Bound with Briars

In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf speaks of women and fiction and makes the argument that to write fiction, a woman needs money and a room of her own. Though these two requirements may seem rather simple in our world today, they were great struggles for the women who came before us. She clearly identifies the disjointedness between fiction and reality when she writes, "Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband." (page 44)

Besides her lack of access to education, a woman who strove to expand her intellect through writing was met with great hostility from the world around her. Much like a garden needs tending, if a gift of creativity is not cultivated, it will be stifled by its surroundings. When speaking of Lady Winchilsea, who had a passion to write but received only snide remarks and discouragement, Woolf writes, "Her gift is all grown about with weeds and bound with briars." (page 61) It took generations to break free from these aliens in the garden of writing. From the "forgotten poets who paved the ways and tamed the natural savagery of the tongue" to Jane Austen and the Brontes, these writers were able to create their works not from their solitary experiences but "they are the outcomes of many years of thinking in common... that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice." (page 65)

As a student soon to graduate from an all women's college which encourages us to stretch ourselves, to excel in areas which are dominated by men, to go beyond our wildest dreams, I am thankful to the women who have helped pave the way, so that I may do all those things. I can do them with confidence in my ability, with assurance that my education was sufficient in equipping me with skills and with the belief that I may push beyond the bounds of the briars of sexism, ageism and any other "-isms" that may apply.