Support of Feminism

In the novel, Judith, the fictional sister of William Shakespeare, lives a life of unrealized genius: though just as brilliant as her brother, Judith is unable to fulfill her potential in her patriarchal Elizabethan society and eventually commits suicide. She is an example of why there were no women of genius in Elizabethan times; even if a woman managed to rise above her uneducated, poor, servile state--something the narrator hardly doubts possible--society would never allow her the opportunity to utilize her mind in the same way as a man.