For those that are interested, my latest English Lit paper. If I had spent more time and thought on it, I could have gone on & on.
My titles always suck, but I still enjoy making them slightly corny.
Woolf in Allegory�s Clothing copyright 2003 misspriss.org NO STEALING Women�s rights and equality have long been controversial subjects that invoke strong feelings in both their proponents and opponents. In order to make her ideas known without immediately ruffling feathers, Virginia Woolf decides allegory is her ally in A Room of One�s Own, stating, �At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial�and any question about sex is that�one cannot hope to tell the truth…. Fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact� (2154). In this essay, Woolf uses fiction to tell her views for her. She also writes, �Fiction must stick to facts, and the truer the facts the better the fiction�so we are told� (2160). In essence, Woolf is telling her readers that there is truth underneath the story she tells. While she leaves readers to draw their own conclusion, she gives strong hints to her feelings about women�s educations, women writing fiction, and a woman�s independence. When Woolf�s character encounters a noticeable difference in food quality at men�s and women�s colleges, Woolf indicates a disparity between spending for men�s educational funding versus spending for women�s educational funding. The food is not really important; what the quality of food symbolizes is the lack of care for a woman�s education. Men earn most of the money. Men endow scholarships at men�s colleges for � men, of course. Women are not educated; they are only good for making men look better. Women do not need an education to meet one of few purposes: edify men; women only need to raise children and take care of basic household needs. Therefore, in men�s eyes, it would be a waste for men to fund women�s educations. While that is a seemingly common view, Woolf clearly indicates her disagreement with past and present convention. Shakespeare�s fictional sister is a representation of what women with gifts of writing would have gone through in the past, had they tried to use or develop their gift. Women in the past were second class citizens, forced to marry at their parents� whims. A pre-1900 woman could not earn money; all household advantages belonged to the husband. She could not make decisions for herself. She could not write poetry or a novel�she was too busy raising family to have the leisure time for thinking about anything but surviving day to day. Again, Woolf shows her disapproval of the old way, preferring that women use the gifts with which they are endowed. In A Room of One�s Own, Woolf also writes about women and fiction using the guise of a fictitious character to emphasize her underlying meaning. By using the phrase �room of one�s own� Woolf is really talking about independence and the ability to choose one�s path. Women are finally getting to the point where autonomy is possible. She encourages women to fully use the advantages they now have, but warns that with freedom comes risk. Virginia Woolf�s writing in this essay exhibits a balance between truth, fiction, and underlying meanings. Allegory can be a strong tool in the right hands. Using allegory, an author can diffuse a volatile subject � making a story or commentary more palatable for the average reader while still getting a specific point across to the intended audience. Word count: 539
