A Room of One’s Own

1. A Room of One’s Own Section 5

2. Section 5 • "there are almost as many books written by women now as men" (76). She reports with evident pleasure that female writers have branched out into new genres that had been off limits to them in the recent past (76).Woolf begins her exploration of these new works by looking at a first novel, Life's Adventure, by Mary Carmichael. Mary Carmichael is, of course, one of Woolf's fictional pseudonyms, and Life's Adventure is a device allowing Woolf to comment on general trends through the specific critique of an imaginary novel (it also might be a subtle way for Woolf to make fun of her own writing). Here she observes that the "terseness" of Carmichael's style may be an indication of an overcompensating desire to counteract a stereotype that suggested women's writing was "flowery" and "sentimental" (77).Woolf continues reading and is startled to come across the sentence "'Chloe liked Olivia'" (78).

3. "'Chloe liked Olivia'" • Women and Fiction: Woolf points to the social changes suggested by this one sentence, indicating that "Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature" (78). She explains that women in literature have been depicted almost exclusively in relation to the men (or families) in their lives. She imagines what would have happened to literature if the same restrictions had been applied to men; i.e., if men "were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers" (80). She then argues that literature has been greatly impoverished because of the neglect of women's lives and experiences.

4. Proliferation of differences • As she contemplates "the extremely complex force of femininity", she says, "it would be a thousand pities if it were hindered or wasted, for it was won by centuries of the most drastic discipline, and there is nothing to take its place. It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men, for if two sexes are quite inadequate, considering the vastness and variety of the world, how should we manage with one only?" (84). In this passage, Woolf celebrates the differences between the sexes even as she asks us to reconsider the contributions of women.Truth: Woolf encourages her fictional author to reveal the inner world of women by exploring her own psyche. She suggests that rigorous self-examination, including a willingness to focus on both the good and the bad, is essential for good art. She then extends this idea of truthfulness to the examination of male characters, suggesting that a willingness to laugh, "without bitterness," at the "peculiarities" of men is a healthy literary approach (86). She does not ask women to represent men's flaws in order to increase the division and animosity between the sexes but says rather, "Be truthful, [ . . . ] and the result is bound to be amazingly interesting. Comedy is bound to be enriched. New facts are bound to be discovered" (87).Woolf then returns to her examination of Mary Carmichael's first novel. She finds herself unable to overlook the many faults in the work and suggests that Ms. Carmichael simply does not possess the talent of some of the female writers who preceded her. She grants, however, that the comparative freedom of Ms. Carmichael's life has had a beneficial influence on her work. Of her abilities Woolf notes that "she wrote as a woman, but as a woman who has forgotten that she is a woman" (88).

5. Conclusion • Woolf concludes by saying, "give her another hundred years [ . . . ] give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these days. She will be a poet, I said, putting Life's Adventure, by Mary Carmichael, at the end of the shelf, in another hundred years time” (89-90).