Tikrit University Journal for Humanities
Vol. (15)
No. (2)
March (2008)
Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
Abstract
Patriarchy refers to the system of masculine domination over
women in society. It has been tackled in the feminist criticism in the
1970s. It has been first studied in the Western feminist literary
writings, especially the French and English literary ones. Virginia
Woolf is one of the eminent female English novelists whose letters
and novels have received more attention than the other female
novelists. This research studies the psychological effects of
patriarchy in Woolf’s Jacob’s Room on female characters. These
effects include humiliation, pessimism, depression and others.
Jacob’s Room reveals Woolf’s feminist orientation and discloses
the narrator’s female perspective. The research concludes that most
of the visions on female characters have feminist views and voice.
1. Introduction
Linguistically, patriarchy is derived from two words, Patria
"father" and arché "rule". It refers to the system of male domination
over women in society. This domination takes different forms:
discrimination, disregard, insult, control, exploitation, or violence.
Patriarchy does not survive on its own. Linked to the system of
patriarchy is an ideology that sees men as superior to women. This
ideology suggests that women are men’s property and should be
controlled by them.(1)
Hence, rule by the father; is literally any social or political
system that grants privileged status to males and permits or
encourages their domination of females. Most Western cultures have
been, and continue to be patriarchal in this sense. In patriarchy, the
legal principles spill over into the general society beyond the family
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
by both law and custom and the supremacy of the father in the
family is extended to the belief that the male is superior to the
female. The result is the oppression of women and the over
masculinization of society.
The term "Patriarchy" was widely tackled from the
anthropological, political and social perspectives. In the
anthropological perspective, Donald Brown, the pioneering
anthropologist has listed patriarchy to be "one of the 'human
universals', which includes characteristics such as age gradation,
personal hygiene, aesthetics, food sharing, rape, and other
sociological aspects, implying that patriarchy is innate to the human
condition" (2).
In the social perspective, patriarchy is viewed as a process
that institutionalizes and legitimizes male domination in the social
fabric. It also privileges men over women in society. Socially,
patriarchy in its wider definition means "the manifestation and
institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in
the family and the extension of male dominance over women in
society in general"(3). Joseph Adam, a sociologist defines patriarchy
as "the privileging of males and seniors and the mobilization of
kinship structures, morality and idioms to legitimate and
institutionalize gendered and aged domination"(4). Patriarchy is also
tackled by the pro-feminists.
Pro-feminism refers to a school of thought developed by men
that supports the feminist analysis of patriarchy. It preceives
patriarchy as a system that also privileges men over women, and also
men over other men. A pro-feminist analysis of patriarchy
acknowledges that gender interacts with other dimensions such as
ethnicity, power and social class. Patriarchy is seen as a hegemonic
gender order imposed through individual, collective and institutional
behaviours.(5) Jane Turner, a feminist critic said:
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Tikrit University Journal for Humanities
Vol. (15)
No. (2)
March (2008)
A patriarchal relationship is one in which
the male head of household dominates the
members of the house whether these are
male, female, adult or juvenile. This
patriarchal structure is legitimized by legal,
political and religious norms which give the
adult male a virtual monopoly over the
subordinate groups within the traditional
household. In such a system, the wife ceases
to be a legal personality on marriage, and
divorce is typically proscribed as a system
for the dissolution of marriage.(6)
In gender studies, the term patriarchy is polysemous, with a
multiplicity of meanings dependent upon scholarly venue. Many
feminist scholars, for whom the concept of patriarchy serves as a
theoretical metonym , adopt a liberal definition of the term, viewing
it broadly as "gender oppression" or as "male domination/female
subordination."(7) Especially among radical feminists whose view of
patriarchy is often criticized as being totalizing, monolithic,
unrealistic, and too abstract, it is "the patriarchal system,"(8) a
universal system rooted in economic, legal, and political structures,
as well as social and cultural institutions, that oppresses women,
through the assertion of male power, dominance, hierarchy, and
competition.
