The piece “Shakespeare’s Sister” by Virginia Woolf commented heavily on the lack of history about women written before the sixteenth century. Woolf discusses how so little about women is known previous to that time period other than they were beaten (Jacobus 765). So to help illustrate what life must have been like for women of the sixteenth century with very little information to go upon Woolf creates Shakespeare’s fictional gifted sister and precedes to tell about her life.
It is based upon Woolf’s description of Shakespeare’s fake sister’s life and the little facts she read in the history books about women that she is able to show what was expected of women in Shakespeare’s time. Based on Judith’s life it can be assumed that women’s role during that time period was small and little was expected of them. Woolf states that Judith probably wouldn’t have went to school, so her education was very limited ( Jacobus 769). Judith also wasn’t allowed to express herself being that she would have to burn or hide any creative works she would create ( Jacobus 769). Women must have been married early with their husbands being picked by their parents also based on the accounts of Judith’s life ( Jacobus 765, 769).
In other words, women were allowed no creative freedoms, received little or no education or training, and were the property of men. Being that men dominated written history and women had little access to it or the ability to read and write it it’s also clear that women were thought of lowly.
Works Cited
Woolf, Virginia. “Shakespeare‘s Sister.” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College
Writers .Ed. Lee A Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. pp.765-776.
1 comment:
I find it very sad that any artistic or literary work that women did would be burned simply because they were women. This really shows how limited the lives of women were in this time.
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