B.A. (Hons.

) English – Semester V Core Course

Unit-5
Background Readings

Edited by: P. K. Satapathy

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

Prepared by:
P. K. Satapathy
School of Open Learning
University of Delhi
Delhi-110007

 
SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
5, Cavalry Lane, Delhi-110007
 Paper-XI : Women’s Writing
Unit-5
Background Readings

Contents
S. No. Title Pg. No.
(a) Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
1. Introduction 01
2. Learning Objectives 02
3. Summary 02
4. Analysis 06
5. Significance of this Essay in Women’s Writing 07
6. References 08

Prepared by:
Akanskha

 
SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
5, Cavalry Lane, Delhi-110007
 Unit-5(a)

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

1. Introduction
Virginia Woolf was a feminist English writer of the early 20th century. She was born in 1882
and died in 1941. She wrote novels, essays, diaries, letters and biographies. She is famous for
using the stream of consciousness technique in her writings. Her works explore gender roles,
sexuality, cities, war, and the subconscious. She was homeschooled and had access to
Literature from English classics to modern literature. She attended the Ladies’ Department of
King’s College London from 1897 to 1901, where she came in contact with early reformers
of women’s higher education and the women’s rights movement.
She ran a publishing house with her husband Leonard Woolf. Their famous Hogarth
Press published books by writers such as T S Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Katherine Mansfield, E
M Forster, and the Woolfs themselves. Her life revolved around the famous writers and
intellects of her time. Unfortunately, she suffered from poor mental health throughout her
life. She committed suicide in 1941.
“A Room of One’s Own” is an essay based on two of her lectures delivered at women’s
constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in 1928. It was first published as an essay
in September 1929. This essay talks about the importance of financial independence for
female writers. The essay subsequently became an essential reading for women’s writing
studies and feminist studies. Woolf used her mastery over the stream of consciousness
technique and the use of metaphors to elaborate on the struggles of female writers in the 20th
century. Woolf looks at the history of literature and questions why female writers do not have
a history of producing great literature. She points out the failure of society and educational
institutions like Cambridge in providing any kind of support to female writers in the past and
present.
Self Check Questions
1. What are the main themes of Woolf’s writings?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
2. What is discussed in the essay “A Room of One’s Own”?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………

1
2. Learning Objectives
After going through this lesson you will be able to:
 Describe briefly the life and work of Virginia Woolf.
 Critically analyse this essay “A Room of One’s Own”.
 Undwerstand the significance of this essay in women’s writing papers.
 To relate this essay with other units of this paper.
3. Summary
Chapter 1-5
The essay begins with Woolf directly addressing a group of young women students at
Cambridge. She begins by situating the topic- women and fiction. Woolf says that by women
and fiction can mean several things. It could simply be a discussion on famous women
writers like Fanny Burney, Jane Austen, the Brontës, Miss Mitford, George Eliot, Mrs
Gaskell, etc. Or it could also mean what women are like in fiction, what is written about
women in fiction, what kind of fiction women write, or it can be a mixture of all these
meanings. She admits that there may not be a conclusive reading of what women and fiction
mean. However, offering her opinion on women writers, Woolf says that if any woman wants
to write she must have money and a room of her own. She explains how as a novelist she
came to this opinion. She decides to tell a story to give the audience a chance to draw their
own conclusions. She sets her story in ‘Oxbridge’ which is a combination of Oxford and
Cambridge. She also chooses a narrator with a first-person voice who could be any woman
sitting on the banks of a river.
This imaginary woman narrator is sitting on the banks of a river thinking about women
and fiction when she gets a new idea. Her thinking about ideas is like fishing. She compares
her idea to a fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that later it may become
fatter and worth eating. Excited with her new idea, she walks across a grass plot where she is
stopped by a beadle. She says that he was a man and I was a woman and he tells her that she
could not walk on the turf. Only the fellows and scholars are allowed on the turf and the
gravel is the place for her. She follows his warning and walks on the gravel. Meanwhile, she
forgets about her small idea and loses it like one would lose a small fish.
The woman continues her journey and thinks about Charles Lamb’s essay on Milton and
Thackeray’s most perfect novel Esmond. She muses over the mastery of famous male poets
like Milton and Lamb’s view that changing any word of Milton’s poem is an act of sacrilege.
She remembers that Lamb was also at Oxbridge and his essays are still kept in the library
nearby. Wanting to have a look at the essays she goes to the library.
However, she is stopped from entering the library by another man. She could access the
library only if she has a letter of recognition from the Dean or a male companion. On the
same day, she was stopped twice by men. She is upset about the fact that the men control
2
education because they have been paying for it for ages. They had the money. So they built
libraries, supported scholars and had access to education. Women on the other hand had no
money of their own so they could not do the same.
She hears the clock strike one. At lunchtime, she heads to a luncheon party at the college
where she describes food in great detail. She, mockingly, observes that luncheons are
memorable more for witty conversations than the food served. Sitting at a window seat she
looks at a Manx cat with a missing tail. In her thoughts, she recalls luncheons before wars
and remembers the humming noises made by guests. She says that perhaps with the help of a
poet one can put the humming noise to words. She picks a book by Tennyson and reads a few
poems. She laughs when she imagines men and women reading Tennyson at luncheons. She
makes excuses for her laughter saying that she is laughing at the cat.
After the lunch party, walking towards the women’s college, she thinks about Christina
Rossetti. She thinks Rossetti’s verses are beautiful and remind her of luncheons before the
war. She thinks the war has stopped the beautiful humming in the parties. Meanwhile,
absorbed in her thoughts, she misses the turn for Fernham college. Taking a new route, she
reaches Fernham and thinks she has seen the famous feminist Jane Harrison but she shifts her
focus at the dinner. Again she describes the food. She feels the meal here is humbler but
something is missing like it was missing at the luncheon party.
As a guest, this woman has no rights at Fernham so she sits with Mary Seton in her
sitting room. Mary Seton recalls the financial history of her college, which involves constant
and belittling fundraising efforts. She and Mary ponder over their grandmothers and mothers
who could not earn money and create a legacy for their daughters and granddaughters. They
look at wonderful college buildings and feel sad for their ancestors who were not allowed to
contribute to them. As a result, they, at present, have no right at these places. The chapter
ends with a remark that things were already late.
Self Check Questions
1. Who is the narrator?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
2. What is compared to a small fish? How does the narrator’s small fish get lost?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
3. What happens at the library?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
3
 ………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
4. Why does she laugh at the Manx cat?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
5. What does she talk about with Mary Seton?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………

