A woman’s personal space

When it comes to fiction writing, a woman’s personal space is crucial. A room of one’s own does not always imply a literal room or space, as some might believe. The idea of having one’s own space could imply financial freedom, gender equality, and equal opportunity. Women are said to perform bad literature work, but this is due to the conditions that a woman is exposed to, such as house duties and the fact that society financially ties women to their husbands. Unlike her male counterpart, she is unqualified due to the constant denial of time and literal space to focus on her piece of art. This article will look into the importance of a woman in fiction having her own room.

From the narrator, money is of great importance to a woman. Money is actually the major theme on Virginia Woolf’s talk. Without money, a woman cannot have their much desired personal space. Since time immemorial, women have had their talents and abilities sidelined completely. This can be traced back to the society branding women as the lesser part of the men and so women have to submit to their husbands before doing anything on their own. The writer insists that if women had been accorded enough material things, which in this case is money, a lot of poems would have been written and published (Delaney).

The writer further believes that a woman having been denied the privilege of a personal space, she would rather write a novel than a poem because it is easier to continue writing a novel due to her many starts and stops. Writing a poem is all inclusive considering all the concentration it requires from bits writer. Additionally, she implies that it is because of lack of money that places a woman in the second place from the male counterpart of the same creative ability (Sparknotes On a Room of Ones Own). Since the beginning of time, a woman was taught to be dependent on her man and this is how women end up being financially dependent on the man. This strains her as it turns to be difficult to ask for financial support from the husband especially considering the time the writer penned down the novel.

One time, during her lecture, Woolf was interrupted but failed to regain her initial concentration. She stated that, a woman without her own space, without any interruptions is very likely to face a lot of hardship in her writing. The hardship could even lead to failure of the particular piece of work. In her line of explanation, the writer wanders off to start describing a cat without a tail. In actual sense she is talking about Oxbridge University, but she wants her readers to actually feel what it is like to be a female writer.

The difficulties a woman endures on the slightest of interruptions. The writer makes remarkable points about the cookout, but she has completely drifted off the main point. This, she says makes it difficult to compare a female writer and a male counterpart as the males are naturally not made to compete for such obligations. The slightest of interruption causes the woman to lose focus and the idea in the writing is completely stolen from her. This either slows down the whole writing process or destroys it completely. A man on the other hand will just enjoy the serenity of quietness and get maximum concentration as he wishes and ends up delivering some quality work in no time.

During her time, the writer complains that women were treated unequally thus having little to show of their writing works. She illustrates this by using a character that she creates and names her Judith Shakespeare. She clearly shows how the society discriminates against women. Judith is just as talented as her brother William Shakespeare, but her own family applauds the works of her brother more than they appreciate hers. She even gets ignored completely as she has no support from any member of her family (University of Adelaide).

This overshadows Judith’s work because she is simply underestimated. The lady, Judith, opts to write but hides her work as she is ashamed of it. She is betrothed at a very young age and when she requests her father not to marry her off at the tender age, the father beats her up. Judith results to suicide. This character of Judith created by the writer is just used to show how little a woman can accomplish as compared to her male counterpart. Men are held high by the society and are given the opportunity to pursue greater heights. A woman is still sidelined to be married off and to perform the duty of taking care of the man, home and the children. It’s a complete disregard of her inner abilities as she is even denied the opportunity to express herself in small matters such as marriage alone (Delaney).

The narrator is also open to the fact that history can be subjective in a way. According to her, it is difficult to explain some of the truths held in the past. Instead, it’s much easier for someone to explain why they hold certain opinions about something but showing the facts about is what is somewhat difficult. The writer comes to the realization that someone’s own experiences are what lead to certain opinions. It is really not possible to eliminate one’s inclination of his/her opinion. Basically, the personality of an individual influences what he/she does including the kind of art the person creates.

Men have come out strong in their quest to be branded as the superior sex. In order to gain this status, they have had to subordinate women, this, she brands men without accusing them. She rather, opts to sympathize with men in their journey for confidence. Women, in their lack of confidence made the men get an upper hand in the quality of their work (Keim). The anger in women in the being placed as second class citizens is evidenced in their writing. However, women are able to continue to continue with writing despite the lack of confidence as the society brands them. The women in this case depict courage and bravery (Sparknotes On a Room of Ones Own).

It was disregarded for women to write in the 1920s. If a woman rose up to write, the act was considered political. The whole idea was to show that men and women belonged to different worlds. The men’s’ world was that of business and work while a woman’s world was at home taking care of the family (Keim).

In the whole of her novel, Woolf used room symbolically to show the larger things that a woman needs. These things include privacy, leisure, and most importantly financial freedom. Woolf, in her time noted women suffered a lot from discrimination and the things men enjoyed only remained to be elusive to the woman thus, the woman had nothing to show of her own creative writing. A room of her own would give a woman a chance to show off her good wring ability. Woolf adds that unless the inequalities in the society are mended, a woman will just remain to be second placed from the male species and so will their work be branded the same.

WORKS CITED

Delaney, Brigid. A room of one’s own: why women need to have their artistic voice heard. 7 March 2016. 7 November 2017 .

Keim, Ellen. “Does a Woman Need a Room of Her Own?” 13 November 2014. Femagination. 6 November 2017 .

Sparknotes On a Room of Ones Own. 2017. .

University of Adelaide. 15 July 2015. 6 November 2017 .