True Story Behind Hamnet, Shakespeare’s Family, and the Origins of Hamlet

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Scholars often look for connections between William Shakespeare’s life and his plays. One play that particularly draws their attention is Hamlet (1603), the story of a grieving prince in Denmark who tries to avenge his father’s murder. This interest is partly because the prince’s name, Hamlet, is so similar to the name of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, who died young. It’s also because the play seems to reflect Shakespeare’s own experiences – a son dealing with the loss of a parent, though perhaps in reverse, as Shakespeare outlived his father.

The new film Hamnet, directed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao and based on Maggie O’Farrell’s popular 2020 novel, is the latest attempt to connect Shakespeare’s personal life to his creative work. It proposes a link between the death of Shakespeare’s son and the strong emotions present in his writing, suggesting he used his grief as inspiration for the famous play Hamlet years later.

Here’s what to know about Hamnet, including where truth ends and fiction begins.

Hamnet reimagines history 

The new film, Hamnet, arriving in select theaters November 26th, offers a fictionalized look at the personal life of William Shakespeare. It focuses on the profound grief of a couple—Shakespeare (played by Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley)—after a devastating loss. The story opens with a reimagining of how they met, portraying Shakespeare as a Latin tutor and Agnes as a woman he encountered in the village where he worked.

They fell deeply in love as young adults and quickly married. However, after having three children, their fiery romance faded, and they found themselves living increasingly separate lives, with long distances between them. The story focuses on a mother who manages the family home in Stratford while her husband, known only as “the father,” works in London and is often away. Agnes, the mother, is a gifted woman known for her ability to foresee events and heal others, creating natural medicines for the people of the town when they are sick.

Like many towns in Elizabethan England, the bubonic plague eventually reached this village. The couple’s son, Hamnet, desperately wanted to save his sister Judith, who seemed very ill. He wished he could take her place and suffer the disease instead. Sadly, as Judith began to recover, Hamnet tragically caught the plague and died.

The loss of their son deeply affects Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, and pushes their already struggling marriage to the breaking point. The story culminates in a powerful scene at the Globe Theater, where Agnes confronts Shakespeare, upset that he’s drawing on their personal tragedy for his new play, The Tragedy of Hamlet. The film suggests that Shakespeare channeled his grief through his work, using the story of a grieving prince to process his own pain. Surprisingly, Agnes finds a sense of release and healing by watching the play unfold on stage.

Who was Agnes/Anne Hathaway?

Not much is known about Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, making her a mysterious figure for researchers. The novel Hamnet refers to her as Agnes, reflecting the common practice of the time where names weren’t always standardized and often had variations – a change her name likely underwent.

Anne Hathaway married William Shakespeare in 1582, when she was 26 and he was 18. They had three children: Susanna, born in 1583, and twins Judith and Hamnet, born in 1585. Historian Germaine Greer, in her book Shakespeare’s Wife, examines the limited historical evidence and suggests Anne was probably able to read and write and was skilled in various crafts.

The marriage raises some questions, particularly the fact that Shakespeare likely abandoned his children just three years after getting married. Historian Stephen Greenblatt suggests Shakespeare might have felt stuck in the marriage and chose to stop living with his wife once he became a father. A curious detail is Shakespeare’s decision to leave his wife his “second-best bed” in his will. Some believe this indicates a troubled marriage, while others think it was simply a sentimental gesture, perhaps even the bed they shared. Anne actually lived seven years longer than Shakespeare, passing away at the age of 67.

Historians have long been curious about Shakespeare’s personal life, particularly his sexuality, though the novel Hamnet doesn’t explore this aspect. Some believe Shakespeare had romantic relationships with men, pointing to passionate language and themes in his sonnets. The frequent, loving descriptions of a “Fair Lord” in his poetry have led some to suggest he was bisexual. However, because so little personal writing from Shakespeare—such as diaries or letters—survives, there’s no concrete evidence to confirm this either way.

The real Hamnet

Shakespeare had one son, Hamnet, who died at the age of eleven. The cause of his death is uncertain, but the novel Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell suggests it was the bubonic plague, though historians haven’t reached a definitive conclusion.

