In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf explains the gender binary that is prevalent throughout history, in which the man is the dominant public figure and the woman is the concealed housewife. Woolf uses the word 'deplorable' when she accounts that little is known about women before the eighteenth century. In a testament against those who say that the women of the time did not have the 'genius' of Shakespeare to evidently bring upon such public acclaim, Woolf uses the fictional concept of Shakespeare's sister to strike at what she addresses as ignorance and sexism.
Woolf calls us to imagine a woman named Judith; a "wonderfully gifted sister' of Shakespeare. As a young girl, Judith didn't have the opportunity to be sent to school and learn grammar and logic as well as the works of Horace and Virgil like her brother. Rather, she remained at home despite an adventurous and imaginative spirit equal to that of her male sibling. She was cast away from books and papers as her parents insisted upon her spending her time mending the stockings or cooking, many of the pastimes characteristic of women throughout history.
Reproaching her father, Judith eventually runs away in her teens to avoid a "hateful" marriage that surely awaited her had she remained home. Off to London, Judith takes a keen interest in pursuing theatre once in the city. She had desired to act, yet the men of the theater world disregarded her with a mocking laugh. The opportunity to receive training in the craft was futile as a woman.
Without the ability to pursue her passion, and having been disowned by her family after years of being oppressed, Judith kills herself one night. Realizing all efforts were futile to live a life equivalent to that of her brother, Judith embodies the restrictions women have faced throughout history.
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