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Unit 2 Shakespeare's Sister

Virginia Woolf's essay imagines Shakespeare having a sister named Judith with equal talent but without the same opportunities due to her gender. Judith receives only a basic education and is expected to marry. When she refuses an arranged marriage, she quarrels with her father and runs away to London to pursue acting. However, she becomes pregnant by her manager and later commits suicide, her dreams dying with no way to support herself. Woolf uses this thought experiment to argue that while the bishop was correct women could not equal Shakespeare's genius, it was only because they lived in a society that denied them an equal education and career opportunities, not due to any innate inferiority.

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917 views19 pages

Unit 2 Shakespeare's Sister

Virginia Woolf's essay imagines Shakespeare having a sister named Judith with equal talent but without the same opportunities due to her gender. Judith receives only a basic education and is expected to marry. When she refuses an arranged marriage, she quarrels with her father and runs away to London to pursue acting. However, she becomes pregnant by her manager and later commits suicide, her dreams dying with no way to support herself. Woolf uses this thought experiment to argue that while the bishop was correct women could not equal Shakespeare's genius, it was only because they lived in a society that denied them an equal education and career opportunities, not due to any innate inferiority.

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Nura
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

SHAKESPEARE'

S SISTER

P. 190
Do women and men share equal
opportunities in areas such as
education and employment in
THINK!
today’s society?
How have roles changed in the past
50 or 100 years?
MEET THE AUTHOR

Virginia Woolf (1882– 1941) was born into a wealthy and accomplished
family. Her education at the Ladies’ Department of King’s College, London,
introduced her to the ideas surrounding women’s rights reform. A woman of
great intellect, she was a member of the Bloomsbury Group, an informal
society composed of leading intellectuals, artists, and writers. Her many
works include The Voyage Out (1915) and Mrs. Dalloway (1925).
Throughout her life, she continued to write insightful essays and thought-
provoking novels.
WHICH ASPECTS

ESSENTIAL OF ENGLISH
SOCIETY WOULD

QUESTION YOU CHANGE?


WHICH WOULD
YOU KEEP?
FIRST READ -
NONFICTION
P. 190
Virginia Woolf’s famous extended essay A Room of One’s Own was first
published in 1929. In this excerpt, Woolf responds to a claim made by a
BACKGROUND bishop who once wrote to a newspaper to say, “it was impossible for any
woman, past, present, or to come, to have the genius of Shakespeare.”
 P. 191
 P. 191
 P. 191
COMPREHENSION CHECK P. 193

1. What subjects did William Shakespeare learn in grammar school? Where did he seek his fortune later?

2. Who is Judith?

3. What causes the quarrel between Judith and her father?

4. When she leaves home, what is Judith’s ambition?

5. What happens to Judith and her dreams after she arrives in London?
1. He studied Latin, grammar, and logic. He traveled to London to
work in the theater.

2. Judith is the imaginary sister of Shakespeare that Woolf creates for


the topic of her essay causes.
COMPREHENSION
3. Her impending arranged marriage caused the quarrel.
CHECK P. 193 -
ANSWERS
4. She wants to become an actor.

5. Nick Greene is an actor-manager who takes pity on Judith. She


becomes pregnant by him. Her dreams die when she commits suicide.
Concept Vocabulary
 Gifted:

Gifted means “having a natural ability,


talent, intelligence, or aptitude.”
 Taste:

In this context, taste means “a personal


preference or liking.”
 How is Shakespeare's sister being
treated in Woolf’s imaged
scenario?
Concept Vocabulary
 fancy:

In this context, fancy means


“imagination or inclination.”

 Note the sequence of events that


took place after Judith left her
home. What can a reader infer
from this series of events about
Judith, about the two managers
with whom she interacts, and
finally, and about the English
theatrical society,?
 1. Review and Clarify With your group, reread the background note.
Then, read the first sentence of the essay. Does Woolf agree with the
ANALYZE THE bishop? How does your perception of Woolf’s opinion about the
TEXT P. 194 bishop’s statement change as you read the rest of the essay? Explain.
 2. Compare and Contrast What comparison or contrast does Woolf
draw between William Shakespeare and his imaginary sister, Judith?
ANALYZE CRAFT AND STRACTURE

Interaction and Development of Ideas An argument is a persuasive presentation focused on a debatable or


controversial issue. Arguments are often based on examples—sometimes called paradigms—and on chains of logical
reasoning. In “Shakespeare’s Sister,” Virginia Woolf’s example consists of a thought experiment. This thought
experiment explores what might have happened if Shakespeare had a wonderfully talented sister who cherished the
same ambition as her brother: to succeed in the theater.
Woolf’s approach involves the use of vivid details, historical facts, and logical reasoning to connect this thought
experiment to her main claim in the essay. Her claim defines her basic position—that the bishop is right, but not for
the reasons he thinks. After developing this position throughout the essay, Woolf does not openly state her conclusion.
Instead, she allows the reader to infer it based on the evidence she has presented.
P. 195

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