Woolf\'s Androgynous Mind a Room

Woolf's Androgynous Mind

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf seeks to analyze the role of women in fiction and as literary characters. Often considered a feminist text, Woolf seeks to identify factors that that make literature and writers successful. In chapter six of a Room of One's Own, Woolf argues that it is "fatal to be a man or woman plain and simple." Furthermore, in this chapter, Woolf contends that it is vital for a writer to inhabit traits that are inherent to each sex, bringing together different aspects of each sex in order to be a successful writer.

In stating that it is "fatal to be a man or woman plain and simple," Woolf is stating that a balance between the intellects of both sexes be achieved. Woolf contends that it is natural for the sexes to cooperate and explores the concept of individual minds converging in a single body (Woolf 1977). Woolf has observed, that in each sex's mind, they believe that they predominate over their opposing sex. In her argument, Woolf refers to Samuel Taylor Coleridge who believed that the greatest mind was androgynous. Coleridge held that if and when fusion between the two sexes occurred in the mind, it would become "fully fertilized and [use] all its faculties" (1978). When fusion between the sex occurs, it enables the mind to become "resonant and porous; that it transmits emotion without impediment; that it is naturally creative, incandescent, and undivided" (1978). Through the fusion of the mind, the androgynous writer is able to invoke different thoughts and emotions, devoid of bias for one sex over the other. Rather, the fusion of mind allows the writer to view a situation or express an opinion or thought from multiple perspectives, taking into account the reactions and beliefs that may be invoked by either or both sexes.

It has often been assumed that men write from a masculine perspective and any woman reading works written by men will try and analyze the text, searching for something which simply is not there. Similarly, masculine qualities are perceived to be crude and immature to women. This implies that there is a misunderstanding as to how the male creative writing process, or the manner in which men think and/or carry themselves. Men are perceived based on how they behave and present themselves, and not on how they think. Likewise, women are viewed in a similar light. In order to gain insight into how or why each sex behaves as they do, one must analyze each sex and determine what motivates each sex to behave and think as they do.

It has been theorized that Woolf did not mean to insinuate that writers should write from a masculine or feminine perspective, but rather write in a manner that is devoid of sex (Wright). By eliminating sex from the creative process, one is able to write without a specified target audience, but rather for the masses, regardless of gender or age. The inequalities that have existed between men and women have been brought to the forefront of the Suffrage movement that not only brought to light the differences, but also created social tension. Woolf observes the longstanding inequalities between the sexes to be an inhibiting factor to the women that she advocates should adopt masculine ideas and perspectives (Wright).