Response to "Shakespeare's Sister"

"Shakespeare's Sister", an excerpt from A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf discusses the melancholy story of what would have happened had Shakespeare had a sister of equal talent. Woolf claims that Shakespeare's sister would have never even had the chance to become a successful playwright, as a result of her gender. Woolf states that this fictional girl would be subject to a life of domestic tasks, as most women were during this time, despite her literary talent. Although this story features Shakespeare, this story still works if you were to replace him with any male writer before the 20th century or so. Say that Mark Twain or Charles Dickens had a sister - do you really think they would be as successful as their brother given that they had the same talent? Sadly, the answer is likely no. There are very few successful female writers before the 20th century, simply as a result of their gender. It is upsetting to think about all the great works of art that we have missed out on as a result of them being conjured up in the minds of women. This excerpt from Woolf reveals the harsh truths of being a female writer during the Elizabethan Age, but her story reigns true for the most part up until the twentieth century. It is a sad truth that only in the past century or so have women been respected as much as men in the literary world. Though its long overdue, we are fortunate today that we live in a world where writers are judged off their works of literature, not their sex. So yes, even Shakespeare's sister would be famous today.