Virginia Woolf wrote many memorable pieces of literature in her life. A Room of One’s Own, Three Pictures, and The Fascination of the Pool are three that should be paid close attention to. In these works she incorporates the definition of fiction, the role of women, and the value of reflection. She uses a different technique in each, but does an excellent job of subtly getting her message across. 

In A Room of One’s Own, Woolf is concerned about the lack of women shown in history. As she reads further, she realizes more than she imagined about the way women are depicted in past writings. “‘Wife-beating,’ I read, “was a recognized right of man, and was practiced without shame by high as well as low. . . .’”(409). After reading this she wonders why there is nothing positive to say about women in history. She then begins to think about Shakespeare’s “sister”. She starts by imagining the different luxuries which Shakespeare himself was exposed to, unlike his sister. She explains “Meanwhile his extraordinarily gifted sister, let us suppose, remained at home. She was adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone of reading Horace and Virgil. She picked up a book now and then, one of her brother’s perhaps, and read a few pages. But then her parents came in and told her to mend the stocking or mind the stew and not moon about books and papers” (412). In this passage Woolf uses fiction to imagine the life of a character existing as Shakespeare’s sister. She shows what an intelligent woman would experience in that time period. While her brother is being treated to many things she would love to be able to, her parents are forcing her to conform to what their and societies idea of a woman should be. This does not include being creative, or interested in reading and writing. By showing this, it helps complete the story by giving you a strong feeling for the way that women were treated.