Virgnia Woolf Essay

In chapter four of Virginia Woolf's essay, A Room of One's Own, she discusses her ideas on three important topics: self-sufficiency, connections throughout history, and a women's attraction to writing novels. The turning point for female writers, from the author's point of view, is the example of self-sufficiency provided by Aphra Behn, a 17th-century novelist. The author uses selection of detail in contrasting the career of Aphra Behn and her influence on women writers in the future. Secondly, according to Woolf, the connection or dependency that writers had with one another throughout history framed the literary world and, no single women or masterpiece stands on its own. Here, Woolf uses parallel structure to focus on the purpose of authors impacts on other author's throughout time with conjunctions. Finally, women become accomplished novelists since, in most cases, this was the only genre within the literary world that was available to them. Woolf uses imagery to show how woman of the eighteenth century are always interrupted with specific detailed examples.

The turning point for female writers, from the author's point of view, is the example of self-sufficiency provided by Aphra Behn, a 17th-century novelist. Behn is the first female writer to have "freedom of the mind," and Woolf believes she inspires other girls to follow her example of self-sufficiency. Behn is a middle class woman affected by the loss of her husband and has to find new ways to live and make money. Woolf uses selection of detail to show how hard Behn has to work and the hardships she has to face without a husband to support her. The author states, about Behn that:

She had to work on equal terms with men. She made, by working very hard, enough to live on. The importance of that fact out-weighs anything that she actually wrote, even the splendid "A Thousand Martyrs I have made," or "Love in Fantastic Triumph sat," for here begins the freedom of the mind, or rather the possibility that in the course of time the mind will be free to write what it likes (64).

Behn is a woman who has to make a living in a world that is dominated by men. She has to be extremely motivated to not just make her mark in the literary world, but also to survive. For, Behn the freedom of living on her own is a key contributing factor to her new literary lifestyle. She does not have a husband at home that tells her she cannot write, or to discourage her, or limit her in other ways. Behn gets to speak her mind through her novels without any interruption from a controlling man's world. The later eighteenth century sees many women following Behn. This paves the way for writers like Jane Austin and George Eliot. Woolf praises Behn and notes that women authors owe a great debt to her: "All women together out to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn...for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds" (66).

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