Shakespeare Sister Essay, Research Paper

Shakespeare s Sister

This is a short story written by Virginia Woolf in 1929. She was born in London, where she grew up in an environment of wealth and culture, meeting many of the most distinguished intellectuals of all time. Virginia was home-schooled for all of her education growing up, and later became the center of the intellectual and artistic Bloomsbury Group.

The setting of Shakespeare s Sister is during the time when William Shakespeare was growing up and writing plays. It has taken place in the Shakespeare s house and later in London.

In this story, Shakespeare s Sister, Virginia Woolf imagines up a sister of Shakespeare named Judith. In the story, Judith, Shakespeare s sister, was the apple of her fathers eye. She wasn t able to go to school like her brother but instead was home-schooled. She was made to do house choirs mostly and was taught very little education. She would mainly try to learn from her brother s books in secret and burn or throw away anything she wrote so her parents wouldn t find out. This was a time when women weren t educated at all besides the men. Later on she married a man who didn t treat with any respect. She finally got fed up with him and left to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress in London. Once in London, she was laughed and ridiculed at for wanting to be an actress. She strived to become an actress and to fulfill her dreams but at the end it was impossible, she had ended her own life.

Woolf portrayed Judith s problems growing up just as hers. Similar problems that were alike seemed to be that both were not sent out to school but home-schooled instead. They both seemed to have troubled first marriages and had left their first loves and had set road to a finer place. I believe Woolf s problems growing up are portrayed in this short story but into another character. She explained Judith s problems very precisely giving me the hint that she had once gone through the same problems herself.

This was a intriguing short story that I believe, portrayed a time of the authors life.