"A Room Of One’s Own" In Comparison To "A Vindication For The Rights Of Women"

There was a time when women were not entilted to the same freedoms as men. Some of these freedoms include education, profession, suffrage, and other general roles in society. The literary genre of prose non-fiction is based mainly on fact and is frequently used for persuasive essays. Author Mary Wollstonecraft’s and Virginia Woolf effectively use the prose-non ficition genre to emphasize the topic of equaility for women with a focus on education and a use of both rhetorical situation and rhetorical appeal in their essays “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” and “A Room of One’s Own”, both authors express ideas regarding a literal and a figural space for women writers within a literary traditon dominated by patricarchy.

In both prose non-fiction essays “A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf and "A Vindication for the Rights of Woman” by Mary Wollstonecraft, the trait of rhetorical situation is used to illustrate their feminist ideals. Rhetorical situation is the context in which a piece of writing exists. The five elements that make up rhetorical situation are topic, purpose, audience, voice and occasion. The topic Wollstonecraft is passionate about is women’s rights and their struggle for liberation, mainly choosing to focus on the lack of education for women. She believed women could achieve as much as men and through this contribute equally to society. After review of books written on the subject of education, Wollstonecraft stated that “A profound conviction that the neglected education of my fellow-creatures is the grand source of misery I deplore; and that women, in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurruing causes…One cause of the barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from books written on the subject by men…” (Wollstonecraft 720). Woolf, a great time after Wollstonecraft, also focuses her essay on a need for equal opprotunity for woman. She uses “A Room of One’s Own” to portray the idea that if women had the same resources and encouragement as men, they would be able to flourish just as much. She states, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (Woolf 14). Both Wollstonecraft and Woolf’s implied purpose for writing this peice is to express, inform, and attempt to persuade society into seeing that by women being educated, all of society will benefit. Wollstonecraft writes that “…the woman who strengthens her body and exercises her mind…and becomes the friend, and not the humble dependent of her husband” (Wollstonecraft 726). She is saying that women are not second to men but instead are equal.

Both of their writings seem to be addressed to men and women. By speaking to both a male and female audience the authors are encouraging the idea of change for women and affording them the same opprotunites as men. They hoped to influence a male audience with their eqaulity seeking ideas, showing them that women are just as capable as they are. Back in 1792, when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her essay, her views were considered radical and unorthodox. Men in this time would feel threated by her strong opinions on women’s rights. Even when Woolf’s essay was published in 1929, a great deal after Wollstonecraft, sexism was less prominent but still a very prevelant issue. Men in her era were still not comfortable with these ideas, but today, because of inspiring women like Wollstonecraft and Woolf, these veiws are more common and generally accepted by society They were both inspired to write becaue of the unequal treatment of women. They wanted to reform society to give more rights to all women. Virginia was influenced to speak because while growing up she was not afforded the same opprotunities as her brothers. They went to college and she was educated at home. “Liberty us the mother of virtue, and if women be, by their very constitution, slaves, and not allowed to breathe the sharp invigorating air of freedom, the must ever languish like exotics, and be reckoned beautiful flaws in nature” (Wollstonecraft 726). Wollstonecraft uses this argument to inspire women to seek more for themselves and to fight for equality for all.

Another rhetorical trait that both authors use is rhetorical appeal. Logos, Pathos, and Ethos make up the rhetorical triangle. Logos apeal is illustarted when Wollstonecraft admits that physically men are stronger than women. She then goes on to say that while they might be stronger phically, mentally they are no different. “In the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of women” (Wollstonecraft 722). While Wollstonecraft uses scientific facts to portray logic, Woolf uses past and present works of literature to illustrate how men are consirded to be superior to women. “I went, therefore, to the shelf where the histories stand and took down one of the latest, Professor Trevelyan’s History of England. Once more I looked up Women, found “position of,” and turned to the pages indicated. “Wife-beating,” I read, “was a recognised right of man, and was practised without shame…”’ (Woolf 54). Pathos appeal is utilized in Wollstonecraft’s essay when she says “And this desrie making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act” (Wollstonecraft 723). Wolf appeals to our emotions with the sad story of shakespears sister judith. She was just as bright as her brother lacked the resources and encouragement her brother exoerinced as a man in society. Because she had no outlet for her creativity, her life came to an early demise.

In conclusion, both Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf use rhetorical traits to emphasis their arguments in their prose non-fiction essays regarding the rights of women. Both authors use rhetorical situation and appeal to further their points. Thier essays focused on the real life issue of women’s lack of equality in each era and express stong arguements of persuasion to explain their position. If Wollstonecraft or Woolf were to use any other genre to try and express their arguments, it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective. Prose non-fiction has a broader appeal, uses multiple rhetorical traits, and is generally most persuasive. It is a responsive to society in form of argument and showa multiple perspectives. Prose non-fiction literature designates writing intended to instruct, to persuade, to convert, or to convey experience or reality through “factual” or spiritual revelation. Though prose non-fiction can sometimes be baised to the authors veiws, it is also factual.