summary

p ON VIRGINIA WOOLF ’92S ’93SHAKESPEARE ’92S SISTER ’94 br

Virginia Woolf wrote ’93Shakespeare ’92s Sister ’94 while women were still coming into the mainstream of life in England . Some of the worst abuses had been removed from the lives of women , but perhaps only in the Bloomberg Group or its equivalents could such a woman find a major role . England , and particularly English men doubtless continued to maintain the view articulate by Dr , Johnson , that a woman using her intellect was a novelty but little more . The essay shows her [banner_entry_middle]

remarkable abilities , abilities that many men could not match the breadth of her reading as demonstrated by the many allusions to other , from her own and other cultures the perception in her remarks , as in her ability to see Euripides as at once a misogynist and the creator of many marvelous female characters her skills as a writer able to compose a piece at once attractive and cutting , to work language in ways that show a complete command . As the introductory remarks point out , subsequent historical research , analyzing such items as diaries letters , account books , and the like have managed to add considerably to our knowledge and understanding of the lives of women in the Elizabethan period , but all of these researches do not change the basic point which Ms . Woolf made : had Shakespeare had a sister with the same genius that he had , she would probably have been snubbed and ignored . That she would have left any writings that would have even survived across the centuries is doubtful at best . That she could have known anything approaching success through her writing is dubious in the extreme

The denial of any learning or any right of free expression to woman is a tragedy in two ways . First , there undoubtedly were woman and girls who sometime in their gray , repressed existences , wanted more , wanted to set down their feelings in sonnets , or explored their understanding of the world in some written form . They were denied any opportunity to do so . And second , we who now look back on those times are denied any chance to read and appreciate all that they could have offered

On Virginia Woolf ’92s ’93Shakespeare ’92s Sister ’94 Page SOURCE Woolf , Virginia (1929 ) ’93Shakespeare ’92s Sister ’94 in A World of Ideas . Leo Jacobus , ed . Boston , Massachusetts : Bedford /St Martin ’92s , 2002… [banner_entry_footer]