Three Guineas

“In short, she need not acquiesce; she can criticize. At last she is in possession of an influence that is disinterested.” 

Woolf’s theory of disinterested influence is a common theme throughout the essay and one she returns to time and time again. The influence—typically expressed through financial means in Three Guineas—must be disassociated from the implications and conditions with which it is typically couched. The woman Woolf is describing should have the freedom to spend her money and her influence in a ‘disinterested’ manner, not having to kowtow to the conditions of the society around her. Until she can do that, the patriarchy will remain in place. 

“Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes.” 

This quote is a neat summation of the point Woolf is trying to make to the unnamed correspondent. The man who wrote to her wished for her help in preventing war and, because he assumed Woolf to be a pacifist of note, he believed she would help him. But his membership in the patriarchal, professional classes clouds his perspective. Woolf lambasts the man for being unable to appreciate the difference in perspective between a man and a woman when it comes to war. He is unable to understand the way in which the patriarchy and war are inextricably bound together; they see the world through different eyes and Three Guineas is Woolf’s attempt to show the man the world from her perspective. 

“After the comparative simplicity of your dress at home, the splendor of your public attire is dazzling.” 

There are two separate matters to note in this quote. First is the importance of clothing. As elsewhere in the text, Woolf notes the difference between the dress styles of men and women, particularly pointing to the decorative attire of men in the professions. She uses this difference to explore the ways in which the patriarchy shuts down avenues of employment for women, while revealing the absurdity of the professional classes. The second matter is the explicit tension between the private and the public spheres of life. Again and again in Three Guineas, Woolf notes the difference between the two spheres and how they affect men and women differently. There is the stifling private sphere, which women long to leave behind, and the public sphere, which is dominated by men and their “dazzling” attire. The need to resolve this tension will inform much of the essay. 

“They would come to the poor college and practice their arts there because it would be a place where society was free; not parceled out into the miserable distinctions of rich and poor, of clever and stupid; but where all the different degrees and kinds of mind, body and soul merit co-operated.” 

In this passage, Woolf explains to her readers the importance of cheap public education. Throughout the book, she notes that colleges and universities are expensive and that they seem to be open solely to men. Given that her intended audience consists largely of those same men who preserve the patriarchal educational institutions, passages like the one above help to outline the importance of these cheaper available options for an audience that might have no idea (or might choose to believe otherwise). 

“Take this guinea and with it burn the college to the ground. Set fire to the old hypocrisies. Let the light of the burning building scare the nightingales and incarnadine the willows. And let the daughters of educated men dance round the fire and heap armful upon armful of dead leaves upon the flames. And let their mothers lean from the upper windows and cry, ‘Let it blaze! Let it blaze! For we have done with this education!’”

This quote appears in one of Woolf’s hypothetical letters, addressed to the treasurer of a women’s college who has requested a donation. Woolf uses a markedly different tone and style when writing one of her hypothetical letters: She uses imagery much more freely and seems to revel in the destructive scenes she paints. The institution is not just removed but burned down and the daughters of educated men dance around the ruin. Comparing this to her restrained, sarcastic, and fact-filled addresses to male audiences reveals the difference in perspective and political message Woolf explores throughout the text. 

According to Mr. Joad you are not only extremely rich; you are also extremely idle; and so given over to the eating of peanuts and ice cream that you have not learnt how to cook him a dinner before he destroys himself, let alone how to prevent that fatal act. 

In a hypothetical letter to the treasurer of a society, Woolf again changes tone. She takes a more aggressive stance and sides herself with the patriarchal viewpoint, heightening it to the point of absurdity in order to illustrate its inherent flaws. Woolf attacks the treasurer and accuses her of being a poor housewife, unable to cook properly for her husband. This works due to the dramatic irony at play: the audience—and the unnamed correspondent—knows of Woolf’s political positions and her work as a feminist, and thus her stance here is obviously ironic. This is Woolf mocking men’s opinions and showing them the inherent foolishness of their patriarchal beliefs. 

“So then it is not the salaries that are lacking; it is the daughters of educated men.” 

In a similar manner to the quote above, this quote shows Woolf taking a deliberately opposing standpoint in order to illustrate the flaws at the heart of her opponent’s arguments. Woolf seems to be blaming the daughters of educated men for their inability to earn a fair wage. Thanks to our extant knowledge of Woolf and her political positions, we know that this is a facetious comment, designed to undermine the patriarchy’s own viewpoints. Woolf continually does this throughout the text, seemingly arriving at a viewpoint she disagrees with before dismantling it in the following paragraphs. As such, it is possible to take isolated quotes from the text to misrepresent Woolf’s political views, making a reading of the text as a whole far more important than specific individual quotes. 

