VIRGINIA WOOLF

Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the power of
reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf was born in the city of London in 1882 to a family rich in literature
manners as her father, Sir Leslie Stephen was one of the most notable figures in literary world
of late Victorian England as an historian, author and critic, and her mother, Julia Stephen was
the daughter of novelist William Makepeace Thackery. She was the last child of the couple.
The couple had four more children from their earlier marriages: Julia had three children from
his first marriage; namely George, Stella and Gerald Duckworth, and Leslie had a daughter
named Laure from his first marriage.
In such an environment where women were not meant to study in regular schools;
she was educated by her parents in literature and the household would get many visitors who
were artists, writers, photographers and such; thus she was influenced by Victorian literacy.
Such writers include Thomas Hardy, William Thackery and Henry James.
The early life of Woolf was not pleasant to her as her mother died in 1895 when she
was only 13 years old; the death of her step-sister after two years caused series of nervous
breakdowns. That was also when she began her diary. Nevertheless, she started taking courses
in Latin, Greek, German and history at the Ladies Department of Kings College London
where she met the first reformers of higher education for women.
The death of her father in 1904 caused her to breakdown once again; it was so
intense that she was briefly institutionalized. It is thought by modern scholars that her
breakdowns and depressive mood and illnesses recurring from this was because that she and
her sister Vanessa was affected with sexual abuse of their half-brothers, George and Gerald
Duckworth. She was taken to Burley House which is described as a private nursing home for
women with nervous disorder. The problems have affected her whole life including her
social life and her productivity in literature.
She became a member of Bloomsbury Group which included her brother, Thoby and
many Cambridge graduates. Such an intellectual group inspired her to pursuit her wishes in
literature. The environment of group allowed them to catch a liberal approach to sexuality.
Also, this group included Leonard Woolf who became her husband in 1912.
The novels of Virginia Woolf have an approach to political, social and feminist
principles of that time. Her works were restricted by the forces of her age. Her intention in her
works was to depict the English social system with accusations of patriarchy, war and politics.
War and politics were closely related with patriarchy.

Her Feminist Perspective:
Without doubt, Virginia Woolf has an important place in the feminist literature and
many feminist researchers benefit from her works as ideational sources. Therefore, it is very
important to interpret and understand the feminism perception of Woolf. But, how does one
interpret the feminism perception of Woolf? Above all, the life of the writer and the time she
lived in is a very important point to be considered. Such as all writers, the works of Woolf
may not be considered free from the life and the time of her.
In order to comprehend her opinion of feminism, generally the Room of One's Own is
examined first. There, she asserts that the women should have their own rooms to be a good
writer and underlines that the most basic necessity for the women freedom is the economic
independency. Three Guineas is also an important book of hers where she tells about the
connection between the feminism and anti-militarism and how the patriarchal system
produces and feeds the war. Other than these books where she expresses her feminism
opinion directly, it is possible to observe the feminism opinions of Woolf over the characters
and events in her novels.
Yet, as we examine her opinions regarding feminism with her thoughts against the
suffragette, we get a situation which is inconsistent (Sowon S. Park, The Mass Behindthe
SingleVoice, ReviewofEnglishStudies,200556:119-134)asSowon S. Park stated in his article.
In principle, Virginia Woolf was supporting the suffragette movement; and it is a known fact
that she worked in suffragette office named People Suffrage Federation in 1910
approximately for one year. Even though her short lived activism, she set her criticisms to
paper both against suffragette movement and the individuals who join the movement in her
diaries and letters. She described suffragettes as odd women in timeworn dresses with
odd accents. On the other hand, she stated that it is too early for the right of voting to be
given to women who gained currency in time of suffragette and that the women should be
educated before the right is entitled; these thoughts suit the progressive anti- suffragette
movement. She has qualified the suffragette movement which has caused protests in masses
as a lower class behavior. In addition, she explains her distance to the suffragette movement
by portraying herself as the benevolent watcher of the women movement. She has explained
that she would prefer money out of right of voting and money in Room of Ones Own. For
Woolf, the class of one was more important than being a woman or man in the features
describing that one individual. When all this is considered, the basic point of criticism in
Woolf after 1970s was that the feminism of Woolf was class feminism.
Even though, the most essential works of Virginia Woolf regarding feminism were
Room of Ones Own and Three Guineas, she did frequently criticize patriarchal system in her
novels. But as stated in Mina Urgans book which examines Virginia Woolf, the number of
feminist characters in her novels is very scarce. Construction of Mary Datchet, Katherine
Hilbery and the other characters in the novel gives us hints to understand the feminism of
Woolf and binding it with suffragette movement. Freud believed that anger is the result of the
egos first struggle to maintain itself, to find an identity separate from the mother. In Art and
Anger, Jane Marcus appropriates Freuds belief and adds that without anger, there is no
identity, no sense of self. The Victorian ideological model for women was the Angel in the
House, a model which continued into the twentieth century and denies women their anger.
Angels were self- sacrificing and always at the service of their families. Angels were
expected to exude an air of pleasantry, politeness, and reverence. They were not expected to
express ugly emotions such as anger. Expressions of anger were discouraged, and those
women who displayed it were labeled unladylike, and even at times considered insane. The
Angel in the House forced women to repress their anger and that benefited men. Without
anger, women could not voice their opinions. Without anger, they had no voice. Without
anger, they had no identity.
Virginia Woolf found herself in a conundrum over anger. She was angry at feeling
oppressed in a male-dominated world; and although the emotion fueled her creativity and art,
she knew an angry female writer was not taken seriously. Although Woolfs name is often
considered synonymous with feminism and feminist issues, she has not been lauded by all
feminist critics as the alpha and omega of their issues. During the development of feminist
literary theory and feminism in the early seventies, critics debated Woolfs contribution to
both causes. Because these second-wave feminists believed anger was an essential
component of social change, they questioned her indirect manner of expressing it, which
many deemed defensive, an act of denial, or pandering to men, and they claimed she was not
angry enough.
These feminist critics have charged Virginia Woolf with writing for women while
addressing an audience of men. Additionally, they have argued that she and her fictional
techniques and characterizations are defensive because she avoided or repressed anger. I
believe that neither she nor her characters were defensive because she had conscious and
deliberate reasons for handling anger the way she did.