Illness In Carmichael's Room

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Recommended: The role of the nineteenth-century female in literature

While it is just a room, the fact that the narrator could not pick her own room that she was expected to reside in almost all day demonstrates the importance to have an individual space. Not only does she not have the physical space of her choice to rest in, but she also does not have any chance to really help herself through her illness. Perhaps if the narrator continued writing every day and was able to reside alone throughout the house wherever she had pleased, her condition would’ve gotten better, as she would be able to find within herself the cause of her unhappiness. Many women were simply property of their husbands and were not allowed to have their own opinions, and this lack of agency resulted in a complete deconstruction of one’s …show more content…

Though first irritated with Carmichael’s style, Woolf began to praise Carmichael’s work for “tempering with the expected sequence. First she broke the sentence; now she has broken the sequence” (Woolf 152). Woolf is astonished that Carmichael highlights the relationship between two female protagonists, as it projects women as human beings with relationships with people other than their husbands. Carmichael highlights that “now if Chloe likes Olivia and they share a laboratory, which of itself will make their friendship more varied and lasting because it will be less personal . . . if she has a room to herself . . . then I think something of great importance has happened” (Woolf 152), as Carmichael has made space for progress in the perception of females in literature. No longer is a woman an accessory of a male character- she is the main character and she has a purpose other than serving her …show more content…

“I should implore you to remember your responsibilities, to be higher, more spiritual; I should remind you how much depends on you, and what an influence you can exert upon the future”, Woolf states, emphasizing the importance of self-confidence in women (Woolf 153). Woolf, writing in 1929, is making use of the time period and emphasizing that women no longer have excuses to not progress. She lists all of the privileges women had at this time and is angry with that they are still; holding up excuses. Woolf challenges the reader to change her

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