Lecture Notes, Virginia Woolf
Biographical Information:
Discussion Questions to Consider:
Discussion Quotes:
“What
conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?” (1978).
“
“The
student who has been trained in research at Oxbridge has no doubt some method
of shepherding his question past all distractions till it runs its answer as a
sheep runs into its pen” (1979).
“Why are
women poor?” (1979).
“[I]t
was the professor’s statement about the mental, moral and physical inferiority
of women” (1982).
“The
professors—I lumped them together thus—were angry” (1982).
“The
most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper
could not fail to be aware even from this scattered testimony, that England is
under the rule of a patriarchy” (1983).
“Rich
people, for example, are often angry because they suspect that the poor want to
seize their wealth” (1983).
“A
solicitor’s letter fell into the post-box and when I opened it I found that she
had left me five hundred pounds a year for ever” (1985).
“It would be better to draw the curtains; to shut out distractions;
to light the lamp” (1987).
“But
what I find deplorable, I continued, looking about the bookshelves again, is
that nothing is known about women before the eighteenth century” (1990).
“Let me
imagine, since facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had
Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say” (1990).
“She had the quickest fancy, a gift like her brothers, for the tune
of words” (1991).
“[She]
killed herself one winter’s night and lies buried at some cross-roads where the
omnibuses now stop outside the Elephant and Castle” (1991).
“But for
women, I thought, looking at the empty shelves, these difficulties were
infinitely more formidable. In the first place, to have a room of her own, let
alone a quiet room or a sound-proof room, was out of the question, unless her
parents were exceptionally rich or very noble” (1993-94).
“This history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more
interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself” (1995).
“Therefore
his poetry flows from him free and unimpeded. If ever a human
was incandescent, unimpeded, I thought, turning again to the bookcase, it was
Shakespeare’s mind” (1996).
Sample Short Essay Answer
Questions:
Explain why you agree, agree in part, or disagree with the following
statements. Make sure you explain your answer, using textual evidence. You may
use your textbook to locate quotes; do not use any outside sources.