Back to Virginia Woolf Seminar Home Page
7/15/97
Kristina,
The Voyage Out has really hit me at the right time in my life. Lately, the feeling of female inferiority has surrounded me in all directions; from men and women. My women friends do not think that they can compete out there with the men any longer. They are frustrated at constantly being overlooked at work. Then I turn on the T.V. and have to see some radical politician talking about women belonging in the home. After reading A Room of One’s Own, I became aware that Woolf was definitely a feminist (though she never called herself one). This was such a wonderful discovery as the struggle for equality knocks at my door every day. From a feminist perspective, one can see that the words of Voyage hint at female retaliation. Can’t you hear Woolf’s sarcastic voice behind Evelyn’s words to Mr. Perrott? "We lead such tame lives. And I feel sure you’ve got splendid things in you." p. 137. Evelyn’s statement of "we" includes all of the female gender. Woolf showed me an inside perspective of how women are taught to see themselves. "I know nothing!" Rachel says. Dalloway paternally replies, "It’s far better that you should know nothing . . ." Don’t you feel sometimes that that is they way they would like to keep us? Knowing nothing. I may sound extreme here but I am trying to work through some anger towards men these days. Note that Clarissa also says, "The men always are so much better than the women." p.50.
Woolf also showed me how women often see one another not as companions and confidantes, but as competitors. There is a mutual feeling of weakness among us. I believe that it is due to our lack of solidarity. We are not taught to trust and support one another or to form bonds. In Helen’s letter home, she writes, ‘I have never got on well with women, or had much to do with them . . . If they were properly educated I don’t see why they shouldn’t be much the same as men—as satisfactory I mean . . . ." p. 96. To be intelligent like men is the goal here. Helen believes that if a woman is to be educated, she should adopt a man’s way of thinking, a man’s logic, a man’s mind. The company of a man should be preferred over that of a woman. He is filled with all the knowledge. He has the answers. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why women were not allowed to be educated for so long. If women possess answers, who will want to hang around the men anymore? Am I way off-base here? I look forward to hearing your reply.
Katie
Kristina's Reply