Freedom

One strong theme that emerges from "Flush" by Virginia Woolf is liberty. Flush, a red cocker spaniel, begins his life on a country farm where he relishes running freely in the fields where he chases partridges and hares. His world is turned upside down when he is given to poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Miss Barrett is sickly and stays in her bedroom the majority of the time. As her personal pet, Flush is forced to stay in Miss Barrett's dark, gloomy bedroom. He longs for the freedom he enjoyed on the farm but it has all been stripped from him. Even when he is taken to a park in London, he must remain chained and leashed.

There are different kinds and degrees of imprisonment. Some are even self-inflicted or enabled by a another person. Miss Barrett is a kind of prisoner herself. She is confined to her bedroom...