M Blog

After reading Chapter Two in Virginia Woolf’s, A Room of One’s Own, I found one really challenging element which I was very interested in which was, Patriarchy. I have been learning alot about Women’s Rights and Patriarchy in one of my classes this semester, so while reading this chapter it really came out at me. While reading the chapter I couldnt help but feel bad for the narrator becuase she was having such trouble understanding exactly what “Women and Fiction” meant. Patriarchy was a huge theme in this chapter I believe, it was constantly being brought up. The narrator says on page 25, “Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor” (Woolf, 25)? I think this was a major element in patriarchy in the reading. Why were men so prosperous and women not? Why are men able to have freedoms that women werent aloud to have, it all just doesnt make any sense. I found that the narrator wasn’t really sure what to do about patriarchy either, she didnt really have a set mindstate about how she felt about it exactly, and I got that vibe becuase on page 26, “Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are witten by men” (Woolf, 25)? I think that she knows that something is unfair, clearly but she also doesnt understand completely why women arent given the same rights as men. After reading Chapter 2 it is clear I felt very strongly about the element: Patriarchy, and the narrators views on it.