Yet, it is clear in the works of feminist writers who have
theorized patriarchy that patriarchy qua gender oppression is seated
in the domestic realm and family life. Many feminist writers have
considered patriarchy to be the basis on which most modern
societies have been formed. They argue that it is necessary and
desirable to get away from this model in order to achieve gender
equality. Feminist writer, Marilyn French in her polemic Beyond
Power sees patriarchy as a system that values power over life,
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
control over pleasure, and dominance over happiness.(9) She rejects
the argument that supports the permanence and solidity of power :
It is therefore extremely ironic that
patriarchy has upheld power as good that is
permanent and dependable, opposing it to
the fluid, transitory goods of matricentry.
Power has been exalted as the bulwark
against pain, against the ephemerality of
pleasure, but it is no bulwark, and is as
ephemeral as any other part of life. Yet, so
strong is the mythology of power that we
continue to believe, in the face of all evidence
to the contrary, that it is substantial, that if
we possessed enough of it we could be happy,
that if some "great man" possessed enough
of it, he could make the world come right.(10)
French stipulates possessing power as the way to the ideal
world. She gives power the highest value. She holds in the
substantiality of power.
Gender-issues writer Cathy Young, by contrast, excludes
reference to "patriarchy" as a semantic device intended to shield the
speaker from accountability when making misandrist slurs, since
"patriarchy" means all of Western society.(11) She cites Andrea
Dworkin's criticism, "Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her
potential betrayer and also the exploiter of another woman."(12)
Being an embodied set of beliefs about the 'natural' gender
order, patriarchy often operates through a collective willingness
towards 'gender blindness', a refusal to observe and study the effects
of gender on social relations and power. One clear effect of this
willingness has been a refusal to acknowledge the full extent of
physical and sexual violence committed against women by men.(13)
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Tikrit University Journal for Humanities
Vol. (15)
No. (2)
March (2008)
For the purposes of this discussion, it is useful to merge the
liberal and strict definitions of patriarchy as follows: patriarchy is
characterized by relations of power and authority of males over
females, which are:
learned through gender socialization within
the family, where males wield power through
the socially defined institution of fatherhood
manifested in both inter- and intra-gender
interactions within the family and in other
interpersonal milieus. Legitimized through
deeply en-grained, pervasive ideologies of
inherent male superiority. Institutionalized
on many societal levels (legal, political,
economic, educational, religious, and so on).
(14)
Therefore, according to this definition of patriarchy, women's
subordination is first experienced; sometimes subtly, sometimes
profoundly, within the family. It "serves as a template for the
reproduction of patriarchal relations in other realms of social life"
(15)
.
2- Patriarchy in Woolf's Jacob's Room :
Most female characters in Jacob's Room play marginal roles.
Their thinking and feeling are determined by patriarchal
system.Woolf refers to this masculine control in A Room of One's
Own. Woolf in Jacob's Room intends to say that "England is under
the rules of patriarchy"(16).
Part of Woolf's strategy in Jacob's Room is "to show the
difference of value and the trivialization of feminine by taking a look
at what is obvious and what is not to judge the difference of the
sexes"(17). Woolf's observation states: "the values of men are
different from the values of women[...]it is however the values of
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
men that prevail[…] each integral to the ordering of patriarchal
society.(18)Patriarchy has psychological effects on female characters.
In Jacob's Room, the narrator sees one of the female
characters, Ellen Barfoot humiliated by men. Ellen is not permitted
to watch certain shows in an Aquarium. The narrator perceives Ellen
as a prisoner in "her bath chair":
But Ellen Barfoot never visited the Aquarium
(though she had known Captain Boase who had
caught the shark quite well), and when the men
came by with the posters, she eyed them
superciliously[….] For Ellen Barfoot in her
bath-chair on the esplanade was a prisoner(19)
Mrs. Norman, another female character feels frightened when
Jacob gets on the train she is in. She seems to be unable to prevent
him from smoking inside the carriage; she only protests. She finds
herself alone with " a young man" :
This is not a smoking- carriage, Mrs.
Norman protested, nervously but very feebly,
as the door swung open and a powerfully
built young man jumped in. He seemed not
to hear her[….] she was shut up alone, in a
railway-carriage, with a young man.
(3,27)
The narrator views men dangerous. Mrs. Norman makes up
her mind to ensure her safety through perceiving Jacob's appearance.
Her feeling to men expresses a psychological barrier that makes her
avoid men:
Nevertheless, it is a fact that men are
dangerous. She read half a column of her
newspaper; then stealthily looked over the
edge to decide the question of safety by the
infallible test of appearance
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Vol. (15)
No. (2)
March (2008)
(3,27.)
