Do Value the Woman

Towards the end of "A Room of One's Own," I began to notice that the author praises men and their ability to convey their writing in such a "direct" and "straightforward" fashion (99). Not only does she allude to the male writing figure once. She also goes on to make several other complimentary comments. Had she attributed women with more credit, this wouldn't have really stuck out to me; however the author seems to downplay women. After hours of reading literature written by female authors, she makes the comment,"indeed, it was delightful to read a man's writing again" (99). Seemingly, Virginia Woolf would seem more excited about women branching into new fields and capturing new opportunities, since she argues that women need a place of their own to write successfully.

It would be wrong to say that the author gives women no credit because she does, a few pages prior to making the statement on page 99. The narrator praises Mary Carmichael for writing not only "as a woman," but also "as a woman who has forgotten that she is a woman, so that her pages were full of curious sexuality" achievable "only when sex is unconscious itself" (93). After critiquing Carmichael's unfamiliar syntax and lack of flow, she finally commends the writer for her ability to develop her own voice, in a sense, and write in a completely unconscious frame of mind. However, I am bothered because the narrator makes this discover, but a few pages later, she begins attributing all of these desirable writing qualities to men, as if women's literature was so bleak and unskillfully written all along. I don't understand how you can say something one minute, then suddenly resort back to your previous state of mind.

Somehow, I had this idea that Woolf was pro-women's rights initially, especially with women recently gaining the right to vote less than a decade ago; however, I am disappointed that she (or the narrator) tends to continuously emphasize the great power of males and how anything in their makings will always be valued more highly. I was hoping that the narrative characters would be more willing to step out of their mindset of submissive women in the 20's and desire more equality with men, more so. Perhaps thoughts like these would have been to far-fetched back in 1928...