A Room of One's Own

Mary Beton continues examining women authors in the English literary canon, moving in this chapter to contemporary works of the early 20th century. She selects a book called Life’s Adventure by Mary Carmichael (Mary Carmichael and her book are fictitious examples, unlike the authors discussed in Chapter 4). Mary is unimpressed with Carmichael’s work until she encounters the phrase “Chloe liked Olivia” (97), which causes her to develop a new appreciation for this book, even if it is not a work of genius.

The phrase “Chloe liked Olivia” is important to Mary for several reasons: It defines women via their relationship with other women (rather than their relationship to men); it grants the women characters greater dimension; and it recognizes that women can like other women–whether platonically or romantically. Regarding the first point, Mary argues that men (and often women, especially from earlier literary periods) tend to anchor their female characters to the male characters in the work, defining them by relationships like father-daughter, mother-son, or wife-husband. This type of representation is inaccurate because in the real world “[s]ometimes women do like women” (97; emphasis added). Moreover, it strips female characters of their autonomy.