Review A Room Of One’s Own By Virginia Woolf

Content Summary

In this content, we will examine the work of British feminist writer Virginia Woolf, in which she conveys her ideas in the most clear and striking way, A Room of One’s Own.

A Room Of One's Own Price Comparison

A Room of One’s Own is a book that is one of the building blocks of the feminist movement, in which important ideas about English literature are conveyed. After briefly getting to know Virginia Woolf, we will look at literature and fiction from the perspective of women.

Who is Virginia Woolf

Perhaps the best-known feminist writer in world literature, Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882 in London, England. She lost her mother at the age of 13 and could not go to school because the education of women was not given importance during her lifetime. But this did not prevent him from discovering his reading and writing skills.

His biggest supporter in this matter has been his father and his father’s library. His stories began to be published in newspapers at an early age. It is seen that he criticized the Victorian-style life of his time in his works he wrote in later ages.

Virginia Woolf – A Room Of One’s Own

Virginia Woolf wrote in her notes that the happiest years of her life were the years after her marriage to Leonard Woolf in 1912. However, after leaving a note to his sister and his wife due to his psychological problems, he ended his life on March 28, 1941 by tying stones to his hands and feet and committing suicide in a river near his house.

The politics of her period, along with her ideas in British history and literature, made her known to the world and her main skill was the war she fought for her fellows through writing. His few best-known novels are Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves.

In these novels and in many of her stories, we see the call for feminism, especially in her non-fiction prose in which she clearly expresses her ideas. In this article, we will examine the most prominent and most read work of Virginia Woolf’s prose, A Room of One’s Own. But let’s also list a list of his other works.

The Novels Of Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf tried to produce literary works throughout her life. The list of novels is as follows.

• The Voyage Out
• Mrs Dalloway
• To the Lighthouse
• Orlando: A Biography
• The Waves
• Flush: A Biography
• The Years
• Between The Acts
• A Room Of A Room Of One’s Own

Summary Of A Room Of One’s Own

A Room of One’s Own begins with Virginia Woolf’s not being taken to the library, where she went to do research on women’s fictional writing, without a man.

Karbon Kitaplar Cover of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own

Even with this introduction, it shows from the very beginning why a woman should make more effort to be a writer than a man. Throughout the work, the social, economic and psychological effects of the inequality of women and men in all fields, especially on women’s absence in literature, have been examined. Questions such as why women write less, why women are underestimated and how to prevent all of these have been sought.

The Topic Of A Room Of One’s Own

It would be appropriate to start with the idea that gave the book A Room of One’s Own Study. “If she wanted to write a fictional text, she had to have a woman’s money and a room of her own,” Virginia Woolf told us on the first pages of the book. he says. He reminds us that his main purpose throughout the work was to prepare an article titled “Fiction and Woman“. Thus, throughout the book, we accompany Woolf’s preparation, his researches, comparisons, complaints, and thoughts.

One of the A Room Of Ones Own covers(wikipedia).

The author is particularly interested in the relationship of fiction writing to women. There are many reasons for this, such as that women have been viewed both physically and mentally inferior for centuries, have been left uneducated and penniless, have been married at a very early age and have no choice, and have not had the opportunity to engage in literature and, if they do, have been underestimated.

While conveying all this to us, Virginia Woolf takes great care to be impartial, not to praise her own gender, and not to use any derogatory words for men. Because his concern is not to prove which of both sexes is superior or to make definite judgments about men and women.

The author is in the process of examining how long women can exist in literature. Although he had written only sporadic novels and poetry books before, he found that this minority was also criticized or defended by men (rarely), and that men wrote for and on behalf of women.

In other words, men have thought of women again, and nobody has attempted to create opportunities for women to write their thoughts. So Woolf said, “Perhaps the struggle of men for women’s liberation was more interesting than the story of emancipation itself.” he said.

At this point, the short story about Shakespeare, which Woolf fictionalizes in the book, is quite interesting and important. If Shakspeare had a sister as smart, creative, and clever as Shakespeare herself, would she be world-renowned by producing great works like her brother? she questioned she. However, the sister was married at an early age and died at the end of this tiny story without being recognized and discovered by anyone, although she was very smart, talented and creative.

Because it has no means, money, time, room. Woolf’s phrase “Women live like bats or owls, work like creatures, die like worms …” finds meaning in this little story.

Virginia Woolf in her room.

In the work, many men who think and write about women and many women who are fiction novelists are mentioned. Woolf spoke of the most important ones in chronological order and carefully. The point he emphasizes in all of them is how women write and how they should write, as well as the orientation and orientation of women to literature. Writing like a woman, writing like a woman is often underestimated. This situation is reflected in the books, languages ​​and styles of the author women.

Woolf said of this state, “This shortness of life could mean that the author was afraid of something; Maybe he was afraid of being “emotional,” or he brought out plenty of thorns because he remembered what women wrote were called floral. ” He expresses his words with a secret anger and reproach. According to him, literature has no gender, authors have gender, and this distinction can be reflected in works because diversity is provided in this way.

“It will be a shame if women write like men or live and look like them; When we think that the world is vast and full of differences, if even two genders are inadequate, how do we manage with just one? Shouldn’t education reveal and support differences rather than similarities?”

One of the points we have touched on so far is Virginia Woolf’s point of view on literary expression “It is fatal to think about the gender of someone who writes it.” We can briefly summarize it with the sentence, and we can say that in order for women to be a part of this indiscriminate literature, the world of ideas must be developed. Otherwise, Woolf believes and fears that women, like Davies, will be completely unnecessary when children are completely undesirable.

That’s why she thinks that women should take on duties other than marry and have children and do housework and showcase their talents and benefit the world in other fields.

A Room Of One’s Own Quotes

A book for Virginia Woolf must give an idea. Of course, when women are given the opportunity, they can produce brand new ideas that will direct literature and other women. In the work, many women writers such as Jane Austen, Aphra Behn, George Eliot, Emily and Chalotte Bronte, who have written very successful works in limited time and space, are mentioned in the work.

A 19th century. Its author, Virginia Woolf, argued that with the women’s movements that started in her own period, at least in the 16th century, it is possible to be at a very different and more advanced point in literature today. For the rest of the time, women should not be afraid to be like themselves and change their values for the opinions of others.

“I should ask you not to forget your responsibilities, rise, be more spiritual; I have to remind you how much depends on you and how effective you are on the future. “

Virginia Woolf only wants to explain the contrast of men’s orientation in women’s lifestyles, at least in her own country for centuries, and that something can be done for the future.

“Their (men’s) education was also in a way as flawed as mine. It had made great flaws in them. “

There are also political references to the period in the work:

Take care until you meet at the next review.

“While Goethe glorified them, Mussolini was belittling. Wherever one turns his head, he sees men who think about women but who think completely differently. “

References

https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/469306

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-hours-2002