Q: In Room of one’s own, Woolf argues that patriarchal society

deliberately subordinates the position of women. Elucidate

Ans:

Woolf with the amalgamation of fact and fiction masterfully showed in her
book-length essay, A Room of one’s own, that the patriarchal society has
dominated the female portion of world population since the ancient time not to
prove that the women are inferior but show that the men are superior. Woolf
showed several points such as The lack of information regarding the position of
women in history, what would have happened to the imaginative sister of William
Shakespeare named Judith Shakespeare if she had existed with the same talent of
her brother at the same time, the attitude of society towards the women who try to
follow a profession, lack of money in the women’s possession and so on to support
and prove her argument.

In the very beginning of the 3rd chapter of her essay Woolf shows how the
information regarding the position of women throughout the history is close to
nonexistent and even if some fragmented history started to appear near the 15 th
century; they were incomplete and the gap between succeeding information is
several centuries. But those fragmented information too helped support her original
argument as they showed how the women of Elizabethan society were forced to
marry whomever their parents chose for them without objection or else they were
subjected to physical as well as mental torture and pressure. And as soon as they
gave in and married, their husbands became their lords and masters to as much a
degree as can possibly be made by the then law. These marriages were not as much
for the formation of bonds as for the ‘family avarice’ and this was especially true
in the chivalrous upper class families. So, the women were treated as mere tools
for financial and social gain by the patriarchal society.

After being disappointed by the lack of information in history books which

according to Woolf ‘records facts not opinions’, she turned to her imaginative
faculty and conjured Judith Shakespeare, the prodigal sister of William
Shakespeare, and narrated her imaginative story where she left home after being
forced to marry against her will and as she had the same talent as her brother she
tried to enter the theatre. But she could not even enter as the men jeered at her and
commented that a girl acting is like a dog dancing with a stick on its nose and
further added that there can never be a girl actor. These insults and humiliations
badly hurt her but then an actor manager took pity on her which ended with her
being impregnated by him and having nowhere to go, she committed suicide. So
even if a woman had as much talent as William Shakespeare in his time, the
patriarchal society would have forced her to either commit suicide or live in some
hut as half witch and insane being.

Woolf further shows in her essay how this society had varying reactions
towards men and women trying to pursue literary arts. When Keats and other men
tried writing, the society said- “write if you want to. It makes no difference to me”
but when the women tried it, the society went from indifference to hostility and
gnawed “write? What’s the good of your writing?”. This hostility by the society
prevented many unknown prodigies from leaving a mark of their excellence in the
literary histories. Though it is common advice that you should ignore what the
society thinks and carry on, it is actually those gifted few who get affected most by
what is said about them. So this hostile treatment by the society made it
psychologically impossible for women to be incandescent like William
Shakespeare and others.

In another segment of the essay Woolf showed how the reaction of the
society remained same towards the women throughout the course of history by
pointing out how at Elizabethan time the women were compared to dancing dogs
while acing, they were compared to the same thing again by a bishop who said it
regarding women preaching and finally in her time, in the 19 th century, men are
saying “women composing is like dogs walking on their hind legs, it’s not done
well but you’re surprised to see it done at all.” Woolf further adds that it’s not so
much about women being inferior as men being superior. The men are deliberately
suppressing the women because they know how women can do anything that a
man can and fear that if they allow her to do it then they will lose their power and
influence.

Another very important point that Woolf showed for her argument is that
since historical times women did not possess money which prevented her from
living in her own way and pursue her own dreams. Having a room of one’s own is
a must if one wants to pursue artistic professions but only those women who were
born in exceptionally rich families with caring parents could dream of having that
privilege. So the patriarchal society limited or almost crushed her potentialities by
not giving them any economic freedom.

Thus from the above discussion we can conclude that Woolf successfully
proved her argument with sufficient convincing proofs that the patriarchal society
deliberately subordinates the position of women so that they can prove and
maintain their own superiority and influence.