A room of one’s own
Lecture delivered at college for women
She starts with a contradiction; she starts “in media res”
Mixed genre:
- Chapters
- Long sentences: un-lecture like
Narrative: sentences show the rhythm
She wants to set herself apart from the women writers of the 18th century
“Nugget of truth:” for her is inexistent. She wants to enable us to form our own opinion
She will lay bare her thought process, unencumbered by her opinions (except for room and money statement)
“LIES:” lies that give rise to a truth beyond reality
Personal identity, individuality is not important: only what is achieved matters (that is why irony rather than sarcasm)
Imagery: very elaborate
Willows, women
What rivers show what people choose to understand
Literal thinking not lateral thinking: her imagery is so rich and flows naturally.
There is a train of thought, stream of consciousness. (The water is the mind)
Why is the willow bowed down: her task is so grand
Weeds and reflections: nothing is worthless; everything in the water nourishes my flow of consciousness.
There are the weeds: thoughts on the bottom, deep rooted and then the reflections are on the surface
Her idea has movement, life, light; she is excited. She is interrupted by a man telling her to get off of the grass
It is a Beadle. She is a woman and he is a curious object
The Beadle completely intercepts her thought process. She takes times to get back to reality.
She is on the grass, on man’s “turf”
The substance is personal even if she says that she doesn’t want the personality to interfere.
She is a writer but could never go to school. It is SO ironic that this writer cannot get into the library
A lot of nature in her imagery: fish, crustacean
There is her and then the others. The latter are not very human, they seem like relics of another age.
Tone here is more sarcastic, resentment.
Money is necessary for higher education but women are poor, depend on men.
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Food she doesn’t have access to, food for thought.
Close connection between physical well-being and thought process.
A poor woman cannot write.
Another interruption: a cat with a truncated tail. The cat, a little absurd, out of place, is she. “What a difference a tail makes”
The cat may also be England
The war has changed everything: songs of hope no more. Now there are deaths, reality flashed.
There is truth, light also in the war: it killed illusion and a new truth can emerge.
The diction is much harsher here.
Truth about the houses: it is obscured by doubt, we cannot come to a conclusion.
Sex, androgyny (displaying features of both sexes; indistinguishable)
The term arises from botany: plant or animal that has characteristics of both sexes.
Coleridge said the only great mind is androgynous
The person who embraces the androgyny of the mind is able to be above others, let go of the prejudices and baggage that come with sex, see things from both perspectives.
The river, stream of thought divides image of man and woman, sexless
Is she trying to establish a binary?
Crimson bush: fire=> intensity, power
The color is somewhat royal; the bushes are adorned with those colors because they are held higher than the weeping willow. Yet the crimson is a red color like in autumn, and insinuates the end of the domination of those bushes and moreover, the heat of fire is destined to burn the bushes.
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Tennyson (M) and Rosetti (F): great authors of each of the sexes.
One sex is waiting for the other. The spark of romance is necessary, one sex needs the other for the androgynous mind
Poverty of the woman vs. the wealth of the man (food metaphor)
Worse maybe to be locked in?
Because she’s locked out, she has more freedom to think what she wants, step away from the patriarchal cage.
But at the end of the day, we are “one, all human.”
