A Room of One’s Own [Abernathy]

In the novel A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, Woolf explores just how much a writer needs in order to write effectively. Woolf states that all one needs is a room with a lock and five-hundred pounds a year. The door with a lock allows the writer to compose their novel in privacy and five-hundred pounds a year in the late 1920s was enough for one to live comfortable and relatively stress free. Woolf seems to hint that minimalism is key to be an effective writer. This could be because with less money you can buy fewer things that would be considered unnecessary therefore leaving you with fewer distractions while you write. In today’s world, the unnecessary items that might prevent a writer from being at the top of their game is a television or a phone, for example. The more difficult part is the concept of living off of five-hundred pounds a year. In 2017, five hundred pounds is equivalent to twenty-nine thousand and nine hundred twenty-five pounds. With the average cost of living in London today being around twenty thousand pounds. While you will not be barely scraping by living off of twenty nine thousand pounds, it is always smarter to have a job that will leave you with a fifteen thousand dollar, or pound, cushion in case anything were to happen. Woolf speaks of how privacy and few distractions are paramount to being an effective writer and while I agree with that notion, it can be hard to rid of distractions in today’s world unless one lives alone and that can be both lonely and expensive.

One thought on “A Room of One’s Own [Abernathy]

  1. I think the first sentence could just say “In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf explores…” and then you say “how much” but I’m not sure how much of what you’re talking about. I really like how you compare it to real evidence from today. Maybe just change any “you”s to “one”s… other than that, looks good!!