Read the excerpt below from a room of one’s own by virginia woolf and answer the question that follows. [i]t would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of shakespeare in the age of shakespeare. let me imagine, since the facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called judith, let us say. why does woolf imagine the story of this gifted woman rather than writing a true story? woolf wanted the story to be more entertaining than what actually happened to shakespeare’s sister. gifted women poets in the elizabethan era were not given the chance to be successful and remembered. woolf doesn’t want to reveal the real name of the woman she’s writing about. women poets in the elizabethan era have often been written about.

The life for women in the Shakespeare era was very difficult and very different from the life of women nowadays. This story is an excellent example of how women were so limited in their rights. Women were only placed doing one particular thing: cleaning dishes, setting tables and looking after children. In that era the women were no considered capable of being leaders, or scientists much less writers.  

“…I have referred to Professor X and given prominence to his statement that women are intellectually, morally and physically inferior to men.”…  

“…Young women, I would say, and please attend, for the peroration is beginning, you are, in my opinion, disgracefully ignorant. You have never made a discovery of any sort of importance. You have never shaken an empire or led an army into battle. The plays of Shakespeare were not by you, and you have never introduced a barbarous race to the blessings of civilization…”

These are perfect examples of how women were evaluated, they were considered inferior. Probably If a woman had written or discovered something important, surely she would have used an alias or maybe she would not have been recognized as the author or discoverer

“I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in Sir Sidney Lee's life of the poet. She died young, alas - she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the cross-roads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences, they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh..”

It is very probable that because of this, the author decided not to tell the story of Shakespeare’s sister. nor her name. The story is more interesting this way, maybe her life was extremely simple, just like any other woman in that era.

The  answer is C.  

Gifted women poets in the Elizabethan Era were not given the chance to be successful and remembered.

use the headings to create an overview of the main points.