Times have changed since universities admitted only male students. Women gained the right to education, and the gender divide in business diminished significantly. However, when Virginia Woolf wrote her essay A Room of One's Own, there was a great lack of female presence in literature, particularly in writing. In the essay, Woolf critiques this fact by taking the reader on a journey through a day in the life of a fictional university to prove that although women are capable of critical thinking and want to write great works of literature, they do not. are incapable, for lack of being able to do so. means. How she comes to this conclusion by writing a work of fiction is not only interesting, but also very unusual. Using the generalizing term "I", commenting on what she is doing, and abruptly changing gears are some of the stylistic ways in which she makes the point that women need money and a room of their own to write fiction. fiction. Looking at chapters one and six of the essay, it is clear that the way she writes about women in fiction, while critiquing their absence in a confrontational and sarcastic manner, shows that although Woolf is keen to get her point across , she is aware that she could be pushed aside by her male oppressor. In A Room of One's Own, Woolf uses "I" and different characters to eloquently recount a day in the life at her fictional university, Oxbridge. It is immediately clear that she is not referring to herself, Virginia Woolf, when she says "I", as she conveniently adds a disclaimer at the start of her fiction: "I was here then (call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Charmichael or whatever name you like, it's not a matter of importance) sitting on the banks of a river an we...... middle of paper ...... can be formed by talking about the fact that perhaps all fiction should be written this way. It is beneficial to write an essay in this style because it allows the reader to understand the meaning more deeply. In the first chapter in particular, the reader is forced to ask what the significance of each event is and how each case relates to women in fiction. This becomes clearer in chapter six, when the subject matter is laid out clearly, but the stylistic choices still focus on the fact that one must read critically to understand the true meaning of the piece. This is true of most fiction, but for this essay in particular, the importance of the subject and the writing style go hand in hand to create a nugget of truth for the reader to tuck away in their notebook forever. A room of your own. New York: Harcourt, Brace and company, 1989.