Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own (1929) explores the complex nature of the many elements needed to write good fiction. A Room of One's Own is a partially fictionalized narrative written from the perspective of an unknown woman who shares interchangeable opinions with Woolf while criticizing women's ability to write good fiction. The essay is an extended version of several lectures given by Woolf at Newnham and Girton College for Women, in which she brings to attention the emotions women felt as they fought for rights and freedom and, above all, to write. Woolf argues that all good fiction must be written with the use of an androgynous mind and comments that this is what made Shakespeare's works so great. She suggests that anger in one's writing causes anger in the reader, so it must be avoided at all costs. It also raises the issue of education and women's struggles to obtain it, resulting in less basis for creating narrative. Freedom, both physical and financial, is of the utmost importance when dealing with someone who wishes to write fiction. Finally, Woolf considers the circumstances of one's place of birth and how this will affect one's chances of having the opportunity to write. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay According to Woolf, an important element of good fiction is writing with the use of a "fully" androgynous mind. Using androgyny when writing ensures that the writer uses “both sexes of the mind” in balance, which ensures that the mind “conveys emotions without impediment.” This theory gives men and women the ability to write without awareness of their gender. The resulting mind is “undivided” and “naturally creative.” Woolf creates a symbolic representation of the importance of an androgynous mind in Shakespeare's works as she notes that the success of his plays is attributed to this mentality. The narrator juxtaposes Shakespeare's works with the works of other male writers such as Milton and Ben Jonson as his were among the few in history not to feature women "blazing like headlights." The tranquility of this state of mind is brought to the reader's awareness when the narrator's mind is "relieved of some tension" as it is brought to the attention of a man and a woman who get into a taxi together. This simple act in the "strictly sex-conscious era" of Woolf's novel develops a calming symbol in the "noise" of London traffic and suggests to the reader that the meeting of the sexes means being "in harmony together, cooperating spiritually." ”; just as it is in the mind. The narrator states that "it is fatal" for a writer if he creates his works with a "pure[ly]" mind as a man or a woman if the reader wants to feel that the writer is "communicating his experience with perfect fullness". Therefore, good narrative will not be achieved without the individual possessing an androgynous mind. Woolf criticizes the fact that emotional anger is an emotion that works against one's writing and causes anger in the reader, decreasing the quality of the narrative. Woolf represents this as her narrator reads from "Professor Von X's" novel "The Inferiority of Women." She discovers that the force of anger has the ability to make her “angry because he, [the perpetrator], was angry.” Woolf extols the need for appropriate emotions when writing good fiction as it symbolizes that the "Professor Von X" novel must be "written in the red light of emotion" when it must be written in the "white light of truth." The symbolization of light and darkness in the novelexplores how anger operates in writing, preventing them from writing the truth, and the negative effect this has on the standard of the work. In fiction, anger can only lead the author to argue "dispassionately", which in turn forces the audience only to "think about the argument" made by the author and not about the true meaning or potential of the fiction. Therefore, to write good fiction, anger must be absent from the authors' current emotions. If you want to write good fiction, Woolf recommends acquiring an education, as it is the only way to let your genius flourish. As the narrator comments, it is ironic and somewhat disconcerting that she visits a men's college and then a women's college, discovering that "men drink wine while women drink water." Men are given the opportunity to go to great universities and receive a fantastic education while women are stuck, sitting around a coffee table, struggling to “raise” “£30,000” for their charity university. “Uneducated” women found that it would be “impossible… completely and entirely” to have the chance to write fiction and Woolf compares this to the “strong yellow flame”. This flame is established by women's lack of education to further symbolically explore the intelligence that she believes women struggle to acquire. Intelligence is the underlying construct that allows one to write good fiction and is “prone to interpret it falsely” in the absence of education. As a result, women will never write good fiction because to do so you also need to have a good education, which women are no longer able to acquire. A writer's access to privacy and a room is considered one of the most important "materials" by Woolf when it comes to the woman who wishes to write good fiction. The symbolic representation of a room is presented in the title of the novel as it allows for the minimal need for the "freedom" of uninterrupted creativity. “These conditions are necessary” in the creation of good fiction, and Woolf reflects on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, where she comes across an “embarrassing tear” in her writing. Woolf attributes the nature of this interruption to the environment in which the novel was written, the family's basement. The narrator points out that Austen will never have had "her genius expressed whole and entire" as she only had access to the family basement to write her works, in this common area for which she had neither "freedom" nor "peace" . Exploring this symbol further, Woolf symbolizes the Brontë family to develop the argument that one must "be cut off from what is called the world" in order to fully flourish one's potential as a writer. “If he has a room of his own,” then he may have the opportunity to express his inner genius “unilluminated by the capricious and colorless light of the opposite sex.” Woolf, symbolizing light, means that men's anger limits women's creativity. Woolf therefore considers it important that a "genius [can] blow" only where one writes in the terms of one's room. The final topic that Woolf explores in her account of what makes good fiction is that it is an indispensable need for someone to have "500 pounds" if "you want to write." Through the symbol of money, Woolf develops the argument that money is the most necessary thing for a woman in particular if she wishes to have the freedom to write. Woolf expresses her belief that money allows one to "make money by the pen" as they do not have the "burden" of "unpaid" bills and other commodities. The narrator evaluates the financial situation of women of her era and concludes that without money.