According to Virginia Woolf, to be a successful writer requires at least a room to herself, to prevent distraction, a room in which she can go undisturbed by the restraints of man, and enough money to sustain herself throughout her literary endeavors.

Realistically, a writer must possess much more than just a room and money to succeed, like knowledge, refined techniques, desire to write, their own tone and voice, etc. In regards to the topic at hand, in this time period, women had little opportunity to obtain any one of these things, due to their education being limited. What Woolf is saying is that even if a woman possessed all these qualities, if she has no room to herself to dedicate to her studies, and no money to sustain herself, she is useless. The main point she is making is that women deserve the opportunity to write and demonstrate their capacity to absorb information just as well as men do, but since no man will become aware of this, they must retire to a private, safe location in which they can get to work in secret and jump out at the nearest doubter saying, “Look at what I did, what I accomplished in secret while you doubted my ability!”. In her experiences at “Oxbridge”, she further strengthens her point that men don’t see the potential in women, for example when she gets denied at the library.

In my experience as a writer, I have a room of my own that I can retire to and avoid distraction, and enough money to sustain myself throughout life, but yet with that I also possess years of instruction and knowledge when it comes to writing that help me construct and create literature. For people that do not possess such knowledge, I imagine a room of ones own and money aren’t the only things necessary to produce well-written literature.