“Thus it is quite possible that the name ‘Miss’ transmits through the board or division some vibration which is not registered in the examination room. ‘Miss’ transmits sex; and sex may carry with it an aroma. ‘Miss’ may carry with it the swish of petticoats, the savor of scent or other odor perceptible to the nose on the further side of the partition and obnoxious to it.” 

This is an excellent example of Woolf employing her literary skills to drive a point home. Typically in Three Guineas, she relies on her empirical evidence and her footnotes to convey meaning, but these occasional turns toward a more literary style break up the monotony of the text and bring life to her arguments. Here, the appeal to the various senses gives the reader a sense that the abstract noun “miss” has real-world, tangible properties. She imbues the word with a smell and a sound, as though the men who hear or read the word are predators stalking their prey. Instances such as this support Woolf’s argument by demonstrating her literary skills in comparison to more educated men. 

“As for ‘Mrs.,’ it is a contaminated word; an obscene word. The less said about that word the better.” 

Following on from the previous quote, Woolf now draws the distinction between ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs.’ She builds on the sense of loathing and dread she created in the first, amplifying the discrimination women face not just when they are single, but when they are married, too. Here again is a reference to the tension between the private and the public. ‘Miss’ seems a more public position, a noun designed to advertise the unmarried status of any woman (and without an equivalent in the male ‘Mr.’), while ‘Mrs.’ denotes an aura of domesticity and is designed to imply the existence of a private, married life, separated from the public sphere. Woolf shows a desire to enter the public sphere, but this pair of quotes illustrates that the patriarchy dominates modes of thinking and discourse, right down to a linguistic level. The notion of a “Mrs.” applying to a job becomes “obscene,” a wretched mix between the public and the private spheres that does not bear thinking about. 

“It is true that women civil servants deserve to be paid as much as men; but it is also true that they are not paid as much as men. The discrepancy is due to atmosphere.” 

In this quote, Woolf outlines the ‘atmosphere’, a “very mighty power” (50) but an “impalpable” (50) sensation that plays a large role in furthering the patriarchal agenda. In short, atmosphere is the mood or feeling among those in power that women do not deserve to be paid on an equal level to men. This pervading atmosphere colors every decision they make and ensures that institutions continue to discriminate against women. In describing it as an atmosphere, Woolf likens it to a huge and powerful force, something akin to the weather. It affects everything, on a global scale, and can be unpredictable and destructive. The discrepancy between women deserving to be paid as much as men and the reality of the matter is a similar powerful force, a legislative opinion that must be combatted if the patriarchy is to be disassembled and war is to be prevented. 

“There we have in embryo the creature, Dictator as we call him when he is Italian or German, who believes that he has the right, whether given by God, Nature, sex or race is immaterial, to dictate to other human beings how they shall live; what they shall do.” 

Even in the pre-World War II era, the rise of fascism made war seem increasingly inevitable. However, while many people saw the fast-approaching likelihood of another war, few critics drew the comparison between fascism and the patriarchy in such distinct terms. Woolf describes the inherent sexism of fascism and assures her reader that the kind of violence inherent in a fascist society is similar to that found in patriarchal societies; the only difference is that in a patriarchy, men refuse to acknowledge it. One such man is the unnamed correspondent, who has failed to note how sexist institutions further the cause of wars rather than prevent them. In that respect, Woolf’s stinging criticism of her own society is a criticism of men like the correspondent, whom she compares to fascists. 

“Let us then begin by looking at the outside of things, at the general aspect. Things have outsides let us remember as well as insides.” 

Again, Woolf is referring to the tension between the public (the outside) and the private (the inside). In a succinct statement, she reminds the reader that the public sphere is merely a reflection of the private sphere and both need to be addressed if progress is to be made. It is easy to focus on the personal and the private, as it is at home and within reach. It is easier to make changes in the private sphere (if one is so inclined) than in the public sphere, where institutions are slow to react and resistant to change. By reminding her reader of the importance of considering both spheres at once, Woolf is showing the holistic nature of her argument and hinting at the prognosis for society that she will expand on in the final section of the book. 

“It is true that the combatants did not inflict flesh wounds; chivalry forbade; but you will agree that a battle that wastes time is as deadly as a battle that wastes blood.” 

War, Woolf suggests, is not limited to the battlefield. In the above quote, she begins to highlight the ways in which male predilection toward violence seeps into everyday life. She envisages the various battles that take place in jobs, institutions, and other places, each one evidencing some form of violence. This violence does not necessarily spill blood, but it might waste time, effort, or energy. When women fight for equal rights, equal pay, and access to education, men’s predilection for violence takes over and their natural tendency toward war becomes clear. Therefore, Woolf believes that it will be impossible to eradicate war without addressing the root causes and the ways in which it manifests itself in society. Woolf wants to show the reader that war seeps into everyday life as a natural product of the patriarchy. 

