Virginia Woolf : An Autonomous Space, Money and Women’s Fiction

Aditi Sharif ।। 

“A  woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (Woolf, 1929).

The quote eloquently summarizes Virginia Woolf’s thoughts of her famous book “A Room of One’s Own”, In this book, she discussed the conditions and impediments women have to face in writing fiction.

She presented two fictitious examples to describe the comparative conditions of two sexes (male and female) regarding knowledge production. She drew attention to the ‘Oxbridge’ to denote how the affluence of men ensured the high standard of produced knowledge. On the other hand, women didn’t enjoy basic amenities there because of their gender identity. She imagined a lady like Woolf (she used ‘I’ to describe the person) was facing discrimination in her every step of Oxbridge. The lady indulged in deep thinking while walking in the grass. But she was ousted because of her gender identity. For this reason, she lost the nexus of her thought. Even she was not allowed to the enriched library which she found very important for knowledge gathering and imagination. Later she enjoyed an extravagant lunch at the congregation of the ‘Oxbridge’.

On the other hand, ‘Fernham’ (a female scholar established the institution) was exactly opposite the  Oxbridge. The surrounding of ‘Fernham’ was very shabby. She had a chance to meet with the director of the institute. She was also served a plain dinner there. And Woolf stressed the fact that without fulfilling the basic amenities like hunger, organized livelihood and thinking can’t be expected. In her words, “One can not think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well (Woolf, 1929)”. The director also told her how they faced many hardships to manage the expenditure of that college. Citing two examples, Woolf indicated an ultimate problem of women-poverty. Her argument was: that if women could earn more money, the picture would be completely different. According to Woolf, the apparent obstacles in women’s road to economic sufficiency were higher reproduction rates and not having property rights. Later Woolf went to British Museum to investigate some inquiries such as; the reasons behind women’s poverty, the effect of poverty on fiction, and the necessary conditions for the creation of arts. While searching for the answers, she became shocked to see the number of books written by male writers (regardless of their qualifications). In this way, some stereotypical images of women (such as: having less hair on the body alongside shallow brains, etc) emerged. These seemed to be a ‘pure waste of time’.  But they were not. Woolf imagined a representative image of those male authors. She called him ‘Professor’ (a symbol of male dominance and the rule of patriarchy in England). Anger was a manifestation of this dominance. But Woolf described male authors’ apparent anger as ‘consciousness about their superiority rather than women’s inferiority. Through these attempts, they tried to protect their interests. On the other hand, she considered economic security as a precondition for writing fiction. At that time women had to struggle a lot to ensure their livelihood let alone fiction.

