Woolf

Women were seen as property in the time of Shakespeare. During the time of Elizabeth, as Woolf writes, woman had no record of importance. Woman were not considered intelligent or of any value to the man, they were only property and used as wives for the home. “But what I find deplorable, I continued, looking about the bookshelves again, is that nothing is known about women before the eighteen century”(Woolf 768).Nothing was known about woman because they were not seen as upon as any importance to record. Woolf writes that girls were married at the age of thirteen years old. Any woman who was not illiterate was considered a witch. Husbands and fathers could beat woman without any command, and the woman were not allowed to achieve more than any man. Woolf states, “The daughter who refused to marry the gentleman of her parents’ choice was liable to be locked up, beaten and flung about the room, without any shock inflicted on public opinion” (801). The woman didn’t have any rights, and they were forced to live under the laws of man. The way woman were treated back then was horrible and very sad. Woolf states, “recognized right of man, and was practiced without shame by high as well as low.”(765). Woman were treated beyond unequal in theses times, and the feminist movement has made a big change in the way woman are treated today.


Works Cited
Woolf, Virginia. “Shakespeare’s Sister.” A Room of One’s Own. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. pp403-415.