Hamnet, Maggie 0' Farrell

This is Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, Hamnet. I first heard about this book on the radio a while ago. I heard the opening chapter read out and was totally engrossed. It also won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020, so I was intrigued and knew it was one I should try.

The Book

As the blurb promises Hamnet tells the story of the short life of William Shakespeare’s only son, ‘Hamnet’. Interestingly Shakespeare is never referred too by name, only as ‘husband’, ‘father’, ‘son’ or ‘playwright’. I found this strange at first but eventually felt it was a good choice by the author. Perhaps mentioning the name of the famous father would detract from O’Farrell’s main purpose, too almost immortalise a young boy, with a famous Father, who would ordinarily be forgotten about in the history books. I think the O’Farrell did something very clever; taking a well-known strain of history and unearthing and fictionalising an imagined life for a forgotten person.

The first chunk of the novel swaps between Hamnet’s own youthful narrative and the past, telling the story of how his parents met. I think we were unfairly taught at school about Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway as being the butt of a joke, laughing at the idea that all Shakespeare left in his will for her was their marriage bed. I don’t wish to go and check the actual history of this and would rather just keep too discussing this book. Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife is known as ‘Agnes’ in the novel and her position as Lover, wife then Mother and their relationship as a whole is presented with decidedly more sympathy and depth, than any history indicated.

Nature

My favourite part of the book was probably the descriptions of Agnes’s childhood and young life. In the little town of Stratford-Upon-Avon Agnes’s Mother is thought to have come from the forest, being likened to a spirit of nature or the forest, the townsfolk are wary of her strange ways. Agnes’s Mother has a distinct affinity with nature which is naturally passed onto Agnes. She provides the town with her weird herbal remedies from the forest and this is something that Agnes also continues into her adulthood. This early attachment to her Mother, who dies when she is still a child, and the forest becomes a great formation of Agnes’ character, and it is this that singles her out from the society of the town.

She is thought of as odd, for spending too much time in her herb garden, owning a pet Hawk and eventually giving birth to her first child, Susanna, in the forest, alone. Some of my favourite parts of reading literature is rich descriptions of natural landscapes and how the characters fit into this, and this particular area of this book gave me that enjoyment.

Shakespearey Links

 It is difficult not to take some of the descriptions of the surrounding countryside that is Shakespeare’s hometown and not begin to associate it with some of Shakespeare’s most famous natural settings.

For example, it reminds me of the Forest of Arden in As you Like it,  and the importance of the forest in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also, the lesser known play, The Winter’s Tale, has a huge chunk in the middle of the play that is often overlooked, but reading about Agnes’s botany and affinity with nature reminds me of it. In the play it  It is a huge pastoral element*, (scroll down for definition), a kind of party or Shepherd’s fayre where they crown the May Queen. In the dialogue, numerous native species of plants and flower are mentioned, each having their own symbolic meaning. There was a lot of this in Agnes’s character in the novel, for example the making of her flower Crown for her wedding.

Perhaps the most obvious link with a Shakespeare play, which O’Farrell wished to make at the beginning was with Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Knowing the play quite well, I was unsure how this famous tragedy of Shakespeare could link to the boy presented in the book. In the preface at the start O’Farrell makes clear her link both with a quote from the play and a historical note stating the interchangeability  of the names ‘Hamnet’ and ‘Hamlet’ in Stratford’s records in the late sixteenth. The preface also notes that four years after the death of his only son, Hamnet, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet the play. SO the reader begins the novel almost searching for a link between the play and the boy. 

The link between the boy and the play, Hamlet comes in the final pages (which I won’t spoil). I believe, although it was a sweet link, heart-warming at best, as I know Shakespeare’s work quite well, it felt tenuous and almost forced. The literary-minded of us might take it sceptically and find it too sweet and loving to even hope or believe it may have happened. My romantic side and lover of a happy ending helps me remember this is a story and can be enjoyed as such. It is a story and it is someone who is projecting their imagination into fragments of historical sources, written incredibly well so is an enjoyable read.

Hamnet, the boy

O’Farrell sympathetically tells the story of this unknown young boy. It begins with him playing with some kittens with his twin sister, Judith. Whilst playing and hiding from chores, Judith is suddenly taken ill and it is up to a young Hamnet to seek an adults help. With his Mother away in the herb garden and his Father, away in London he is at a loss as to how to help his ailing sister. It is no spoiler that Hamnet dies, and it is difficult reading, warming to his character, knowing that he is going to die. It is a highly beautiful and poignant moment, when he lies with his unwell sister, willing death to take him instead of her. The close bond between twins, Hamnet and Judith, again makes me think of Shakespeare constant use of twins in his plays. For example Twelfth Night is based on the interchanging of girl/boy twins, Viola and Sebastian. Judith and Hamnet are also seen as interchangeable with one another, something which is difficult to see, once Hamnet passes, and Judith grows into the image he could have been.

Overall 

I enjoyed this light summer read and can easily seen why it has been loved and celebrated. The light links to Shakespeare’s plays aren’t obvious and the book can be enjoyed by a person who has no knowledge of Shakespeare perfectly well. However I felt my existing knowledge enriched my reading of this book and allowed me perhaps to see things that even the author didn’t even intend!

* A little footnote

Pastoral Literature is a mode of literature where the author places the ideas of a complex life against a simple one. Classically speaking, pastoral scene are filled with Shepherd’s in large expanses of countryside, ruminating on the complexities of love and humanity all from the comfort of a grassy knoll ( DUCK! hahaha).

The mode elevates and beautifies the ideas of the shepherd’s life, as the most peaceful and desirable way to live. In the Classics particularly, the Pastoral harks back to the idea of the ‘Golden Age’, particularly venerated in Ancient Greek Mythology it refers to a time when people lived in harmony with nature. I’ve studied the revival of the Pastoral Tradition in my studies, and it is one of my favourite areas of study in Renaissance Literature! I often link it to our fight towards Green Living/Recycling/Reducing Carbon Footprints today, it’s all about humans venerating and being one with nature and not damaging what we have.