Looking at Women with God's Eyes Illustrated in a Room of One's Own , all the points come together and there the eye of God is opened” (Campbell, 31). Joseph Campbell presents this description of the Masonic symbol of the pyramid, which is an apt analogy for a recurring focus in Bloomsbury's artistic creation. This goal is a detached and selfless artistic vision, free from personal bias that places one person's vision on one side of the pyramid. This artistic integrity was highly valued in the creation of Bloomsbury. Virginia Woolf explores this phenomenon through genre in her essay A Room of One's Own, as well as through the art of Lily Briscoe in the novel To the Lighthouse. This vision is not limited to creation, but also applies to the experience of art, as presented by Roger Fry in “An Essay in Aesthetics”. Similarly, Lytton Strachey, in her biography of Florence Nightingale in Eminent Victorians, shows the importance of detachment and a certain degree of objectivity when striving to achieve a goal, describing the consequences that arise when she must overcompensate for the societal limitations of her gender. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay “What we mean by integrity, in the case of the novelist, is the conviction he gives us that such is the truth” (Woolf, 72). In A Room of One's Own, Woolf attempts to define that artistic vision with which every person, or at least people of genius, seems to be endowed. Unfortunately, the ability to achieve this wholeness is fragile, and the torch that illuminates “the invisible ink on the walls of the mind” is easily snuffed out (72). Woolf's main suspect is society's effect on gender, particularly men's treatment of women. To continue the analogy, this treatment places women's artistic vision on one side of the pyramid. According to Woolf, especially before her time, women wrote under a cloud of anger that prevented them from achieving artistic integrity. Woolf uses Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre as an example: "She left her story, to which all her devotion was due, to attend to some personal grievance" (73). This personal grievance is the anger Bronte had towards men. Woolf does not limit this tainted view to women. It describes the reaction of men to women's demand for social equality. Men have always been superior: “And when we are challenged, even by a few women in black hats, we respond, if we have never been challenged before, quite excessively” (99). This motive of retaliation then has an obscure effect on the writing of men: But why was I bored? Partly because of the predominance of the letter “I” and the aridity that it projects, like the giant beech, in its shadow. Nothing will grow there... There seemed to be an obstacle, a hindrance of Mr. A's mind that was blocking the fountain of creative energy and confining it within narrow limits. (100) The letter “I” here that Woolf is referring to is the personal garment that the artist wears in writing. Woolf affirms the importance of the detached “I,” and when she uses it, she limits it to “a convenient term for someone who has no real being” (4). The “I” she values is one that is detached, one that is not limited by the filter of anger, and one that presents a vision with artistic integrity. This is what is meant by the eye at the top of the pyramid, which sees all four corners. Bloomsbury valued this detachment in areas other than writing. Strachey reiterates this in EminentVictorians. It showcases the achievements of Florence Nightingale and highlights the need for her rebellion against society's limitations on women. He begins by describing Florence's unhappiness and boredom with traditional life, satirically stating: “It was very strange; what could possibly happen to dear Flo? for there were "Plenty of things to do at any rate, in the usual way, at home. There were the dishes to take care of, and there was his father to read to after dinner" (137). Subjected to these restrictions, Florence overcompensated by becoming authoritarian, controlling and, worst of all, destroying her femininity. It was for this reason that she was no longer objectively detached from her vision of appropriate health care. His personal motivations and opinions become irreversibly linked to the originally honest and sincere inclination to help others. For example, due to her adaptive stubbornness, she insists that windows must be kept open. She ignores the medical fact that this meant the disease would spread through the air to patients. She had to have that stubbornness to get where she was in life, but it definitely clouded her judgment. This problem was the same as that which extended to the women writers cited by Woolf. According to JB Batchelor, Woolf specifically denounces this reaction to oppression: [Woolf] is outraged against women such as headmistresses and principals because they have renounced the specialized role for which their femininity prepares them by adopting masculine norms. Women should not imitate men; they have a better role of their own. (172) Only by accepting her natural femininity could Nightingale have remained detached from her aspirations, and this is something society would not allow. Another literary character, Lily Briscoe, in Woolf's To the Lighthouse, demonstrates the need to break free from social conventions. Throughout the book, she is plagued by Tansley's criticism that because she is a woman, she cannot paint. She is also limited by the idea that her works “would be hung in attics…they would be destroyed” (208). It is only when she ignores these dark issues and searches for her true artistic vision that she achieves completion. “With sudden intensity, as if seeing clearly for a second, she drew a line there, in the center. It was done” (209). She was finally able to overcome these limiting factors and achieve her vision. The Bloomsbury group's emphasis on detachment is further supported by Fry's "Essay in Aesthetics". This approach is different, but still rooted in experience or artistic creation without personal prejudices. In this case, detachment occurs because we are not compelled to react to what we see. Fry gives an example, saying that detachment “can be achieved by looking at a mirror in which a street scene is reflected. If we look at the street itself, we are almost sure to adjust in some way to its real existence” (19). The audience's experience of art that Fry refers to is similar to the experience that a writer of artistic integrity will have. “It must first be adapted to this disinterested intensity of contemplation, which we have noted to be the effect of the interruption of reactive action” (29). The disinterested contemplation that Fry refers to toward the viewer is the same one that Woolf asserts a writer must have. Clearly, the members of the Bloomsbury group valued a pure and untouched artistic vision, the 'eye of God'. The question then is: what is purity of vision? In the., 1971. 90

