For centuries, literary work has artistically depicted the subtleties of female personality and the way it has been used to imitate social trends and the general attitude towards women. This paper will be an analysis of two literary works from the course syllabus, “Eve” by Christina Rossetti and “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf. The work focuses on the problem of female identity. Among others, social expectations, regulations, and freedom are the challenging issues that women experience, as revealed in both novels.
Christina Rossetti’s “Eve” shows that the main focus of the poem is female identity. She develops this theme by rewriting the book of Genesis, the place where Eve’s story is told. Anthropomorphic renderings of this scene, where Eve was solely responsible for the corruption of the human race, start to collapse the minute Rossetti sets them on paper. Instead of Rossetti showing Eve as a weak one when adversity comes, she is the embodiment of a strong female who is also beautiful within (Rossetti). Eve desires to be free and to gain some voice in it, and Rossetti grants the lady both by emphasizing her agency and rebellion against conduct norms. The heart of the poem is to present a complex view of Eve, who tries to take his mind off the sinful consequences while at the same time establishing her significance in God’s sight. It is effectively done by Scott, the painter, who portrays Eve as a woman whose desires are so self-conflicting that she finds it impossible to reconcile her longing with societal rules and, most of all, with her own heart. While her sin carries a weight so great that she might be a woman who, with bravery, breaks the image of femininity, which has long been accepted to be passive, Rossetti does not present an uncomplicated view of women (Esha). On the contrary, she presents a nuanced insight into women, as seen in her representation of Eve as a determined and combative woman.
Virginia Woolf, in her stirring article “A Room of One’s Own,” asserts that historically, patriarchal institutions have prevented women from pursuing their interests and utilizing their creative potential. Wools plunges into the societal lifestyle that women must encounter, severely giving them no access to resources, innovations, or creative endeavors. She posits that gaining financial independence as well as personal space is a prerequisite for women’s fulfilling their true potential and being themselves in full (Woolf 307). Woolf briefly addresses the gender wealth gap by stressing that women need to be financially independent in order to be free. Dependence on men will never result in complete freedom, and women’s independence will help them achieve all-round progress and development. In such a situation when nobody can take care of themselves, women are rather humiliated, and that does not allow them to grow their knowledge or accomplish anything interesting.
While Woolf acknowledges the importance of a primary space for women’s creative relationships, she asserts that the attraction of a private space away from home, where women can suffer, learn to live, think, and engage in artistic pursuits, is what draws them in. As a result, the fact that it serves as a channel of expression is useful and renders women less silent, which in turn puts them at the center of society. A highly polemic speech about women’s changing and self-actualizing identities succinctly captures the continuation of women’s liberation (Rossetti). They struggle to overcome the obstacles that prevent them from being women on their terms. Woolf bestows women’s authority to represent themselves and allows them to express themselves through latent capacities of self-respect and mental independence in a culture that systematically shuts them off.
Christina Rossetti’s ‘Eve’ and Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’ both highlight the struggle of women in a patriarchal society. Both Woolf’s literary essay and Rossetti’s verse poem address the core issue of women’s war for independence and self-government, handling it tangibly and deliberately in the ether and the air (Woolf 306). Rossetti ponders the religiously promoted social construct of gender ethics by painting Eve as an autonomous woman who resists the orthodox views of gender relationships. The poem by Rossetti primarily explores the strength of women’s nature and their determination to defy societal norms. Eve, as an example of a disobedient woman, is a great inspiration for Rossetti.
Apart from the already acknowledged roles played by women, Woolf centers her distress on the pride of the patriarchal system, which normally keeps women at an economic, educational, and creative disadvantage. Woolf asserts that we should not only admire women for their proficiency in creative work but also for their ability to effect positive changes in the world (Woolf 306). As a result, women’s betrayal rekindles the demand for the downfall of sexist institutions and the creation of safe spaces where women can prosper. When she put forward her approach to the question of women’s identities, Rossetti insisted that they should not be defined within the framework of a good and evil hierarchy (Rossetti). Rossetti and Woolf are both determined to assert the validity of women’s thoughts, abilities, and experiences that do not conform to society’s expectations of women in light of the degradation of gender stereotypes. In order to accomplish this, Rossetti and Woolf rely on the readers to contemplate their biases against women and envision a society that values strong women and strives to show everyone that they are deserving of respect and independence.
Rossetti instead portrays “Eve” as a powerful female character who rejects the religious dogma that she alone is responsible for banishing life from Earth. For Adam’s sake, the artist presents Eve as not a helpless victim of temptation but as an undaunting and even antagonizing character (Rossetti). While Rossetti describes Eve’s emotional torment, her essay also contains powerful messages on self-acceptance and company. Lastly, Eve comes to recognize her individuality and becomes courageous enough to face her misgivings and repentance so that we see how graceful women, even in the worst of times, are. “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf defines the societal colonization that has deprived women of their equality and success for decades (Woolf 308). Instead of advocating for women to marry men and receive care, Virginia Woolf emphasized that women can only achieve their highest level when they fully control their financial and creative independent
. Furthermore, the author asserts that Rossetti’s themes of female liberation and self-actualization, along with Woolf’s examination of social barriers for women, portray women as less creative and intelligent. These works stand out because they challenge the conventional belief that women should conform to specific roles in society, instead emphasizing women as self-reliant individuals deserving of respect on par with men (Rossetti). Women’s resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity became Rossetti’s and Woolf’s main tools to denounce women’s subordination and suggest a shift in readers’ prejudices regarding women’s uniqueness.
As a result, Rossetti and Woolf both expose the existing ideas about patriarchy that have been used in the past and that have affected and limited women’s social obligations. Rossetti leads to an alternative perception of Eve in a biblical story by mainly noting her leadership in figuring out her fate and countering the standard conception of women as mere captives. Working through the novel, Woolf discusses gender discrimination as well as the systemic barriers that female students face when they try to fulfill their intellectual and creative aspirations (Atamtürk and Çelen 1128). They both appeal to reflect upon the cultural standards and norms, and they emphasize this through their discussions on the social institutions that oppressed women of the time and overlooked their contribution. Both Rossetti and Woolf portray the vitality of structural change and the necessity of including women as equal participants in the human experience in the course of their writing. Through the denial of the engrained gender norms, they begin to build a basis for a more prevailing egalitarian society. These works serve as catalysts.
In conclusion, we analyze “Eve” by Christina Rossetti and “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf to uncover the challenges women encounter in claiming their independence and self-worth. Rossetti and Woolf, through their distinct literary endeavors, create a conundrum that threatens to overturn old ideas and propagate the perception of women as complex individuals deserving of cherished and appreciated as they are. Examining the essential themes of the texts, such as dependence, tenacity, and self-expression, can best elucidate the complexity of female consciousness in the ongoing battle for gender equality.
Work Cited
Atamtürk, Nurdan, and Çelen Dimililer. “Female Representations in Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.” Folklor/Edebiyat 28.112 (2022): 1121-1134.
Esha, Nusrat Yasmin. Literature as a liberating space for 19th-century and 19th-century women: a close reading of the selected works of Christina Rossetti, Emily Bronte, and Kate Chopin. Diss. Brac University, 2019.
Rossetti, Christina. “Eve by Christina Rossetti.” Hello Poetry, 1875,
Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One’s Own:(1929).” The people, place, and space reader. Routledge, 2014. 304-308.
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