Review of Virginia Woolf's "Shakespeare's Sister
Review of Virginia Woolf’s shakespeare’s sister By Gabriel Gyamfi University of Cape Coast Department of English
INTRODUCTION Virginia Woolf’s ‘Shakespeare’ Sister’ is the third chapter from her literary essay A Room of One’s Own. In this chapter, which is the essay on Shakespeare’s Sister, she considers the question of why no women writers are represented in the canon of Elizabethan drama. To explore the issue, Woolf invents a fictional and mythical sister, Judith, for William Shakespeare and compares the barriers brothers and sisters would have encountered in achieving success as playwright. Imaginatively, Woolf despairs of Judith’s having possessed a genius equal to her brother’s, for her lack of education would have denied its flowering. Therefore as a feminist text, Virginia Woolf argues for a literal space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy as she posits that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” This essay will do a literary criticism of Woolf’s Shakespeare’s Sister by presenting the biography of the author, the literary context within which the essay was written, the summary of the essay, an evaluation and a conclusion.
BIOGRAPHY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF Virginia Woolf, a British writer and a feminist, was born on 25th January, 1882 in London – England to Sir Leslie Stephen, an author and historian, and Madam Julia Prinsep Stephen, a nurse. While growing up, she and her sister, Vanessa, did not receive any formal education as her brothers did. However, access to their father’s library provided a source for their private learning. At the age of six, her step brother, George, molested and raped her and this resulted in Virginia Woolf becoming a lesbian; an act that might have contributed to her being a feminist writer. Coupled with the death of her mother in 1895, she started suffering from bi-polar disorder. This worsened when her half-sister, Stella also died two years later. In 1885,
INTRODUCTION Virginia Woolf’s ‘Shakespeare’ Sister’ is the third chapter from her literary essay A Room of One’s Own. In this chapter, which is the essay on Shakespeare’s Sister, she considers the question of why no women writers are represented in the canon of Elizabethan drama. To explore the issue, Woolf invents a fictional and mythical sister, Judith, for William Shakespeare and compares the barriers brothers and sisters would have encountered in achieving success as playwright. Imaginatively, Woolf despairs of Judith’s having possessed a genius equal to her brother’s, for her lack of education would have denied its flowering. Therefore as a feminist text, Virginia Woolf argues for a literal space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy as she posits that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” This essay will do a literary criticism of Woolf’s Shakespeare’s Sister by presenting the biography of the author, the literary context within which the essay was written, the summary of the essay, an evaluation and a conclusion.
BIOGRAPHY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF Virginia Woolf, a British writer and a feminist, was born on 25th January, 1882 in London – England to Sir Leslie Stephen, an author and historian, and Madam Julia Prinsep Stephen, a nurse. While growing up, she and her sister, Vanessa, did not receive any formal education as her brothers did. However, access to their father’s library provided a source for their private learning. At the age of six, her step brother, George, molested and raped her and this resulted in Virginia Woolf becoming a lesbian; an act that might have contributed to her being a feminist writer. Coupled with the death of her mother in 1895, she started suffering from bi-polar disorder. This worsened when her half-sister, Stella also died two years later. In 1885,
References: Bowlby, R. (1997). Feminist Destinations and Further Essays on Virginia Woolf. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Briggs, J. (2005). Virginia Woolf, an Inner Life. London: Penguin. Marcus, J. (1987). Virginia Woolf and the Languages of Patriarchy, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Woolf, V. (1929). A Room of One’s Own. UK: Hogarth Press. Woolf, V. (1929). Shakespeare’s Sister. UK: Hogarth Press.