Woolf writes about a theoretical woman named Judith who was the talented sister of Shakespeare. She writes that "it would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare." While Shakespeare was educated, his talented sister would have stayed at home. While she possessed talent, it would not have been cultivated by learning. Even if she had picked up one of her brother's books, her parents would likely have told her to put it down so she could do some mending or cooking. While her parents loved her, they knew that her life would involve marrying rather than writing.

She would have been engaged to marry to a "neighboring wool-stapler" while still a teen. When she cried to her father that she did not want to marry, he might have beaten her or tried to bribe her with promises of gifts of finery. If she had escaped to London to act or write, she would have been greeted with jeers by the managers of the theaters. One actor-manager might have taken "pity" on her and impregnated her, and she would have killed herself as a result.