Skip to main content

The Sister of Shakespeare


In “Shakespeare’s Sister,” Virginia Woolf talks about a hypothetical life of William Shakespeare’s sister.  Shakespeare did, in fact have a sister, but she died very young.  According to Woolf, a woman who lived during Shakespeare’s times would not have been able to write plays or anything else for that matter.  There are several reason for this. Many girls and women were betrothed and married off at very young ages, many times against their wills.  Males had authority to beat their daughters and wives.  In fact, it was customary and not looked down upon.  Women were usually not sent to school, nor taught to read or write.  Women were not considered more than property of their father and later their spouse.  Women were also not typically accepted in work outside the home.

Today, women deal with some of the same stereotypes now.  Though not as bad as in the past, women are still seen as primary caregivers of children and the domestic sphere.  Also, women are at a higher risk of being a victim of domestic violence by their romantic partners (Woolf).

Works Cited
Woolf, Virginia. "Shakespeare's Sister." Women In Culture An Intersectional Anthology for Gender and Women's Studies, Second ed., Wiley Blackwell, 2017, pp. 169-74.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Male or Female? Issues Transgender People Face

            In “Aligning Bodies,” Judith Lorber and Lisa Jean Moore bring to light the burdens endured by people in our society that don’t necessarily fit into preconceived notions of sex and gender.   On a daily basis there are issues they must consider:   when filling out forms that ask for their sex, when going to the restroom and when showing legal documents that may not match the gender they identify with.   Transgender people may or may not have surgery on their chest and/or genitalia and/or face or other surgery and may choose to use hormone therapy.   Some people are born with ambiguous genitalia or with genitals or chromosomes of both sexes.   Yet others may identify as a gender different than their birth sex and choose to not alter their body physically.   There is a wide spectrum of people in our world that don’t neatly fit into the “F” and “M” boxes.   Society and individuals need to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Emmett Till

I think the most important event in African American history since Reconstruction is the aftermath of the murder of Emmett Till.  Till was only 14 years old when he was tortured and killed by two white men in Money, Mississippi after flirting with a white woman at a store.  Till was beaten severely, shot and dumped into the Tallahatchie River, tied to a cotton gin fan.  African Americans were killed often in the South, many times by lynching.  The violence in the South towards African Americans was so prevalent that the two men that killed Till felt they were in the right and had no fear of being punished for this horrific crime.  When Till’s body was sent back to his mother in Chicago, she was shocked and horrified at how horrible her son’s body looked, due to the savage way Till was treated before and after he was killed.  Mamie Till Bradley made the decision to have an open casket funeral and to allow media to photograph his body before and during the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Somewhere in the Smoky Mountain Range

A wildfire is raging across the Appalachian area in Tennessee, leaving a trail of devastation of nature, homes and lives in its wake.  Jason Howard speaks to the lack of media coverage of this devastation of the Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg to this uniquely beautiful part of the country in his article “Appalachia Burning.”  Tennessee is a state known for country music.  Country music artists have dedicated many a song to the Smoky Mountain Range and the country settings of Tennessee.  The first time I ever heard of the Smoky Mountains or Gatlinburg was through country songs.  The songs that come from this area of the country are full of love for family, nature, and the simple ways of life.  Howard tells us how he feels about the people in the Appalachian mountains and the great blaze that is tearing this region apart.  Howards begins his descriptions of the Appalachia people with his own parents’ modest wedding.  Howard tells us that his par...
Post a Comment
Read more