Woolf also reviewed women’s literature in her past decades. In the time of Elizabeth, any extraordinary literature of women can not be found. Woolf associated it with the worst living condition of women at that time. Even she claimed that no women in the age of Shakespeare could write the plays, Shakespeare, because of their circumstances. To illustrate the point, she described a story of Shakespeare’s fictitious sister. His sister was as much talented as Shakespeare. Like all women of that age, she had to remain at home. She was deprived of education. Her mother and father were ready to marry her off forcefully. To escape this, she fleed from the home and faced the harsh reality of the outer world. Whenever she wanted to act on stage, people mocked her. Because no woman at that time could be an actress. Moreover, an actor-manager took the chance and assaulted her.  After the attack on her ‘chastity’, she chose death. Woolf considered meritorious women of the sixteenth century as ‘unhappy women at strife against herself. Despite having talents, the conditions of their life were hostile to the ‘free state of mind’.   To her, Shakespeare’s mind was the ‘most favorable state of mind to poetry’. In her opinion, a state of mind free from all chaos and material difficulties is the precondition for good writing. Until the 19th century, women didn’t have any autonomous space or economic sovereignty. Even in the 19th century, a few numbers of women in Europe who came from extraordinary noble families had a room and some ‘pin’ money. Still, they were deprived of many other opportunities. So, their minds were never free from all difficulties. Moreover, patriarchal discourses about women’s incapability reinforced the hostility of women’s minds. So, to attain such states of mind in sixteenth-century Europe was quite impossible for women. She cited some examples of aristocratic women who tried to write but faced obstacles due to external factors. Woolf also identified some common factors among them: they all were aristocratic and childless. But no one could think that women could earn money by writing fiction. Aphra Behn was the exception. After the death of her husband, as a middle-class woman, Behn earned her livelihood by writing plays. Still, she (Behn) had to bear the humiliation because of patriarchal importance upon ‘Chastity’. But Woolf considered her the pioneer of women’s fiction for indicating the fact that writing could have practical importance. After Behn, hundreds of middle-class women in the eighteenth century translated or wrote many novels for earning money. Without these ancestors, Jane Austen, Brontes, and George Eliot could not write successful novels. Woolf also discussed the writing of four women novelists-George Eliot, Emile Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot. She identified some common characteristics of these four writers. They were childless and middle-class. They didn’t have the privilege to write in their room. As they had to write in the common sitting room, they prefer to write prose and fiction than poetry and play. Even Woolf claimed that two of them the great writers (Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot) couldn’t utilize their talents completely due to their consciousness of gender disparity. George Eliot had to follow social convention and settle down in the shadow of the world’s disapproval. On the other hand, male writers were supposed to be free. Woolf identified two autonomous value systems for men and women. Like other areas, in the world of writing, masculine values got priority.  Anything related to feminine values was considered inferior. Many female writers in the early 19th century adopted masculine values in their writings, Exceptionally, Jane Austen and Emile Bronte wrote like women. Then Woolf went back to her contemporary literature. At that time, women no longer confined themselves to writing novels solely. Rather they wrote books on a variety of topics. Woolf also discussed a writer’s book named “Life’s Adventure”. She named her ‘Mary Carmichael’. Though she was not meritorious like Jane Austen,  she tried to portray women’s life in detail.  Woolf claimed that in most past literature, women were seen in their relation to men. But Carmichael didn’t do so. She acknowledged that Carmichael did enjoy more privileges than her predecessors, But she didn’t enjoy the freedom as much as her male counterparts. Woolf was hopeful that with sufficient space and economic sovereignty women can make a large contribution to the writing world. As mentioned before, Woolf identified two autonomous value system for men and women, According to her, the distinctiveness of two separate sexes create obstacles to the way of ‘unity of mind’. A mind where masculine and feminine qualities can be combined (Androgynous) is suitable for writing fiction. She considered Shakespeare’s mind as the most androgynous mind. Also, Woolf denoted her contemporary age as ‘extremely sex conscious’. The women’s rights movement was largely responsible for this. An extraordinary desire for self-assertation (an emphasis on their characteristics) could be found among male writers.

But her main message in this book: economic sovereignty and autonomous space are the two most important factors in achieving intellectual freedom and unity of mind. Without achieving these two, a successful can’t be written. From the beginning, women were always victims of severe poverty. Even Woolf claimed that women had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Moreover, they didn’t have any distinct space. That’s why Woolf emphasizes money and a room of one’s own.

While I am trying to write this piece of review, I have heard an educated woman saying “Male’s brain is way superior to than female ones. Whatever you try, you will never surpass males.” Her comment makes me think that Virginia Woolf wrote this book in 1929 but still it is very relevant to the present situation of women (at least in Bangladesh). The lady is not an exception. Despite having some brilliant works of women, many male writers argued the same. In this case, just try to think of Bangladeshi women. As an overpopulated and developing country, most people don’t afford to have autonomous space for themselves. Also, many people have to struggle a lot for earning a livelihood. The condition of women is even worse. Let alone the working class, women belonging to the educated middle-class in Bangladesh, don’t have room. Most of them have limited mobility due to the insecurity and chaos in the Bangladeshi public sector. They have to rely on their spouse or family for their needs. Without ensuring these facilities, can anyone compare women to men?

 

 

Reference

Woolf, V. (1929). A Room of One’s Own. London: Hogarth Press