Seredrica, Felix Nathaniel C.

3EDENG6A

VIRGINIA WOOLF’S WOMEN

Vanessa Curtis

Matilda Maniac (2021), defines feminist theory as the extension of feminism into theoretical,

fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines

women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields,

such as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies, psychoanalysis,  home

economics, literature, education, and philosophy. This paper will use Feminist Theory in analyzing

Vanessa Curtis’ Virginia Woolf’s Women.

The book Virginia Woolf’s women is the first biography that focuses on the relationships of

Woolf with the women that shaped her very self. These women motivated Wolf in different aspects

throughout her life. The book carries its reader in the ride of an intimate journey through the most

important female relationships of Woolf's life, drawing on much previously unpublished archive

correspondence and photography, ultimately revealing an honest portrait of Virginia Woolf as writer,

daughter, sister, lover and friend.

Curtis disclosed the side of Woolf that is not very evident to the public, and even gave a closer

look to the relationships between Virginia and women who are not usually considered to have been

even cursory members of the Bloomsbury Group. The opening chapter pivots around Virginia’s mother,

Julia Stephen and Stepsister, Stella Duckworth. Virginia’s mother was portrayed as fiery and challenging,

but was stripped of her spirit, optimism and confidence upon the death of her husband, Herbert

Duckworth. After this, she married Leslie Stephen, who also had lost his first wife. In the span of their

relationship, Julia became a self-sacrificing figure who even neglected her own health for the sake of the
poor and sickly, and also to meet the demands of the fruits of her relationship with Leslie. This is what

Virginia Woolf will see until Julia died at the age of 49. Julia’s children saw her as the “Angel in the

house” because of the noble actions of Julia.

Soon after, Stella Duckworth died. These deaths emphasized how Woolf was emotionally fragile

and mentally sick. Woolf’s nervous disorder, was caused in part by her aversion to the Victorian notion

of the self-sacrificing woman. The death of Woolf’s mother was a huge blow to her, and throughout her

adult life, she carried this pain and since emotional health was not given that much attention during that

time, she was not fully diagnosed about her situation. Despite these mishaps, Virginia managed to

become a celebrated fiction writing fiction writer and prolific critic.

Violet Dickinson, a friend of Stella’s, was among the first women who persuaded Virginia to

publish her writing in the women’s supplement of the Guardian. Curtis characterized Violet as an

independent woman of “impeccable connections” and an “ardent world traveler”. This woman overall

served as a role model for Woolf throughout her life.

Curtis explores the relationship between Virginia and her sister Vanessa Bell, one of Britain’s

recognized modernist artists. Vanessa Bell was serene and measured, earthy yet controlled likened by

Virginia to a bowl of Golden water that bubbled up to the brim and never overflowed as stated by

Curtis. Woolf and Vanessa remained close throughout their lives and as Curtis observes, paid touching

tribute to each other in their chosen fields.