Piyangie's Reviews > A Room of One’s Own

If a book can stir you, teach you, and guide you as a woman and as a writer, none would do a better job than A Room of One's Own. It is a brilliant work and a masterpiece, “for masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.” And to me, this work is the collective body that represents the common voice of the women who have struggled to express them through the written word.

The book or rather the essay contains Virginia Woolf's famous quote "a woman must have money and room of her own if she is to write fiction". Throughout the essay, she emphasizes her point drawing many examples of women writers in comparison to their counterparts. When I dig deep into her meaning of the above quotation, I found that Virginia doesn't mean only about having money and privacy to write. Although monetary independence is stressed, there are more subtle and pressing issues she has addressed under the guise of that quotation.

It was also a pleasant surprise to read her view on the psychology of male and female authors. "....in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man's brain man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain woman predominates the man. The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating. If one is a man, still the woman part of his brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her." This opened my eyes through a new window. What Virginia Woolf tries to emphasize here is that every human has two sides irrespective of the accepted sex. In a man, there lives a woman to a degree, and in a woman, there lives a man to a degree. But when they combine emotionally, a brilliant product sees the light of the day. Although Virginia has spoken entirely about writing, I could not stop but wonder how truly applicable this principle is to every aspect of human life.

This short book was both informative and educative for women in all capacity, especially women writers but also for men. This is no feminine text. The use of such a narrow description belittles this well-researched masterpiece. I, as both a woman and writer, was left utterly shaken. My perspective with regard to fiction, authors, and writing will never again be the same. I also figured out certain elements I lack as a writer to which I should give deep thought and careful attention. And I express my heartfelt gratitude to Virginia Woolf for this brilliant masterpiece which would certainly change me both as a woman and a writer.

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After this third read, I pondered more on Virginia Woolf's contemplation on what would have happened if Shakespeare had a sister with equal genius. Virginia is absolutely sure that in the 17th century if a woman of the equal genius of Shakespeare had attempted to do what he did, either she must have been ruined or become a castaway. Many centuries have passed from that time to which she alludes. But looking at modern society, I wonder whether we have come much far from that position. Of course, more and more women produce fiction, write plays, poetry, and compose music; so in that sense women of our time come far from their sisters of the 17th century. But as a whole, and comparatively, have women been able to conquer all these areas as equally as men? Haven't they still being weighed down by either domestic responsibility or prejudice? Virginia Woolf's observations, made in the early 20th century, still ring true to a greater extent.