DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for “A Room of One’s Own,” chapters 1-3

) How does Woolf use physical spaces, and her narrator’s movement through them, to advance her “argument”? In the story, Woolf says that women need their own room, one that must be locked, to have the freedom to write. It seems very ironic that she recommends confining oneself to have freedom in the mind to create art. It can be implied how the difference between confinement and freedom could mean that according to Woolf, the freedom one has in the physical world influences the freedom one has in their mind. 2) 2) Can you describe Woolf’s style of sentence writing? How do the poetic techniques of imagery and metaphor contribute to her essay? Woolf is more interested in showing what it takes to write fiction. The style of writing that Woolf uses is meant for the reader to get constant reminders that they're reading a piece of fiction created by another person. The use of imagery and metaphors are meant to help show the difficulties that women face as writers. 3) 3) What is the significance of World War I in this essay? Woolf makes the point that she wishes that women could have the opportunity take part in the war to gain experience from an experience that they could write fiction on. This is based off the notion that men being the main participants in war want to have the war documented. 4) 4) How does Woolf account for women’s poverty? For the absence of women’s history? Woolf pushes the idea that money is the best way that women can have the opportunity to become writers as well as become independent people. It also gives women the necessary time to write. This is meant to show that women do not need to look up to men to earn a living. This means that women get the idea 5) 5) What does Woolf mean by “patriarchy”? When Woolf is talking about patriarchy, she is referring to the power that men have comes from believing that women are inferior. Having power of authority also means that one has the power to interrupt. 6) 6) What is Woolf’s attitude toward anger? How does this relate to her own writing style? Woolf tries to appear calm, never showing the anger that she must have felt at being driven away from her chosen profession. “A Room of One’s Own” uses irony and satire extensively to demonstrate how confined she felt when writing about feminist issues. 7) 7) In the questions above, I have referred to Woolf? Who is the “I” in her essay? “I” is at the beginning referring to herself. Then it eventually becomes Mary Beton. Even after this, she notes in her writing, "Call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael, or by any name you please—it is not a matter of any importance"(Woolf 1) Woolf knew the limitations of using a first-person narrative; she says this to show that experiences can be felt universally. This study source was downloaded by from CourseH on :49:26 GMT -05:00