1. Thesis Statement:
Virginia Woolf displays her style in her works A Room of one's own and Professions for Women to expose by example and historical fact the constraints society imposes upon women who write.
2. A Feminist Analysis of A Room of Her Own
The works A Room of one's own and Professions for Women focus on the constraints placed upon women and how a lack of money and the ability to live independently would prevent them from achieving socially recognized success as authors in their own life times.
3, Argument:
Virginia Woolf opens a history book on how Shakespeare’s sister would have been treated if she possessed the same innate genius as her brother. To begin with, as a child she would have not received the same educational opportunities as her brother and would have had her mind trained and body occupied with learning the proper women’s duties. If in her few spare moments, she tried to take up one of her brother’s books and educate herself she would have been dissuaded. Her father would have arraigned her marriage, tossed her about the room with legal impunity if she attempted to refuse. If she escaped and fled to London as her brother had done she would have been treated as insane until she was driven to madness. Woolf’s succinct presentation of these facts is a well-crafted display of her intellect. However, the elegant rhythmic style of Judith Shakespeare’s life is true genius. It draws the reader by the direct flow of words to suspend the world around her for a few moments, experience what reality was in that time, and place. She makes the point that in order to survive a woman needs a place to live and a means of support in Shakespeare’s time that was impossible. However, society had evolved since then and it was a reality for Virginia Woolf. In her writings she sets out how that came to be.
4, Conclusion
Virginia Woolf uses her almost poetic writing style and incisive intellect to its best to show how Professions for Women could lead to a woman being able to have A Room of one's own. and the means to become self supporting. In these works, she succinctly shows how the misogynist way of thinking created its own reality. Women could not write, not because they lacked the capacity, but because they lacked the opportunity.
