Virginia Woolf said in order for women to write fiction they need a room to themselves and money in order to support themselves. She then goes on to give an example of a hypothetical sister of Shakespeare’s that was just as talented as William but was not given the education or opportunity he was so she was unable to be successful as he was. Women writers are just as creative and have just as much potential as men, Judith Shakespeare would have never been the writer her brother if she was given the same education because society chooses what the popular literature of the time was so she may have written just as good plays as her brothers but since it was paternal society they would have chosen to read William rather than Judith Shakespeare.
Woolf begins this hypothetical story but telling the story of William Shakespeare himself. A good way to disprove the probability is to take William’s story and substituting Judith in the same position and see if she would have been able to make the same climb to success that William did. The beginning explains how William went to grammar school “Shakespeare himself went, very probably,--his mother was an heiress--to the grammar school, where he may have learnt Latin--Ovid, Virgil and Horace--and the elements of grammar and logic” we assume that this is where Shakespeare gained his prowess an amazing writer (Woolf 3,8). Now if we replace William with Judith, completely unlikely for a girl in this period to get schooling of this type. “Female literacy in England increased from a mere one percent in 1500 to twenty-five percent in 1714,” William Shakespeare lived in the late 1500’s so women literacy had probably raised slightly rose from the one percent in 1500 but was most likely still in the si...
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... support her view because it seems like she is more open minded and willing to understand that not all men are the same and there are exception that want equality for woman as much as they do.
Works Cited
• Alchin, Linda. "William Shakespeare Brothers & Sisters." William Shakespeare Brothers & Sisters. William Shakespeare Info, n.d. Web. 8 May 2014.
• Margaret J. M. Ezell. “The Myth of Judith Shakespeare: Creating the Canon of Women's Literature.” New Literary History, Vol. 21, No. 3, New Historicisms, New Histories, and Others (Spring, 1990), pp. 579-592
• Pratt, Abby F. "Virginia Woolf | The Curator." The Curator. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
• Reddy, Latha, and Rebecca G. Smith. "Readership." Readership. University of Michigan, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
• Woolf, Virginia. "A Room of One's Own." Gutenburg.net.au. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2014.
1966 was a turning point in American history. It was the height of the Space Race as well as the Vietnam War. In the entertainment industry, The Beatles had released the album Revolver, the show Star Trek premiered on television, and the play Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? was adapted to film. This film was controversial for several reasons, including its depiction of violence and drinking, as well as its theme of sexuality. For a movie to take on such bold scenes and topics requires other bold cinematic choices as well. These choices included casting glamorous actors and actresses in not so glamorous roles, filming in black and white as opposed to color, and using unique cinematic film shots in various scenes. The choices that the filmmakers
Dozier, Richard. "Adultry and Disappointment in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" Modern Drama Vol11. No 4, (Feb 1969): 432-436.
In talking about Virginia Woolf in the context of Julia Duckworth Stephen and feminism, I will start from the beginning of Virginia Stephen’s life. The idea of ‘Mother’ is a basic, recognizable concept in probably even the most primitive human cultures. Infants start separation of self and other with the body of Mother, since an infant gains a sense of ‘continuity of being’ from his or her mother’s attention. (Rosenman 12) From this definition of relationship-as-self, an infant finds her existence confirmed by feedback from her mother. In this manner, Julia is the first contact for Virginia with the rest of the world, and with all of womankind. Since Virginia will go on to have most of her important relationships with women, this is an important connection.
Throughout Virginia Woolf’s writings, she describes two different dinners: one at a men’s college, and another at a women’s college. Using multiple devices, Woolf expresses her opinion of the inequality between men and women within these two passages. She also uses a narrative style to express her opinions even more throughout the passages.
3 Woolf, Virginia: A sketch of the past , Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2 , sixth edition
SOURCE5: Virginia Woolf, "Modern Fiction," in her Collected Essays, Vol. II, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1967, pp. 103-10.
In Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”, the struggle to secure and proclaim female freedom is constantly challenged by social normalcy. This clash between what the traditional female ideologies should be and those who challenge them, can be seen best in the character of Lily Brisco. She represents the rosy picture of a woman that ends up challenging social norms throughout the novel to effectively achieve a sense of freedom and individuality by the end. Woolf through out the novel shows Lily’s break from conventional female in multiply ways, from a comparison between her and Mrs.Ramsey, Lily’s own stream of consciousness, as well as her own painting.
Woolf, Virginia. "The Continuing Appeal of Jane Eyre." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 455--457. Print.
3 Haines-Wright, Lisa and Kyle, Tracy L. "Fluid Sexuality in Virginia Woolf" Virginia Woolf: Texts and Contexts New York, NY: Pace University Press, 1996
“Gender hardly determines the nature of a character, in the plays of Shakespeare. It is for this very reason, that his plays are read, viewed and enjoyed by both the sexes equally, even after five hundred years of their composition” (Singh). Gender is not something that defines what a character is going to be like in Shakespeare’s plays. This quote illuminates that in Shakespeare’s writings females and males were on equal level playing fields when it came to their traits. Females during the time period were considered inferior to men.
In today's culture there are mind readers and psychics: people who claim to see the future. While shakespeare, by no means, possessed the ability to look into the future or anything of that nature, he was by no doubt, truly a writer way ahead of his time. In both of Shakespeare's plays Hamlet and Othello, the women possess a common personality trait. The women act like that of a common elizabethan women, while also having the traits of a woman in todays society. Especially Desdemona (in Othello) and Ophelia (in Hamlet). In William Shakespeare's plays Othello and Hamlet, Shakespeare's female characters are shown as traditional but have nontraditional characteristics proving that Shakespeare was a writer ahead of his time.
Clurman, Harold. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Edward Albee: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. C.W.E. Bigsby. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall 1975. 76-79
Shakespeare's presentation and portrayal of his female characters in The Merchant of Venice and Henry V follows a typical pattern that is present in all of the Shakespearean plays that I have read so far. When looking closely at the fate of his female characters, this pattern becomes even more evident for it repeats itself no matter how different the plays are. For instance, Henry V and The Merchant of Venice are different in every respect. The female characters not only come from different backgrounds, they also have very different personalities. However, as different as these plays and their characters are, the female characters end up suffering the same fate. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are born into a life of peasantry, nobility, or come from royalty, for they ultimately will end up being no better than a piece of land, or cattle, or some possession that a man can own and do with as he pleases. Scholars have been debating for centuries now as to whether Shakespeare's women reflect his society's attitudes or that of his own.
Shakespeare’s sister, Judith, was Virginia Woolf’s demon, she had an arranged marriage which could not be disagreed; her thoughts were not valued for men; she would not be allowed to go to school, be in theaters or write anything. As a woman, she would be expected to do housework, follow the family’s rules and do any activities that a woman should do. Judith would have no opportunity to get the same things that Shakespeare got. Therefore, if Shakespeare had a sister and she grew up as he did, she would not have the chance to experience the same things just because of her
Goldman, Jane. The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf: Modernism, Post- Impressionism and the Politics of the Visual. Cambridge, U.K., New York,