Commentary on Shakespeare's Sister

Virginia Woolf makes a profound observation in this passage from A Room of One's Own. She first makes an argument for what would most likely have happened if Shakespeare had an equally talented sister. Her claim makes sense. Despite her enormous potential, Judith Shakespeare's voice would have been silenced from birth. Due to the patriarchy that was Elizabethan England, she would have been stuck at home while her brother attended grammar school. Instead of being able to read books, she was required to wash clothes and do the dishes. Judith's voice was silenced, while her brother's was allowed to flourish. And thus, the world lost a Shakespeare. Virginia Woolf takes this very possible situation and asks just how many voices like Judith's have been silenced because of society's ignorant pre-convictions. Woolf brings in powerful examples of times where someone was killed for no reason, such as "witches" being burned at the stake and those who have killed themselves because of the torment the forced suppression of her gift. This idea that the world may have missed another Shakespeare or Einstein because of blind ignorance is a difficult one to handle. Woolf's arguments can also be applied to men as well. Today, many people know of autistic savants, people who are extraordinarily bright, but are autistic. How many savants have been kept in mental hospitals because their plight was misunderstood? The world may never know, and this can be hard to swallow. Hopefully, the ever increasing availability of technology and scientific discoveries will educate the public, so that we no longer inadvertently silence a genius.