Paired Texts > Excerpt from A Room of One's Own

by Virginia Woolf 1929

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

Verses Written by a Young Lady, on Women Born to Be Controll'd!
Verses Written by a Young Lady, on Women Born to Be Controll'd!
Anonymous

Written anonymously, by a young female poet if the title is accurate, this poem laments the position of women as was then believed to be natural: subservient to men.

Pair “Verses Written by a Young Lady on Women Born to Be Controll’d” with “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own” and ask students to discuss how both authors depict the experiences of women. How do the two authors illustrate the physical and spiritual constraints on women’s lives? How do they explore the importance of allowing women creative outlets?

10th Grade Poem
Testimony Before the Senate Hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment
Testimony Before the Senate Hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment
Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem (1934-present) is an American feminist, journalist, author, and social-political activist. She gained national recognition as a leader of the "Second Wave" feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s. On May 6th, 1970, Gloria Steinem stood before the Senate and delivered this speech, advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and seeking to dispel myths about women.

Pair “Testimony before the Senate Hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment” with “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own” and ask students to discuss how the two texts explore the injustices that women face. How does Gloria Steinem experience the inequalities that Virginia Woolf describes in her essay? How have the inequalities between men and women changed from Virginia Woolf’s time to Gloria Steinem’s?

11th Grade Speech 1170L
Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement
Opposition to the Women's Rights Movement
Anonymous

This piece, written anonymously—though it is suspected that John L. O'Sullivan (1813–1895) may have authored this text—was submitted to The Democratic Review in 1852. It was designed as a rebuttal to Dr. Dewey, who, in defense of women's rights, denied Biblical justification for the subjugation of women to their husbands.

Pair “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” with “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own” and ask students to discuss how both texts explore people’s reluctance to allow women equal rights. How does Virginia Woolf’s discussion of the obstacles women face in artistic professions reflect greater inequalities of her time? Why does the anonymous author of “Opposition to the Women’s Rights Movement” wish to maintain these inequalities? How do students think Woolf would respond to the views of the anonymous author?

11th Grade Opinion 1300L
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a groundbreaking short story from 1892 told through journal entries that chronicles a woman's struggle in dealing with male physicians who will not take her illness seriously.

Pair “The Yellow Wallpaper” with “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own” and ask students to discuss how the two texts portray the treatment of women. How do the expectations and views held by society affect the women in the two texts? How does the genre of each text — short story or essay — contribute to its theme or central ideas?

12th Grade Short Story 910L
The Solitude of Self
The Solitude of Self
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

In Elizabeth Cady Stanton's speech "The Solitude of Self," Stanton discusses the importance of rights for women so that they may go through life independently.

Pair “Excerpt from A Room of One’s Own” with “The Solitude of Self” and ask students to discuss how the two authors explore the inequalities between men and women. How does Virginias Woolf’s discussion of women’s pursuit of artistic work compare to Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s discussion of women’s attempts to live lives of their own? How do both require women to have a certain amount of independence?

11th Grade Speech 1040L