Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own

1. IDEA 1

   Women writers need freedom and money

   Woolf, in essays based on talks at women's colleges in Cambridge, argues that women have lacked the material conditions to write. Without income and private space, she says, creative work is nearly impossible.

2. IDEA 2

   Comfort shaped thought

   Woolf contrasts a lavish lunch at a wealthy men's college with a plain dinner at a poor women's college. She suggests that wealth and comfort affect how freely people can think.

3. IDEA 3

   Imagine Shakespeare's sister

   Woolf imagines a gifted sister of Shakespeare who wanted to write. Denied education and freedom, she would have been crushed, Woolf suggests, showing how talent was wasted. The invented story makes a general point about lost chances.

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