Question

For though we say that we know nothing about Shakespeare's state of mind, even as we say that, we are saying something about Shakespeare's state of mind. The reason perhaps why we know so little of Shakespeare—compared with Donne or Ben Jonson or Milton—is that his grudges and spites and antipathies are hidden from us. We are not held up by some “revelation” which reminds us of the writer. All desire to protest, to preach, to proclaim an injury, to pay off a score, to make the world the witness of some hardship or grievance was fired out of him and consumed. Therefore his poetry flows from him free and unimpeded. If ever a human being got his work expressed completely, it was Shakespeare. If ever a mind was incandescent, unimpeded, I thought, turning again to the bookcase, it was Shakespeare's mind.

–A Room of One’s Own,
Virginia Woolf

How do the underlined sentences develop the central idea?

They emphasize the idea that male writers did not face obstacles that women did at the time.
They show that male writers were able to hone their craft despite not having access to books.
They convey the idea that only a genius like Shakespeare is capable of such greatness.
They support the idea that the human mind cannot achieve greatness without books and privacy.

Answer 1

They convey the idea that only a genius like Shakespeare is capable of such greatness.

Explanation: the sentences argue that Shakespeare’s lack of lingering personal grievances let his poetry flow “free and unimpeded,” supporting Woolf’s claim that his mind was uniquely able to express itself completely.