“Had we not better plunge off the bridge into the river; give up the game; declare that the whole of human life is a mistake and so end it?”

In this quote, Woolf uses another of her rhetorical flourishes to appeal to the readers. Firstly, she binds herself with the reader, opting to use a collective pronoun— we” —rather than a singular pronoun such as ‘you’ or ‘I’. The implication is that society is doomed in a collective sense if the fight for equality is not won. Secondly, Woolf uses hyperbole to emphasize her point. The imagery of the suicide (additionally ironic considering Woolf’s own death) is not a quiet affair, but a lamentation of “the whole of human life,” which is a mistake deserving of death. The issue is society-wide and suicide is a response not to an internal flaw but to the wider discrimination evident in the world. Through her imagery and her exaggeration, as well as a careful choice of words, Woolf shows the importance of the fight that lies ahead. 

“But biography is many-sided; biography never returns a single and simple answer to any question that is asked of it.” 

The complexity of the answer to any question is one of the reasons Woolf decided to write her essay. The letter from the unnamed correspondent asks her for a simple solution to a complex problem, one he does not really understand. As such, Woolf points out that history, biography, and even truth itself are complicated. This quote, in which Woolf points out that answers found in the lives of other people are never succinct and simple, demonstrates why she felt compelled to write the essay. She wants to demonstrate to people that the answers they seek are infinitely more complicated that they might have realized and until they begin to address the root causes in society their proposed solutions will not work. Biography informs Woolf’s answer, but she never depends on it. She weaves complicated answers to complicated questions and backs herself up with a wealth of evidence taken from numerous sources. Due to the institutional power of the forces she is trying to combat, her solutions must be robust.  

“Take this guinea then and use it, not to burn the house down, but to make its windows blaze. And let the daughters of uneducated women dance round the new house, the poor house, the house that stands in a narrow street where omnibuses pass and the street hawkers cry their wares, and let them sing, ‘We have done with war! We have done with tyranny!’ And their mothers will laugh from their graves, ‘It was for this that we suffered obloquy and contempt! Light up the windows of the new house, daughters! Let them blaze!’” 

Woolf returns to dramatic imagery when communicating with her hypothetical female correspondents. This quote is a call to action, a dramatic demand for the women of Britain to rise up against the patriarchy. This action is contrasted with the donation of a single guinea, which seems a moderate and bland act in comparison to arson. The long, descriptive sentences paint a picture of an idealized future in which Woolf’s imagined rebellion succeeds in overthrowing the patriarchy, and this kind of emotive, lyrical imagery is missing from her direct communications with the unnamed correspondent. 

“The question which concerns us is what possible help we can give you in protecting culture and intellectual liberty—we, who have been shut out from the universities so repeatedly, and are only now admitted so restrictedly; we who have received no paid-for education whatsoever, or so little that we can only read our own tongue and write our own language, we who are, in fact, members not of the intelligentsia but of the ignorantsia?” 

In the third part of the essay, Woolf begins to directly address the points made by the unnamed correspondent. In this quote, she is attacking his inability to recognize the ways in which the educational institutions fail women. His letter appears to take Woolf’s intellectual standing as evidence that she should be inclined to help with the prevention of war. But this intelligence is presumed and does not acknowledge the reduced opportunities available to women who want a better education. To hammer this point home, Woolf coins a term—“ignorantsia” (81)—in order to separate herself from the pretentious, educated elites to which the unnamed correspondent belongs. She would rather side with the women in this situation, demarking her position as not one of education, but one of principle. Woolf considers herself a woman first and an educated person second and wishes for all women to have access to education.

“We cannot debar women from the use of libraries; or forbid them to buy ink and paper; or rule that metaphors shall only be used by one sex, as the male only in art schools was allowed to study from the nude; or rule that rhyme shall be used by one sex only as the male only in Academies of music was allowed to play in orchestras.” 

Though Woolf has spent a large part of the essay listing the institutions and professions that are unavailable to women, she concedes that there is one way in which women can express themselves and make a living: literature. In this quote, she outlines the relatively meager expenses needed to pursue such a career, an argument with particular weight given her own experiences. Woolf’s life becomes an example of exactly what she is arguing in this quote: The unnamed correspondent wrote to her due only to her hard work and success in the field of literature, rather than to any other qualities she possessed. The comparison to other artistic pursuits, such as music and sketching, reinforces Woolf’s point and highlights the many (seemingly absurd) ways in which society restricts women. That they are not allowed to sketch nude models or join a professional orchestra severely limits their ability to pursue careers in these fields, for reasons that are never truly clear but are inevitably tied to the patriarchal nature of society. By pointing this out, Woolf adds extra importance to her own experiences, as well as to the field of literature itself. 

