Feminism in a Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Critical Essay

Introduction

Woolf's text focuses on the role of female authors in the society. It is a fictional narration. According to Woolf, females have had no success in all life aspects, unlike men because of females' place in our discriminating society. She advocated for females' physical and socio-economic independence so that they could pursue their dreams without any obstacles. On the other hand, feminism in Pride and Prejudice goes hand-in-hand with education. Austen creates a publication containing independent females such as Elizabeth Bennet. She touches on aspects of gender politics in her writings. In her book, five sisters epitomize different roles of females in a world that is undergoing revolutionary changes (Austen 319). She states that education will set females free and provide a better life for everyone. In the publication, one woman is self-reliant and highlights the challenges facing females. The text brings out feminism in a time when females had no voice.

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Through characters like Elizabeth, one sees a mentality which is enlightened, an era where education is an issue to young females and the transition that follows. Both authors tackled the issue of feminism differently. While Woolf discusses the effects of female authors and the need for their freedom (Woolf), Austen advocates for education to females so that it can provide them with a fighting chance to prosper and get better in life.

Since the beginning of time, females trade their ancestral homes for those of their husbands. However, recently young females have acquired the power to pick how and who to spend their lives within marriage. Marriage gets no longer arranged as it was in the past. The issue can get looked at from the viewpoint of a feminist. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and her sisters take us into a drifting world that has started giving opportunities to young females. The novel gets focused on females.

In one of the scenes, a woman with reading habits makes simple narration learning mainly appropriate to a feminist perspective. The men in the text are hell-bent on keeping females silent and powerless. They don't have respect for females' resourcefulness. Other characters such as Mr. Collins are meant to be condescending to females' education. One sees females getting emancipated, but the aim of it all is the importance of education. A revolution is born where man and woman are equals in school and marriage. A woman starts acquiring the power to act decisively in harmony with what she terms as best for her.

In a room of one's own, Woolf's publication gathers all the feminist ideas and unifies them for the first time (Rosenman 638). She explores the differences that exist in the world of scholars and also the differences in our society. As a child, she encountered childhood trauma and sexual abuse that spawned from her stepbrothers. The anger and resentment she held towards the male patriarchy got illustrated throughout the text. All the hate, feelings and belief that men and females are equal and therefore females should be treated equally and fairly, was put into the paper (Rosenman 641). She advocated for the freedom of all females. Her book explored the need for economic independence and freedom for females to explore their passions, thoughts and live freely.

She discussed androgyny in her text. According to her, female authors who could portray their resentment against the control of men and showcase a genderless understanding could be considered the greatest in related literature. Woolf's work gets regarded as a woman's activism. She strives to liberate ladies and their relationship in a fictional world. Woolf's point of view gets seen as non-political. Although Woolf's theory has limitations and gets categorized under fiction without relating to all aspects of society, the concept of feminism and freedom for female activism gets explored extensively. She cautions females from trying to use the styles of men in producing their publications. She is quite wary of the contrasts that exist in between men and females. She wants the peculiarities to get valued. In her defense, she worries that females are not permitted to create their styles and build their niche. They have not gotten allocated the time, resources, or the convention to tell their stories from their perspectives.

Conclusion

All in all, the concept of feminism in both books, has not gotten directly tackled, but suggestions about it can get traced throughout the plot development and the relationships that get forged between characters. In Woolf's text, feminism is the central theme. The concerns of the book are not considered political, and therefore to some extent, it limits the possibility of feminism in the text. Her scope of feminism does not get based on the global democratic need for females to get empowered somewhat it is extremely limited because it only applies to the British female authors who come from a well-endowed upper-middle-class. The understanding of feminism according to Woolf differs from that of Austen in Pride and Prejudice. According to Austen, feminism is all about empowering females and educating them to be their freethinkers. Both authors tackled the issue of feminism differently. While Woolf discusses the effects of female authors and the need for their freedom, Austen advocates for education to females, so that it can provide them with a fighting chance to prosper and be better in life.

References

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. The Novels of Jane Austen, vol. 2. Ed. R. W. Chapman. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. Print.

Rosenman, Ellen Bayuk. "Sexual Identity and" A Room of One's Own":" Secret Economies" in Virginia Woolf's Feminist Discourse." Signs: Journal of Females in Culture and Society14, no. 3 (2014): 634-650.

Woolf, Virginia. A room of one's own and three guineas. OUP Oxford, 2015.