Judith's Room

In Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," she crafts a character called Judith Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's sister. She describes Judith as being equal in poetic genius to her brother, however, because of her sex she has no real way of contextualizing her brilliance.

Virginia Woolf reiterates her desire to further women of "genius" by using an example such as Shakespeare's sister. Shakespeare's sister would have held all of the intelligence and poetic leanings as her brother, however, how would anyone have recognized it? When Woolf uses an example such as this, it makes the reader wonder how she really related this character to herself and to other female writers of the time period. Did Woolf see herself as the more privileged version of Judith Shakespeare? It makes you wonder what real character traits "Judith" would have possessed. Was her "personality" really that similar to Woolf's, or did Woolf actually aspire to be like the character she had created?

First of all, we can tell that Judith's artistic abilities were very much suppressed. She may have possessed the genius, but did she have the literacy skills? Could she even read or write? Or was her artistic ability only something that could have reached a point of culmination through education, and was this something that was even available to Judith? Virginia Woolf certainly had opportunities for education. She also was not "held back" from her desire to write. She had the ability to do as she pleased.

We can also assume that Judith Shakespeare probably felt as though she did have to live in the shadow of her brother, whether he was older than her or not. Virginia Woolf never seems to have been constrained by a sibling. Maybe this is what Woolf means by saying "a room of one's own." Not only does she mean to say that a woman (or anyone for that matter) should have privacy in her writing. Perhaps she also means to say that a woman should truly have a space of her own, devoid of any family relationships that could hinder her progress. How unfortunate for a daughter/writer to be better off an an only child!

It's clear that Virginia Woolf has her own perceptions about the environment that a writer should have. It seems a bit prejudiced. I imagine that Virginia Woolf would have like to have been such an undiscovered talent such as Judith Shakespeare. It seems that brilliance is brilliance no matter what. Whether or not she had recognition was irrelevant to the fact that she would be creating good work. The idea of being a suppressed poet is fairly romantic. Virginia Woolf might have imagined this to be an ideal situation after recalling all of her literary achievements. Judith was probably perfection, and we can never know otherwise because her genius was never realized on paper. Woolf, however, is exposed. Her faults are there for us to see. If Woolf sought literary perfection, she shouldn't have published anything.