The new film Hamnet, based on Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, imagines the home life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, exploring the grief of losing their 11-year-old son to plague. The story fills in many blanks left by history, as almost nothing is verifiably known about the family beyond sparse records.
Historical documents show Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway in 1582 when he was 18, after she became pregnant with their first child. Twins Hamnet and Judith were born three years later. Hamnet died in 1596, buried on 11 August, while Shakespeare was likely away with his theatre troupe. About four years later, he wrote Hamlet.
O'Farrell and director Chloé Zhao portray Agnes as a strong-willed herbalist with supernatural intuition, played by Jessie Buckley. The author says she was inspired by how poorly history has treated Shakespeare's wife, often depicted as an illiterate peasant who trapped him into marriage. Even her name is uncertain: her father's will calls her Agnes, though most records use Anne.
Scholar David Scott Kastan notes that Agnes appears only in that one document, but the name choice in the novel gives her an identity apart from her famous husband. O'Farrell reverse-engineered Agnes's character from Shakespeare's plays, seeking traces of her in his work. The film is now tipped for Oscar nominations.
