Theme Of Women In A Room Of One's Own

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F Woolf not only points out the lack of women’s opportunities in A Room of One’s Own, but also the lack of their power as it was common for men to take the role of the authoritative figure. Through her fictional character, Professor von X, Woolf displayed that numerous men in society have long tried to keep females suppressed for their satisfaction. This character is an angry and unattractive person who became “engaged in writing his monumental work entitled The Mental, Moral, and Physical Inferiority of the Female Sex” (Woolf 355). Perhaps Woolf created Professor von X as an allegorical representation of men who try to assert their dominance over women to make themselves feel better. Based on his actions, Professor von X takes out …show more content…

As a result, females were unable to have their writings to be successful under their name in the world of literature, while men have long been the ones who had their literature taken seriously. It was an obstacle for women to get recognition: “the publicity in women is detestable. Anonymity runs in their blood” (Woolf 367). This demonstrates that it was likely that many works written by women are either published under a man’s name or anonymously in order to have their work read and acknowledged. This displays that despite having the gift for literature, women struggled to find their writings to be given the praises they deserve. This issue is due to the fact that many men have longed believe that it was peculiar for women to have such talent as they still held many stereotypic assumptions on women and their abilities. Using Judith as a paragon, Woolf expresses the fact that women who could write were dismissed as if they “have gone crazed or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside of the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at” (Woolf 366). How is it fair that men deemed it eccentric for women to have such abilities? The reality of this situation is tremendously disappointing because ladies are as capable as men when it comes to creating fiction and poetic works. Men should not make such assumption and take away women’s voice and potential to get an audience for her literature …show more content…

In Judith’s story, Woolf devised that her main character had many restrictions and lived an unwanted lifestyle because of her gender to illustrate a realistic scenario of the problems many women would have dealt with in their household over the years. In the Shakespeare household, both siblings grew up differently; Shakespeare was allowed to practice his passion and talent for literature and obtain a quality education. Judith, on the other hand, was also gifted in writing, but “was not sent to school and told to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon over books and papers by her parents” (Woolf 365). It was difficult for most women like Judith to pursue her aspiration to learn and explore herself as parents would easily dismiss these desires and had her be only of good use for house chores. Like Woolf, I believe that is such an unwanted lifestyle for women as they are prevented from extending their knowledge and forced to be at home with boring routines of house caring. In addition, Judith ran away from home to avoid arranged marriage forced upon her despite the fact she spoke against it, which further proves that was common that many women were not listened to or had a voice in important matters such as marriage. Also, it also disturbingly implies that women were useful to their family through marriage, even though they are more than just being a wife.

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