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Women as Part of the Patriarchy: Masculinity, Women, and Relationships in Virginia Woolf’s Novels



Author(s)

David Powers Corwin

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2015.04.003

George Mason University, Fairfax VA, USA

This article focuses on three of Virginia Woolf’s widely read novels, Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, and To the Lighthouse. I focus on the male protagonists in the novels Jacob Flanders, Richard Dalloway, and Mr. Ramsay. Up to this point, literary studies and women’s studies almost focus on the positive female characters in her works and ignore the constructs of masculinity that she discusses in her fiction. Furthermore, critics do not critique the female characters and take into consideration their role as perpetrators in the patriarchy in order to maintain the patriarchal regime. I argue that the female characters in these novels police the male characters in their performance of masculinity, which in turn makes them perpetrators of the same discourse that in turn oppresses them. In this article, I use theorists such as Judith Butler, Nancy Chodorow, and Judith (who now identifies as Jack) Halberstam to discuss the sex/gender system and how women can hold oppressive roles within the patriarchy. Finally, I will conclude that Virginia Woolf needs more exposure with feminist theory and masculinity studies because of the radical characterizations of people she promotes in her fiction.

masculinity, patriarchy, Woolf