Essay / Looking at Women with God's Eyes Illustrated in a Room of One's Own , all the points come together and there the eye of God is opened” (Campbell, 31). Joseph Campbell presents this description of the Masonic symbol of the pyramid, which is an apt analogy for a recurring focus in Bloomsbury's artistic creation. This goal is a detached and selfless artistic vision, free from personal bias that places one person's vision on one side of the pyramid. This artistic integrity was highly valued in the creation of Bloomsbury. Virginia Woolf explores this phenomenon through genre in her essay A Room of One's Own, as well as through the art of Lily Briscoe in the novel To the Lighthouse. This vision is not limited to creation, but also applies to the experience of art, as presented by Roger Fry in “An Essay in Aesthetics”. Similarly, Lytton Strachey, in her biography of Florence Nightingale in Eminent Victorians, shows the importance of detachment and a certain degree of objectivity when striving to achieve a goal, describing the consequences that arise when she must overcompensate for the societal limitations of her gender. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay “What we mean by integrity, in the case of the novelist, is the conviction he gives us that such is the truth” (Woolf, 72). In A Room of One's Own, Woolf attempts to define that artistic vision with which every person, or at least people of genius, seems to be endowed. Unfortunately, the ability to achieve this wholeness is fragile, and the torch that illuminates “the invisible ink on the walls of the mind” is easily snuffed out (72). Woolf's main suspect is society's effect on gender, particularly men's treatment of women. To continue the analogy, this treatment places women's artistic vision on one side of the pyramid. According to Woolf, especially before her time, women wrote under a cloud of anger that prevented them from achieving artistic integrity. Woolf uses Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre as an example: "She left her story, to which all her devotion was due, to attend to some personal grievance" (73). This personal grievance is the anger Bronte had towards men. Woolf does not limit this tainted view to women. It describes the reaction of men to women's demand for social equality. Men have always been superior: “And when we are challenged, even by a few women in black hats, we respond, if we have never been challenged before, quite excessively” (99). This motive of retaliation then has an obscure effect on the writing of men: But why was I bored? Partly because of the predominance of the letter “I” and the aridity that it projects, like the giant beech, in its shadow. Nothing will grow there... There seemed to be an obstacle, a hindrance of Mr. A's mind that was blocking the fountain of creative energy and confining it within narrow limits. (100) The letter “I” here that Woolf is referring to is the personal garment that the artist wears in writing. Woolf affirms the importance of the detached “I,” and when she uses it, she limits it to “a convenient term for someone who has no real being” (4). The “I” she values is one that is detached, one that is not limited by the filter of anger, and one that presents a vision with artistic integrity. This is what is meant by the eye at the top of the pyramid, which sees all four corners. Bloomsbury valued this detachment in areas other than writing. Strachey reiterates this in EminentVictorians. It showcases the achievements of Florence Nightingale and highlights the need for her rebellion against society's limitations on women. He begins by describing Florence's unhappiness and boredom with traditional life, satirically stating: “It was very strange; what could possibly happen to dear Flo? for there were "Plenty of things to do at any rate, in the usual way, at home. There were the dishes to take care of, and there was his father to read to after dinner" (137). Subjected to these restrictions, Florence overcompensated by becoming authoritarian, controlling and, worst of all, destroying her femininity. It was for this reason that she was no longer objectively detached from her vision of appropriate health care. His personal motivations and opinions become irreversibly linked to the originally honest and sincere inclination to help others. For example, due to her adaptive stubbornness, she insists that windows must be kept open. She ignores the medical fact that this meant the disease would spread through the air to patients. She had to have that stubbornness to get where she was in life, but it definitely clouded her judgment. This problem was the same as that which extended to the women writers cited by Woolf. According to JB Batchelor, Woolf specifically denounces this reaction to oppression: [Woolf] is outraged against women such as headmistresses and principals because they have renounced the specialized role for which their femininity prepares them by adopting masculine norms. Women should not imitate men; they have a better role of their own. (172) Only by accepting her natural femininity could Nightingale have remained detached from her aspirations, and this is something society would not allow. Another literary character, Lily Briscoe, in Woolf's To the Lighthouse, demonstrates the need to break free from social conventions. Throughout the book, she is plagued by Tansley's criticism that because she is a woman, she cannot paint. She is also limited by the idea that her works “would be hung in attics…they would be destroyed” (208). It is only when she ignores these dark issues and searches for her true artistic vision that she achieves completion. “With sudden intensity, as if seeing clearly for a second, she drew a line there, in the center. It was done” (209). She was finally able to overcome these limiting factors and achieve her vision. The Bloomsbury group's emphasis on detachment is further supported by Fry's "Essay in Aesthetics". This approach is different, but still rooted in experience or artistic creation without personal prejudices. In this case, detachment occurs because we are not compelled to react to what we see. Fry gives an example, saying that detachment “can be achieved by looking at a mirror in which a street scene is reflected. If we look at the street itself, we are almost sure to adjust in some way to its real existence” (19). The audience's experience of art that Fry refers to is similar to the experience that a writer of artistic integrity will have. “It must first be adapted to this disinterested intensity of contemplation, which we have noted to be the effect of the interruption of reactive action” (29). The disinterested contemplation that Fry refers to toward the viewer is the same one that Woolf asserts a writer must have. Clearly, the members of the Bloomsbury group valued a pure and untouched artistic vision, the 'eye of God'. The question then is: what is purity of vision? In the., 1971. 90

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