Chapter 6
The narrator is in London on the 26th of October 1928. She looks out of her window and
realizes that no one cares about Shakespeare or Woman and Fiction as she does. They are
busy in their own lives and she looks at a young girl and man getting into a cab together
below her window. She gets a sense of satisfaction looking at this scene and ponders over the
power of her mind. She thinks what can give complete satisfaction and happiness to both
sexes- men and women. She thinks about Coleridge when he said a great mind is
androgynous. She interprets that human beings have both a man and a woman inside them, in
the man’s brain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman’s brain the woman
predominates over the man. She thinks it is natural for males and females to cooperate.
She goes to the library. She believes that her age, the Suffragette movement, is the most
gender-conscious period in history. She opens a novel written by Mr A. His authorial
presence is in sharp contrast to women’s style of writing. She gets annoyed with the constant
presence of ‘I’ in the novel. In his novel, female characters are not given equal space and
treatment so she is bored. She looks at the books of Mr Galsworthy and Mr Kipling and finds
them unsatisfactory for female readers.
Next, she talks about Italian Literature and complains about it being too masculine. She
says that fascism cannot produce any poetry and men and women both are to be blamed for it.
After going through the works of both male and female writers, she weighs the femininity
and masculinity in them. Finally sitting at her desk in the library, thinking about women and
fiction, she settles on the idea that gender-conscious writing is dangerous for writers. She
believes in the union of males and females like the act of a taking a taxi in the morning by
both men and women.
Woolf , now, presents two obvious criticisms that she has to face. First is the question of
the relative merits of men and women writers. She says that is not her main aim to provide an
opinion on the relative merits of the sexes as writers and hence she hasnt provided any. The

4
second issue concerns the financial status of writers. Though it is true that some male writers
have produced great literature despite being poor, Woolf maintains that financial freedom is
critical to writers. In her defence, she quotes from The Art of Writing by Sir Arthur Quiller-
Couch and says that most of the great writers are from well-to-do backgrounds. She further
points out the intellectual freedom given to men. She compares women’s intellectual freedom
with the sons of Athenian slaves. She claims that intellectual freedom depends on material
independence which women never had.
Woolf goes on to encourages other women to write on all subjects even on philosophy
and history despite the fact that not much importance is given to women’s writing. She wants
them to travel, have financial independence and intellectual freedom as writers so that they
can produce great works. She talks about the advantage of reading King Lear or Emma. She
encourages women to read and write not to influence others but to improve themselves and to
be who they are. She says that women have not fought wars, have not produced plays like
Shakespeare and established no civilization but they have been busy with breeding and
household chores. However, now the opportunity is given to women. So instead of having ten
or twelve children, women should breed four or five children and give some time to books.
Now young women have the opportunity to make their place in history. She exhorts the
young women to give new life to Judith Shakespear who could not do so in her life. She ends
her address with a message for young girls do something to bring a positive change.
Self Check Questions
1. Who is the narrator in this chapter?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
2. Why is the narrator interested in a young woman and man taking a taxi together?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
3. Why does the narrator talk about Colleridege’s idea that a great mind is androgynous?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
4. What are the two obvious criticisms Woolf talks about?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
5
 ………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
5. What does Woolf want young women to do and why?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………

