Shakespeare's Sister by Virginia Woolf: Book Summary

"Shakespeare's Sister" is an essay that Virginia Woolf writes. In this essay, the writer wants to express and ask the question to society, "In the period of the Elizabethan age, why did women not write poetry"; the writer wants to shed light on the reality of the life of women during the Elizabethan age and exemplify all the effects of social structure on the creative gesture of women. During the Elizabethan Age, women were often restricted from pursuing and showcasing their talents, while men were encouraged to explore and fulfill their potential. This was due to gender role conventions prevalent in society at the time. The writer personifies women during the 16th century in the form of a story in which it is imagined that there was a sister of Shakespeare named Judith and showed that if she wanted to become a writer, how much hardship she had to overcome to become a writer. Women have been neglected in the creation of literature; they did not have the chance to enter the world of literature as writers until the times of Virginia Woolf.

Main Idea of Essay

This fiction mainly focuses on two things, which are:

1. Though men were so advanced in the era of Elizabethan, why did women lag in the field of literature?
2. This story is about the imaginary Sister of Shakespeare named Judith (originally, Judith was the name of the daughter of Shakespeare) and shows how things would have turned out if Shakespeare had a sister.

Explanation

1. Though men were so advanced in the era of Elizabethan, why did women lag in the field of literature? There are so many factors to explain this. "Why do women lag behind men?"

Position of Men

According to the writer's explanation in this essay, during the era of Elizabethan, it was evident that men were dominant in the world of literature; every man who never considered himself a writer still managed to write at least a poem in their lifespan. That era was dominated by many renounced writers, leaving the question of why there was no literature that females wrote during that time; to understand this, we will examine the economic, social, political, familial, and literary position of females in the era of Elizabethan.

Position of Women

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, she was not only a powerful ruler of England but also a patron (guardian) of literature; her era is widely considered the golden age of English literature. However, despite being a woman herself, she never actually promoted or worked to advance women's rights in the dominant male society; as a result, male writers continued to dominate the era of literature, and women remained in a subordinate position.

• Position of Women in the Field of Literature

During the reign of Elizabeth, women were highly dignified by male writers in their literature; they are shown as very intelligent protagonists in the literature, but none of their literary works were considered a priority back then, so they published their work under the pseudo name or nickname that were similar to the name of male writers. Robert Galbraith, Currer Bell, George Eliot, the Bronte sisters, etc., were impressive female writers and had a great interest in writing literature at that time, but first of all, they were discarded by their families and criticized by the male writers and then by society.

• Position of Women in the Family

In the Era of Elizabethan, the position of women was critical, male family members were allowed to study in school, but women were fooled and kept at home; they were not allowed to read books except the book of the royal family. Their family members gave in marriage to women at a very young age; even after that, if women try to study by themselves, they are discarded from family, and society also criticizes them. This essay portrays that if Shakespeare had a sister, this essay raises an important question regarding the potential of Shakespeare's Sister, had she been granted the same level of freedom and opportunities as her brother to achieve the same level of success?

• Position of Women in Society

During the era of Elizabethan, women were often discarded by society; they were subjected to various forms of harassment, and their work in literature was hardly acknowledged or published; as a result, many of their literary masterpieces were lost with time. Even when a woman writes a piece of art, she knows it will never be published or embraced by society; consequently, women's literary work during that era was limited to their diaries. Additionally, society often looked down upon women, making them feel like they were the lowest class of creatures; due to this, so many women were afraid to pursue their passion for writing.

• Position of Women in Politics

In the era of Elizabethan, Queen Elizabeth was a powerful and commanding leader who made her mark in history. However, despite Queen Elizabeth being a powerful woman with a great position, women were not allowed to obtain and hold significant positions of political power in that era; instead, they were often confined to house arrest and limited to domestic work. Mainly saying that women lived in an open prison, could not participate in social activities, and lacked the empowerment they deserved. While the literature at that time showed women as powerful persona, intelligent, and respected people, the reality was far from it, with societal norms restricting women from achieving their full potential.

• The Economic Status of Women

During the Elizabethan era, women's economic position was terrible; at the same time, men could earn money through various literary pursuits and explore the world through travel, but women were not allowed to pursue these opportunities. If men get upset, they can go to different places, and if they want to gain experience, they can gain experience by watching many things; on the other hand, women are not allowed to do this. Even if a woman chose to work in the theater industry, she was at risk of physical harassment. Shakespeare's Sister, a fictional character, serves as an illustration of the difficulties that women in the theater industry faced. Ultimately, she becomes pregnant by a theater manager and tragically takes her own life.

1. This story is about the imaginary Sister of Shakespeare named Judith (originally, Judith was the name of the daughter of Shakespeare) and shows how things would have turned out if Shakespeare had a sister.

The writer Woolf explains that, while growing up as a child, this Sister discovered that she had the same talent as her brother; however, her parents did not want to allow her to get grammatical lessons with her brother, or even they did not want her to read the classics of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. With all these difficulties, she found some books in her brother's room and started to read them with curiosity; unfortunately, her parents caught her and ordered her to do good work (which was appropriate, according to them) like- tending to the stew or mending stockings; they even forbid her from ever touching her brother's books or paper again. Despite all this unfair treatment, she still wanted to pursue her passion for literature.

The writer says that it is believed that while she was in the loft, she (Shakespeare's Sister) wrote several literary pages, then she had to hide those because she did not want to ignite any flames while doing this literary work. Before adulthood, she was expected to be a wool stapler from a nearby town; if she defied this, her family would send her to a convent to become a nun. But she was a talented writer, so she decided to run away from home; so, one summer even, she ran away from home and was wondering in the streets of London at the age of just seventeen; she had a voice similar to a songbird and had same talent for theater and poetry like her brother.

She wanted to act in a theater, so she asked so many theaters doors to show her talent, but (as expected) all the men laughed at her. Nick Green, a theater manager, laughed at her differently and thought that women's performance would be like a puppet dance (control is in the hand of the puppet master). He was searching for an opportunity to show his atrocious thinking and got Judith pregnant; due to shame, Judith committed suicide.

Introduction to Writer

"Virginia Woolf," was born on the date 25th of January 1982 in London (England); she is famous as an English writer and novelist through her disparate viewpoint in narrating and drawing a significant effect on the generation; her full and original name is "Adeline Virginia Stephen."

She is best known as a novelist for her work in "Mrs. Dalloway," published in 1925, and "To the Lighthouse," published in 1927; the writer also wrote exploring essays on literary history, women's writing, the politics of power, and artistic theories. She was a skilled writer who tried her talent in various forms of biographical writing, crafted beautiful short stories, and shared a wealth of brilliant letters with her loved ones throughout her lifetime; she died on the 28th of March 1941 near Rodmell, in Sussex.

Conclusion

During the time of the Elizabethan Era in the 16th century, the society in which Shakespeare showed his talent in literature, but the literary talents of women were hated and discarded. Women were not allowed to educate, and all the laws and even society of males wanted to suppress the potential of women during that era. A female writer, Jane Austen, was heavily criticized; even a highly talented young woman who attempted to demonstrate her poetic skills faced opposition and obstacles from this society.

This essay is considered a feminist essay; the writer Virginia Woolf was one of the early women writers who tried to show women's condition in literature. The lives of George Eliot, the Bronte sisters, and Jane Austen showed this by publishing their literature under the nickname of men. Virginia Woolf once expressed that writers, particularly women, should have complete freedom to express their talent. This sentiment was inspired by Shakespeare's fictional Sister Judith, who challenged the status quo but tragically lost her life.