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A Room with a View and a Room of One's Own: Similarities in Anti-Victorian Themes

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A Room with a View and a Room of One's Own: Similarities in Anti-Victorian Themes
In reading “A Room with a View” and “A Room of One’s Own” I find that the two novels show similarities in their anti-Victorian themes. The conformity of the Victorian era is a concept of the past in these novels; both plots showcase a woman’s growth mentally and emotionally. In Victorian times women thinking freely or having goals was frowned upon, making any form of female growth go completely against the brain. Feminist themes and ideas are brought up throughout the text. The main characters of the two novels depict the early signs of the “new woman.” In “A Room with a View” Lucy goes through a maturation process where she finds her passionate qualities that have been repressed her whole life. “The following morning she realizes that: “It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room... with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins and bassoons.” Lucy’s poetic voice shows the reader that she is in tune with nature. George opens her mind to the concept of art for art sake, by teaching her to just appreciate the everyday nuances of life. The text shows Lucy’s journey from being raised to conform to becoming a free spirit ready to take on life and nature with a new zest. “A Room of One’s Own” shows the growth of a woman by depicting her climb from social futility. There is a theme of discrimination, through the denial of wealth to women throughout the book. When the narrator goes to the college dinner she notes that “the women eat a very plain and dull dinner while the men are served a rich and sumptuous lunch.” Women were treated like second-class citizens; this leads her to “scorn the poverty of her sex.” Her mentality is soon changed upon receiving her inheritance. Instead of living a life where only a few odd jobs were available to women or being a housewife, she is free to pursue the life she wants. This separates her from most women who at that time, were busy with either
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