Sathya Tadinada

Period 3

26 October 2020

Shakespeare’s Sister

Summary:

As gifted as an individual may be, social standards of an era can hinder the ability to

display such traits. In the age of Shakespeare, the gender of a person was one of these social

standards, as the success and prosperity of the individual depended heavily on it.

Being a male, William Shakespeare lived an “easy” life. He was able to learn advanced

grammar topics and language. From this, he found a suitable career in London and became a

successful actor/playwright. Shakespeare was recognized by everyone, virtually a household

name, and was even granted access to the palace of the queen.

Now, assuming William Shakespeare had a sister (referred to as “Judith” by the excerpt)

with the same talent and skill, her life would be nowhere near as prosperous. As a female, it was

practically impossible for her to receive any sort of education, let alone grammar and language.

She was forced to tend to maintain the house and obeying her parents, who loved her

unconditionally and supposedly knew exactly what was best for her.

Her affectionate parents married her to a man with a decent career, with no input from

Judith whatsoever. However, her extraordinary talent drove her away from the husband and into

the streets of London. She walked up to a stage, requesting a role as an actress, but was only

mocked and ridiculed. Judith, realizing her gift would be wasted as a woman, committed suicide.
 Judith’s life was essentially what would happen if a woman in the 16th century had such

extraordinary traits. These gender standards that were present at the time were so strong that a

woman born with such gifts would either commit suicide or live the rest of their life mocked and

feared by others. This is one of the main reasons that women used pen names (for example,

George Eliot, Currer Bell, and George Sand) or anonymity to publish their works, for fear of

society’s inevitable ridicule towards them.

Reflection:

I thought that this was incredibly sad to read, even though it was just a recounting of what

would happen during the 16th century. Our society has changed in the last hundred years and

progressed towards equality for all genders, but that wasn’t always the case. Even as late as the

19th century, women were subjected to the stereotype of being “docile, simple creatures” that

were incapable of intellectual thought.

This oppression of women was not just restricted to just plays, it included everything

from novels to musical compositions to certain jobs. It makes me wonder how much we have

lost by denying women the freedom to express themselves and fully utilize their natural-born

talent. Instead of analyzing all of Shakespeare’s works, we might be reading some woman’s

plays as well and marveling at how well it was written, but that opportunity will never come. I’m

very glad that some women had the courage to find ways to get their work out there (even if it

meant resorting to anonymity at times) because it gives us the chance to look back at that time

period a bit better.