Mrs. Norman thinks of an appropriate expression to
communicate with" the young man." She feels hesitant at talking to
him. She sees him indifferent to her. Jacob's (the young man's)
attention determines Mrs. Norman's communication with Jacob,
Should she say to the young man (and after
all he was just the same age as her own boy):
If you want to smoke, don't mind me? No: he
seemed absolutely indifferent to her
presence[….] She did not wish to interrupt
him.
(3,28.)
The narrator refers to the negligence of the works of women.
Female literary works are marginalized. Mrs. Flanders wonders of
the possibility of reading the unpublished works of women. She
hints to the subordination of unpublished works of women by the
male readers;
Mrs. Flanders knew precisely how Mrs.
Jarvis felt; and how interesting her letters
were, about Mrs. Jarvis, could one read
them……..
For the blotting paper's worn to holes and
the nib cleft and clotted.
(8,86)
Marginalization or negligence of female works is also
referred to by Miss Julia Hedge, a female character in the novel.
Mrs. Julia is a feminist. She waits for the publishing of her book.
She wonders the reason after not writing the names of George Eliot
and Emily Bronte among the names of great men round a dome. She
feels discontented with this marginalization of female writers:
Miss Julia Hedge, the feminist waited for her
books. They did not come. She wetted her
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
pen……….." Oh damn', said Julia Hedge,
why didn't they leave room for an Eliot or
Bronte?
(9,100)
The narrator shows sympathy with the character of Julia. Julia
is conceived as unfortunate. She feels bitter and humiliated by
narrator, the male readers are not concerned with Julia's books; they
have consideration to themselves:
Unfortunate Julia! Wetting her pen in
bitterness, and leaving shoe laces untied.
When her books came, she applied herself to
her gigantic labours…. The male readers
applied themselves to theirs.
(9,100)
The narrator introduces Julia's argument about women and
work neutrally. He uses free indirect style to introduce his argument.
Julia argues that women are more than men and the work of men is
not suitable to women. The idea of death predominates her
argument:
There are more women than men. Yes, but if
you let women work as men work, they'll die
of much quicker. They'll become extinct. That
was her argument. Death and gall and bitter
dust were her pen tip.
(9, 100-1)
Male dominance leaves a pessimistic effect on one of the
female characters. Rose Shaw presents her pessimistic view of life.
She sees life "wicked" due to a man's refusal to marry a woman
called Helen Aitken. She reiterates this view of life:
Rose Shaw, talking in rather an emotional
manner to Mr. Bowley at Mrs. Durrant's
evening party a few nights back, said that life
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Vol. (15)
No. (2)
March (2008)
was wicked because a man called Jimmy
refused to marry a woman called……Helen
Aitken.
(8,91)
Male control determines the narrator's view of the character
of Jacob. The narrator perceives him from a female perspective or
position. He sees him senior, "a different sex" and fearful, "whether
we know what is in his mind is another question. Granted ten years'
seniority and a difference of sex, fear of him comes first" (8, 90).
Fanny Elmer, a female character is overwhelmed by a
"statuesque, noble, and eyeless" idea of Jacob. She is predominated
by Jacob's presence. She keeps her eyes "down cast" when she does
not see him in the British Museum; she feels depressed:
Fanny's idea of Jacob was more statuesque,
noble, and eyeless than ever. To reinforce her
vision she had taken to visiting the British
Museum, where, keeping her eyes downcast
until she was alongside of the battered Ulysses,
she opened them and got a fresh shock of
Jacob's presence, enough to last her half a day.
(13, 162)
Male characters are viewed as influential, privileged and
elevated. Mrs. Flanders appears to be connected with influential
men. In an essay on Jacob's Room, Anna Snaith sees that "Mrs.
Flanders' connections with influential men ensure the best for her
sons. The background of Helenism and the many references to Greek
texts and mythology reinforce the elevation of the male body and
male culture"(20). The narrator refers to Greek male writers;
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Socrates.
It's the flavour of Greek that remains.
Durrant quoted Aeschylus-Jacob. It is true
that no Greek could have understood or
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
professor refrained from pointing out [….]
the two young men decided in favour of
Greek.