4. Analysis
Personal Criticism: Woolf points out the importance of financial and social independence of
female writers in the first chapter of her essay “A Room of One’s Own”. She is creatively
using fiction, facts and her artistic license without compromising her privacy. Anne Fernald
in her essay “A Room of One’s Own, Personal Criticism, and Essay” discusses how readers
can relate to Woolf’s “I” because Woolf can enter into a conversation with the reader which
seems very personal. Anne says that “the persona of Mary Beton deflects attention from
Virginia Woolf as a personality and focuses it on the narrator’s general openness of the
mind”(165). Hence, the room here is not Woolf’s room but it becomes relatable to each
reader. Alice Walker, the writer of The Color Purple, despite being aware of the white
privilege Woolf had in the early 20th century, could feel a connection with Woolf as a
woman writer.
Metaphors: The metaphor of small fish for women’s small ideas and fishing for the act of
thinking highlights the prevalent patriarchal view that considered works of women writers as
inferior. At the same time, it also points towards the amount of patience required for this task.
The joke about men and women reading poems of a master like Tennyson at luncheon where
people murmur and hum, creates a contrasting image of the privilege enjoyed by male poets.
In chapter six, woman and man getting in a taxi together is also a metaphor for men and
women supporting each other in their life. In this essay, she talks at great length about male
privilege but in the end, she still encourages males and females to come together for each
other. Learners can easily find several metaphors used in the text to serve the themes of her
essay.
Theme: Woolf’s main theme in the essay is financial and social freedom for female writers.
She talks about the struggles of women in a patriarchal society which may seem insignificant
to others but are detrimental to female intellectual and creative activities. She questions the
absence of great works produced by women writers in libraries and is aware that females
have no history except for breeding and working at home. She talks about the importance of
money in building the present and future of any civilization and how only men have
contributed and enjoyed all the great things that have happened in history. She is also
optimistic about a future where women can read and write freely.
Writing Style: Woolf has written this essay as a lecture directly addressing a group of young
female students. She creates the persona of Mary Beton and narrates a story mixed with facts
6
and fiction to convey her desired themes. In both the beginning and the end of the essay, she
is directly addressing the audience. Although, she has kept herself at a distance in the rest of
the essay. The artistic use of metaphor and long pauses in between her sentences reflect her
abilities as a novelist and a writer. She jumps from one part of the story to another without
losing her pace and holding on to the theme. For example, in chapter one, she binds all her
themes and facts with fiction in a tale about one day in the life of a woman at Fernham
college. This writing style is similar to her stream of consciousness technique used in Mrs
Dalloway.
5. Significance of this Essay in Women’s Writing
This essay has played a very significant role in womens writing. It highlights the connection
between gender roles and writing. Woolf has very artistically pointed out the problems faced
by female writers and encourages them to take charge of creating their own histories which
was, hitherto, denied to them. However, the boundaries of gender identities are very rigid in
her essay. She has only focused on the typical white-English women. Hence, this essay
neglects the struggles of other women writers. Alice Walker has pointed this out in her essay
“In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose”. Woolf`s essay only concerens only
two sexes thereby leaving out the large community of LGBTQ who might have faced similiar
constraints.
Learners can note that the struggles of Cecile from The Color Purple are not the ones
Woolf is talking about. The young woman in Woolf’s essay has a lot more privilege than
Walker’s Cecile, Shug Avery, Sophia or any other female character. They don’t have the
privilege to go to college, even a school for them is a luxury they can hardly afford. Walker’s
women have to face sexual violence, physical violence, emotional trauma and lack of
freedom even within their own house. Unlike Woolf’s women who can think about books and
intellectual freedom, they have to fight for physical freedom first.
Walker’s protagonist believes in God. She finds her missing identity, not with the help of
a man but a woman like herself. Unlike Woolf suggesting a union of man and woman,
Walker is talking about lesbian love or woman supporting each other. Woolf is asking the
young woman to give some time for books other than breeding children and household work.
However, Cecil does not even have the freedom and choice of breeding her children. Leaving
household chores is not an option for most of Walker’s women. Fortunately, both Walker and
Woolf demand financial and social freedom for women who have different struggles in their
male-dominated world.
Learners should relate this essay with other texts in units 2, 3, and 4 also. They can
compare Gilman’s woman who overcomes her husband both physically and psychologically.
Compare Sultana’s dream world of ‘Ladyland’ where women rule over the world and men
are kept in ‘jananas’ with Woolf’s post-world war world of luncheons and parties. Similarly,
compare and contrast the struggles faced by different women writers and characters in other
prescribed texts of this paper.

7
Self Check Questions
1. Who is Mary Beton and Mary Seton?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
2. What are the main themes of this essay?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
3. Describe the writing style of Woolf in this essay.
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
4. Why does Woolf use the narrative persona “I”?
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………
5. How can this text be read as a background reading? Illustrate with an example
referring to any prescribed texts in the paper.
……………………………………………………………………………………….…
…………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………….………
……………………………………………………………………………….…………

6. References
 “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf. maulanaazadcollegekolkata.ac.in/
pdf/open-resources/A-Room-of-Ones-Own-Virginia-Woolf-PDF.pdf
 Fernald, Anne. “A Room of One’s Own, Personal Criticism, and the Essay.”
Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 40, no. 2, [Duke University Press, Hofstra
University], 1994, pp. 165–89, https://doi.org/10.2307/441801.
 The British Library- Virginia Woolf. www.bl.uk/people/virginia-woolf
 Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 2004. p. 235. ISBN 9780156028646.