What Happens

After she is asked to write on the topic of women and fiction, Virginia Woolf begins to write about the core principle of her opinion about women and writing: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” She acknowledges the problem, however, that the “true nature” of women and fiction must be established before her statement can hold any value.

Another difficulty arises with the subject of sex being “highly controversial.” As such, Woolf’s goal in this essay is not to tell the truth but to provide evidence that supports her opinion in hopes of swaying her audience.

Having ruminated on her topic for many days, Woolf begins the body of her essay with a narrative. The narrator sits on the banks of a river at Oxbridge—the fictional amalgamation of Oxford and Cambridge—and thinks of what to say about women and fiction. Her thoughts are like the fish in the water: constantly moving and, in doing so, gathering more importance.

She walks through the grass, following the fish and her ideas, when she is intercepted by a beadle (an official member of a church, academic, or other such institution) who informs her that women are not allowed to be off the gravel path. Then, thinking of a piece written by Charles Lamb, she desires to visit the university library. Upon arriving, she is told women cannot enter without a letter of introduction. Angered by the repeated obstructions on the basis of her sex, the narrator watches the staff and students go about their business until she is the only one left outside.

Her next observation is about the university’s luncheon. She recognizes that when luncheons are discussed, the company and its conversation is normally the focus while the food that’s served is skipped over entirely. Thus, she lists the items that make up the meal before she moves on to more general observations.

It has been a decade since the end of World War I, and the narrator notices that the topics of conversation stayed the same both before and after the war. The only difference is that people no longer hum to themselves like they used to. Her thoughts are interrupted by a strange sight: a cat with no tail.

Drawing her attention away, she resumes thinking about the difference between the feelings evoked by classic and modern poetry. She also wonders why mothers have done so little to make their daughters feel comfortable and secure, such as by providing them with money of their own.

Section 2 opens with a scene in the British Museum, where the narrator sits and researches the topics of women and fiction. The library’s catalog reveals a great many books written by men—both with and without qualifications—about women.

The narrator’s musings and her perusal of these books reveal that “men never think the same thing about women.” There is no consensus to be found on the “true nature” of women. Dissatisfied, she returns the books she checked out with no real findings beyond the belief that “anger” is what drives male authors when they write about women. There is little truth behind their words. Later on, the newspaper headlines prove that England is run by the “patriarchy.” The patriarchy has an anger towards women because they are a threat to their power:

Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.

The narrator proceeds to explain how she has the means to write. Because of her...