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  • Essay / Audience Members' Views of A Room of One's Own

    A young reader of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own would experience a range of emotional responses to the author, ranging from empathy to hostility. Although Woolf addresses precisely such an audience with the aim of encouraging young women to write fiction, her argument is often contradictory and otherwise full of gaps. As a young woman in much the same social situation as many of Woolf's listeners, I find many flaws in the writing that may have alienated the very women she was trying to inspire. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayWoolf begins A Room of One's Own wonderfully, given the nature of its audience. It is obvious that she is writing for a woman and not a man. His apologetic, somewhat defensive tone, which might seem stereotypical to a weak, “feminine” man, would appeal to a young, female audience. "[When a subject is very controversial - and any question about sex is - one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold the opinion one has. One cannot can only give his audience the chance to draw their own conclusions by observing the limits, the prejudices, the particularities of the speaker” (4). -be wrong as courageous Woolf's willingness to accept other points of view would be a welcome break from the overconfident and stubborn voices of men they would have been accustomed to reading. discussion of the viability of anger in writing She explains how she saw the need for complete objectivity and was thus able to overcome the anger she felt towards certain men She writes that writers who write under the effect. of anger are weakened and declares: “I need not hate any man” (38), and yet she does. While Woolf writes so vehemently about the need for complete objectivity in order to maintain a credible argument, she is actually letting the reader know that she is indeed angry, even if she does not always appear to be. By repeatedly stating that one must appear objective regardless of one's true feelings, Woolf indirectly (and perhaps unconsciously) lets the audience know that she is suppressing her own anger in order to appear rational and credible. Woolf is not always able to keep her anger inside. check. Instead, she sometimes tends to redirect it, focusing it on others and letting their own anger speak for her. Woolf's bitterness towards men shines through her objective facade in countless places throughout the book. Most striking is when Woolf writes of Lady Winchilsea, who writes, according to Woolf, “harassed and distracted by hatreds and grievances” (62). Yet the prevailing emotion in Winchilsea's writings is despair, not anger. Woolf, in her critique of Winchilsea, reveals her own bitterness at not being able to express her anger due to her fear of losing credibility. Woolf may be jealous of the other woman's ability to reveal her true emotions without fear of reprisal. Woolf also appears bitter toward Charlotte Brontë, whom she wrongly criticizes, writing that "anger damaged her integrity... She left her story... to settle a personal grievance" (76). A psychologist might say that when Woolf sees hatred of men in the writings of other women, she is in fact expressing the hatred within herself. It is obvious that Woolf's true feelings are not always expressed, this.