“‘Just as for many centuries, Madam,’ we might plead, ‘it was thought vile for a woman to sell her body without love, but right to give it to the husband whom she loved, so it is wrong, you will agree, to sell your mind without love, but right to give it to the art which you love.’” 

Woolf returns often to the issue of how to produce art that the artist does not love. In the field of literature, for example, she would be wary of anyone who paid her money to write very exact styles of literature. Woolf believes this is a compromise of artistic ideals and seems to suggest that art produced in such a manner will never truly achieve its goals. She compares this kind of work to prostitution, suggesting that she is essentially selling her intellect for a small amount. To sell her mind for a small amount would be to surrender to the patriarchy, and Woolf would rather work for no money and struggle to get by while still being able to produce the kind of art she wanted than to sell her skills to a society dominated by men. To do so would only serve to further the patriarchal agenda and help to enshrine its place in society. 

“Since I am an educated man’s daughter, with a smattering of culture picked up from reading, I should no more dream, given the conditions of journalism at present, of taking my opinions of pictures, plays, music or books from the newspapers than I would take my opinion of politics from the newspapers.” 

Woolf uses this part of the essay to detail the way in which the information available in the wider society is not always to be taken at face value. She prefers instead to take her information from a variety of sources and come to an understanding of the truth based on the differences between the stories. Politics, she says, is the same in this regard as pictures, plays, music, or books. When she reads reporting about any of these topics, she knows that there is no singular objective truth and, instead, the reality must be discerned by comparing the versions she consumes. It is similar in nature to her theory about the histories of women being hidden between the lines of the histories of men. It is only through practiced, learned reading that she is able to digest a vast swathe of media and come away with anything resembling the truth. 

“So then the literature of fact and the literature of opinion, to make a crude distinction, are not pure fact, or pure opinion, but adulterated fact and adulterated opinion, that is fact and opinion ‘adulterated by the admixture of baser ingredients‘ as the dictionary has it.” 

This quote builds on the ideas expressed above regarding the search for a kind of truth in a fundamentally untrustworthy society. As a person associated with literature, including fiction and non-fiction, Woolf is able to draw a difference between literature of opinion and literature of fact. Literature that professes itself to be “literature of fact” is, more often than not, literature of opinion. Due to the nature of the essay, this distinction becomes very important. Woolf tries hard to evidence every single one of her claims, and the exhaustive footnotes display this. They provide not only sources but insights and explanations that would not be found in other examples of literature of fact. Because factual literature is so frequently filled with opinions and unsubstantiated information, Woolf wishes to make sure that her own work is not in danger of perpetuating the problem. Literature is often a means through which patriarchal thoughts and ideologies are spread, and Woolf guards herself against such accusations and shows what is missing from most literature of fact. 

“The word ‘feminist’ is the word indicated. That word, according to the dictionary, means ‘one who champions the rights of women.’ Since the only right, the right to earn a living, has been won, the word no longer has a meaning. And a word without a meaning is a dead word, a corrupt word.” 

In a move some might consider surprising, Woolf declares that the word “feminist” is dead and without meaning. However, given the nature of her argument in this essay and her focus on women’s rights and the destruction of the patriarchy, feminism seems almost too mild a position. The proposals Woolf makes in this essay include the dismantling of many of the foundations of society. Only by doing this, she argues, will society be able to prevent war. The destruction of the patriarchy has higher goals that those commonly associated with the word “feminist,” which suggests that once a few rights are won, then the battle is over. As Woolf has illustrated throughout the essay, the issues of the patriarchy are much more complicated and much further reaching than might have been expected. Feminism alone is not enough and, because women have won a number of rights, it allows the patriarchy to proclaim a victory for women without actually changing anything in the society. 

“‘For,’ the outsider will say, ‘in fact, as a woman, I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.’” 

Though Woolf has spent a large portion of the essay detailing the issues inherent in British society, quotes like the one above illustrate that patriarchal control—the way in which women are not permitted equal access to institutional power—is a global issue. There is no country Woolf could visit where this would not be the issue. Thus Woolf suggests that she has no country; she would encounter the same discrimination whether she was British, French, German, American, Japanese, or Indian. Furthermore, the nature of patriarchal control means that she had little investment in the future of the country. When Woolf states “I have no country” (99), it reflects women’s lack of control over the direction of their nation state. They are passengers, only able to sit by and watch as men decide the country’s future. Because of this, Woolf wants to divorce herself completely from the idea of countries and control. That issues such as the agency of a country will be so linked to the outbreak of the Second World War adds extra credence to the point Woolf is making.