<P> The title of the essay comes from Woolf's conception that, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". Woolf notes that women have been kept from writing because of their relative poverty, and financial freedom will bring women the freedom to write; "In the first place, to have a room of her own...was out of the question, unless her parents were exceptionally rich or very noble". The title also refers to any author's need for poetic licence and the personal liberty to create art . </P> <P> The essay examines whether women were capable of producing, and in fact free to produce work of the quality of William Shakespeare, addressing the limitations that past and present women writers face . </P> <P> Woolf's father, Sir Leslie Stephen, in line with the thinking of the era, believed that only the boys of the family should be sent to school . In delivering the lectures outlined in the essay, Woolf is speaking to women who have the opportunity to learn in a formal, communal setting . Woolf lets her audience know the importance of their education at the same time warning them of the precariousness of their position in society . </P> <P> In one section, Woolf invented a fictional character, Judith, "Shakespeare's sister," to illustrate that a woman with Shakespeare's gifts would have been denied the same opportunities to develop them because of the doors that were closed to women . Like Woolf, who stayed at home while her brothers went off to school, Judith stays at home while William goes off to school . Judith is trapped in the home: "She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was . But she was not sent to school ." While William learns, Judith is chastised by her parents should she happen to pick up a book, as she is inevitably abandoning some household chore to which she could be attending . Judith is betrothed, and when she does not want to marry, she is beaten and then shamed into marriage by her father . While Shakespeare establishes himself, Judith is trapped by the confines of the expectations of women . Judith kills herself, and her genius goes unexpressed, while Shakespeare lives on and establishes his legacy . </P>

Who wrote mrs dalloway and room of ones own