Why did Judith commit suicide?

Answer

Critically comment on Judith’s committing suicide. [2019] 

Or, Why did Judith commit suicide? What does her suicide signify? [2015]

Judith is the imaginative character in the feminist essay  “Shakespeare’s Sister” (1929). Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) has faithfully presented her to develop his idea. Like her brother, she possessed the same creative genius. But society gave her no chance to express it. She was denied education, rejected by her family, and insulted by men. At last, she killed herself out of shame and despair. Through Judith’s tragic suicide, Woolf expresses the painful truth of women’s oppression in the sixteenth century.

Symbol of a Woman’s Helplessness: Judith’s suicide symbolizes the helpless condition of women in her age. They had no freedom to choose or dream. Even when Judith refused to marry a man she did not love, she was beaten by her father. Society treated women as servants, not as human beings. As Woolf shows from history, 

“Marriage was not an affair of personal affection, but of family avarice.” 

Her death exposes how family and society together destroyed a woman’s freedom and identity.

No Scope for Education or Talent: Judith’s suicide also stands for the death of women’s intellect. While Shakespeare went to grammar school, Judith stayed at home, told to “mend the stockings or mind the stew.” She had imagination but no chance to learn or think. She tried secretly to write, but fear and shame made her burn her papers. Society believed that women should be silent and obedient. Her ignorance was not her fault. It was forced upon her by men who denied her mind.

Society’s Hostility to Genius: Woolf clearly states that 

“All the conditions of her life, all her own instincts, were hostile to the state of mind which is needed to set free whatever is in the brain.” 

Judith had the same gift as Shakespeare but lacked freedom, education, and privacy. When she ran away to London, she was ridiculed by theatre people and