' as something which flows in the blood of a woman. She describes the anonymity in women's works of art because women usually do not like to reveal their identity in their works and it is seen that not even their names are used in the books written by them because women were looked down upon by men during those times and Woolf presents to us the example of the Bronte sisters who wrote their works under their pen names. Then, when it comes to secrecy it is seen in the case of Jane Austen writing her novel 'Pride and Prejudice' as it can be seen that Miss Austen wrote her work in secrecy and she hid the manuscript of her first book even from the members of her own household.

    There is a mention about how there was a shift in profession taken up by women. It is seen that women took up the profession of translation and writing once they were educated and were given the freedom of expression of their thoughts and feelings through writing.

                                        There are two most significant things mentioned in this book and the first one is about an 'androgynous mind' and it is seen that Shakespeare wrote with an androgynous mind and an androgynous mind is a mind which is not dominated either by masculine thoughts alone or by feminine thoughts alone, but it is a mixture of both. An androgynous mind is one of the best type of mind which is said to create best of all works as it does not paves it's way towards biases and it does not let one see the world only as a man or as a woman but it gives one a view which is unbiased and neutral.

                                                            The last, but one of the most important and interesting information conveyed by Woolf to her readers is about Shakespeare's imaginary sister named 'Judith' who is described as someone who has the same temperament of Shakespeare and is interested to enter the world of theater and just because she is a woman she is mocked at and looked down upon by the men of her society. It is seen that a woman with such a driving force within her to create great works of art instantaneously kills herself. It is also mentioned that 'Judith Shakespeare' is someone who is still alive and lives inside every women who has the skill of creating fascinating works of art or is blessed with such skills and faculties like Shakespeare but is unable to expresses it out because of the obstacles and hindrances face upon in ones life, it is not just restricted just to women but also to men who is blessed with such a gift from the creator of this universe.

                    Thus, in my opinion this book 'A Room of One's Own' is a good place to start for those who are interested to dive into the concept of feminism as Virginia Woolf explains it well and also in a sensible manner for those who are introduced to the topic of feminism for the first time.