(6, 72)
The women in King's college are degraded by Jacob. Jacob
wonders why the chapel allows women to have participation in it.
He compares women in it to dogs. He perceives them "as ugly as
sin."
But this service in King's College Chapel!—
why allow women to take part in it? No one
would think of bringing a dog into
church[…] a dog destroys the service
completely. So do these women—though
separately devout, distinguished, and vouch
for by the theology, mathematics, Latin, and
Greek of their husbands. For one think,
thought Jacob, they 're as ugly as sin.
(3, 30)
The male predominates the social, political and philosophical
life. This predominance has an authoritative tone. The passivity of
females in the novel can be attributed to it. Mrs. Fanny Elmer was
not given the chance to explore her thoughts and life. She was
obliged " to live her political and philosophical lives through a
man".(21) She took Jacob her ideal. She imagined him as a Turkish
knight or an emperor. Fanny was in conflict between her ideal and
the reality of Jacob. Yet, she refused to see Jacob as anything more
than a frame for her dreams,
Even now poor Fanny Elmer was dealing,
as she walked along the strand, in her
competent way with this very careless,
indifferent sublime manner he had of
talking to railway guards or porters.
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March (2008)
( 13,162 )
For Woolf, the allocation of authority is determined by
gender. Gender destructs women's lives more than any inherent male
aggression sexual or otherwise.(22) It is universally agreed that the
male aggressiveness and the female passivity have been linked to the
physiological differences between the males and females. The
females in Jacob's Room; especially Betty Flanders and Fanny
Elmer are almost susceptible to hopes and dreams.
3. Conclusion
Woolf''s Jacob's Room has a patriarchal realm. Patriarchy
has social, intellectual and cultural aspects. It has a psychological
effect on human female characters : humiliation, depression,
degradation and negliance. Events are perceived from a feminist
perspective.
The patriarchal imposed social fabric in the new novel
restrains the social role required by women. The masculine system
of thought controls the feminine in the terms of language, action,
orientation and attitude. The predominant masculine values ignore
the feminine cultural privacy. The patriarchal effects extend to the
internal side of female character. The novel is a femininely oriented
one as far as points of view are concerned.
Conclusively, the novel can be considered as one of the
typical feminist literary works. The writer's concentration on the
psychological barrier between the male and female which is imposed
by the patriarchal system, expresses a feminist voice. It can be
inferred that Jacob's Room has a feminist view and voice.
Notes
1- Pierre Bourdieu, Masculine Domination,( Texas: Polity Press
2001), p.3.
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
2- Robert Brown, Human Universals, (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press 1991), p.137.
3- Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy,(Oxford: OUP,
1987),p.36.
4- Cited from Marcia C. Inhorn, Infertility and Patriarchy: The
Cultural Politics of Gender and Family,(Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press. 1996), p. iii.
5N.
A.
"Pro-Feminism
and
Patriarchy",
URL:
www.Patriarchy/Wikipedia/the_free_encyclopedia.html.
Retrieved in December, 17th, 2006.p.3.
6- Quoted in Valentine M. Moghadam, "Patriarchy in Transition:
Women and the Changing Family in the Middle East",
Comparative Family Studies Journal,(Clarendon: Clarendon
Press, 2004), Vol. 35,2004. p. 33.
7- N. A. "Gender Studies", URL:
www.Patriarchy/Wikipedia/the_free_encyclopedia.html.
Retrieved in December, 17th, 2006.p.3.
8- Random House Unabridged Dictionary, (London: Random
House1997), p. 313.
9- Cited from Marilyn French, Beyond Power, URL: http://www.
britannica.com/eb/article-9058740. Retrieved in October, 17th,
2006. p.2.
10- Marilyn French, Beyond Power, p.3.
11- Quoted from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition,
(Colombia : Columbia University Press, 2004), p.186.
12- The Columbia Encyclopedia, p. 186.
13- George Hanlon, "The Perils of Patriarchy", Journal of Social
History, (London: Questia Publishing House, 1996), 30, 1996.
14- Phillip Longman, The Return of Patriarchy, (London: Penguin,
1993), p.34.
15- Phillip Longman, p.34.
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No. (2)
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16- Rachel Bowlby, Virginia Woolf: Feminist Destinations,
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988), p.21.
