HW 24: A Room of One's Own

According to the research of Virginia Woolf, in order for a woman to write fiction or any type of writing, they must be educated, have money, and most importantly a room of their own. Women have come extremely long ways from the days when women were not thought suited enough to write anything or have any purpose besides tend to the house. Woolf strongly stresses over and over again that women need money and a room of their own to be successful with writing. When talking about Mary Carmichael and her first book, Life’s Adventure, she states “ give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these days.”(Woolf, page 94). Indeed it is important to have a room of one’s own when one is trying to think and write a marvelous book. I currently do not have a room of my own. I share a room with two other girls and there are usually more than three people in my room. I do agree that it is hard to think with lots of other things in your way distracting you from trying to create your own ideas in your mind. Often I find myself in the library to escape the noise and laughter, so I can have a quiet place to think and analyze my thoughts to produce a better paper. Being educated and being given the opportunities that most women did not get the chance to take advantage of also helps when writing. Woolf states that even though money and privacy are important, there is one other key factor when writing, “five hundred a year stands for the power to contemplate, that a lock on the door means the power to think for oneself, still you may say that the mind should rise above such things.”(Woolf, page 106). Indeed the most important factor I believe is having such a strong mind that will be able pick up the slack if you are not given money or a room of your own.