Money and Mind
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Woolf argues that
intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon
intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two
hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had
less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women,
then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I
have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own. The five
hundred pounds a year stands for the power to contemplate, and the
lock on the door means the power to think for oneself. Without these
basic securities, the mind is constantly distracted by fear,
bitterness, or the need to please others. True artistic creation
requires a state of incandescence, a mind that has consumed all
impediments and shines with a pure, unobstructed light. Only when
financial anxiety is removed can the soul focus entirely on the art
itself, rather than on personal grievances or external validation.
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