17- Rachel Bowlby, p.22.
18- Juliet Mitchell and Ann Oakley, What is Feminism, eds,
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), p. 168.
19- Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1922), p.12.
20- Anna Snaith, Virginia Woolf: Jacob's Room. URL:
http://www.litency.com/php/sworks. Retrieved in Feb. 2007. p. 1
21- N. A., Bildungsroman Cont, URL: http//www. latency. com.
Retrieved in Feb. 2007. p. 4
22- N.A., Cause for Fear, Sexual apprehension in the Writings of
Virginia
Woolf.
URL:
www.literaryencyclopedia:jacob'sroom.vwjr.com. Retrieved in:
April, 2007. p.20.
Bibliography
Bourdieu, Pierre. Masculine Domination. Texas: Polity Press 2001.
Bowlby, Rachel. Virginia Woolf: Feminist Destinations. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1988.
Brown, Robert. Human Universals. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press 1991.
French,
Marilyn.
Beyond
Power.
URL:
http://www.
britannica.com/eb/article-9058740.
Retrieved
in
th
October, 17 . 2006.
Hanlon, George. "The Perils of Patriarchy". Journal of Social
History. London: Questia Publishing House. 1996.. 30.
1996.
Inhorn, Marcia C.. Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics
of Gender and Family. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press. 1996.
Lerner, Gerda. The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford: OUP, 1987.
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Patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room
Mahmoud Mohammed Hassan / Mohammed Fattah Rashid
Longman, Phillip. The Return of Patriarchy. London: Penguin,
1993.
Mitchell, Juliet and Ann Oakley. What is Feminism. eds. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1989..
Moghadam, Valentine M. . "Patriarchy in Transition: Women and
the Changing Family in the Middle East". Comparative
Family Studies Journal. Clarendon: Clarendon Press,
2004., Vol. 35,2004.
N., A.. Bildungsroman Cont. URL: http//www. latency. com.
Retrieved in Feb. 2007.
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A.
"Gender
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URL:
www.Patriarchy/Wikipedia/the_free_encyclopedia.html.
Retrieved in December. 17th, 2006.
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Virginia Woolf.
URL:www.literaryencyclopedia:jacob'sroom.vwjr.com.
Retrieved in: April, 2007.
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A.
"Pro-Feminism
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Patriarchy".
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Woolf, Virginia. Jacob's Room. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1922.
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‫‪Tikrit University Journal for Humanities‬‬
‫)‪Vol. (15‬‬
‫)‪No. (2‬‬
‫)‪March (2008‬‬
‫الخالصة‬
‫يشير مفهوم الرجولية الى منظومة من الهيمنة الرجولية علىى الناى ف ىل المج‪.‬مى‬
‫لقد ‪.‬م ‪.‬نى و ذى ا المفهىوم ىل النقىد الناىوب ىل اىاليني ا القىرن الم دىل ولقىد در و و‬
‫م ىرا الا‪ .‬ا ى ا ا دايىىة الناىىوية السرايىىة و اىىيم الفرناىىية وا نالي يىىة منه ى ‪.‬لىىد رجيني ى ول ى‬
‫احىىد الروائي ى ا ا نالي ي ى ا ال‪.‬ىىل حدىىيا را ى ئله ورواي ‪.‬ه ى ا ذ‪.‬م ى م ااتىىر مىىن الروائي ى ا‬
‫ا خريى ا يىىدر ذى ا الاحىىا ا تى ر النفاىىية للرجوليىىة للشخيىىي ا الناىىوية ىىل روايىىة ولى‬
‫"غر ىىة جى ى اوم" ‪.‬د ىىم ذى ى ذ ا ت ى ر الناى ى وال‪.‬شى ى ام وا حاى ى ة وغيرذ ى م ىىن ا تى ى ر النفا ىىية‬
‫‪.‬لة ىىل "غر ىىة جى ى اوم" دل ىىيل عل ىىى ا ىىر ولى ى ب ال‪.‬وج ىىا النا ىىوب و‪.‬اشى ى النقى ى م ع ىىن‬
‫المنظور ا نتوب لد الا رد ي‪.‬وي الاحا الى انا ‪.‬م‪.‬لك الرواية يو‪ .‬ورا ناوية‬
‫‪15‬‬