As a total Shakespeare fan, I always find the details about his family so fascinating. I recently learned that Hamnet wasn’t an only child – he had a twin sister named Judith! They were both baptized on February 2nd, 1585, when Shakespeare was just 21 and his wife, Anne, was 29. It seems their parents likely named them after people they knew, a couple named Hamnet and Judith Sadler, who actually ended up naming their first son William – how lovely is that?

Some researchers have considered whether Hamnet, being a twin, might have been born with a health problem or a weakened immune system. Greer suggests that Judith living to the age of 70 hints at a difficult pregnancy for Anne with the twins. She explains that twins often have different health outcomes, and Hamnet, as the weaker twin, may have been deprived of oxygen during birth.

It’s unclear what caused Hamnet’s death, and his health leading up to it is also poorly understood. Scholars have proposed several possibilities, but none are definitive. Some, like Greer, ruled out malnutrition and suggested a birth injury. Others, such as biographer Peter Ackroyd, believed diseases common in Stratford at the time – like dysentery or typhus – may have been responsible, given how deadly they were.

Some believe Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, died from the plague. Historian Stephen Greenblatt notes a significant outbreak in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, the year Shakespeare was born, which killed roughly 20% of the town’s people, and the disease continued to reappear frequently throughout the century. If Hamnet did succumb to the plague, it would have been a debilitating and agonizing illness, characterized by severe weakness and painful, swollen lumps under the skin.

The story of Hamnet’s funeral is also a point of debate within the family’s history. He was buried on August 11, 1596, and it’s unclear if his father was there when he died or for the funeral itself. In the novel Hamnet, Shakespeare is depicted as attending only the burial. His absence while Hamnet was sick and his time spent in London further strains his relationship with Agnes, who desperately tried to save their children.

Some scholars, like Greer and biographer James Shapiro, believe Shakespeare wasn’t in Stratford-upon-Avon when his son Hamnet died, and possibly not even for the funeral. He was likely working in London and didn’t learn of Hamnet’s illness until several days after it struck. As Shapiro points out, it would have taken a messenger at least four or five days to reach Shakespeare in London. Further evidence is that Shakespeare didn’t offer a eulogy or memorial at the funeral. Those who were present in Stratford included Hamnet’s mother, Anne, sisters Judith and Susanna, and family friends Hamnet and Judith Sadler.

Was Hamnet’s death the inspiration for Hamlet?

The novel Hamnet suggests that Shakespeare explored his own deep sadness over the loss of a child in his plays. This grief may have been compounded by feelings of guilt and regret over being physically absent from his son’s early life, though he did provide financial support. The idea of fatherhood, and specifically the concept of twins representing inner selves, clearly impacted his work, as seen in plays like Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors.

Some scholars, like Greenblatt, believe Shakespeare’s personal struggles weren’t necessarily reflected in Hamlet, but rather in his works immediately after. A prime example is King John (1623), likely written the year Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, died but published much later. The play features Constance, a mother who considers suicide after losing her son, famously lamenting, “Grief fills the room up of my absent child”—a line many believe was inspired by Shakespeare’s own grief for Hamnet.

However, some historians believe Shakespeare coped with Hamnet’s death by focusing on lighter works. They point to comedies like As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing, written after his son’s passing, as evidence that he channeled his grief into humor and avoided dwelling on sadness.

During Shakespeare’s time, having male descendants and continuing family lines was highly valued. As Stephen Greenblatt points out, Shakespeare’s will suggests he particularly wanted to leave his wealth to a son. However, life was precarious then, and many children – about one in three – died before reaching the age of ten, a situation made even worse by outbreaks of the plague.

Although the stories aren’t exactly the same, some experts believe the classic tale of Hamlet shares a similar emotional core with these experiences, particularly in its depiction of grief over a parent and feelings of guilt.

Was Shakespeare affected by the plague?

The plague itself did influence the playwright’s work and times, if often in subtle ways.

The disease spread rapidly and caused immense pain to those who caught it, so public events like plays and bear-baiting were often called off to limit its spread. Surprisingly, church services continued as usual. Historian Stephen Greenblatt found that London theaters were only open for nine months between 1606 and 1610 because of the plague. During this period, Shakespeare probably wrote plays at home, or he may have traveled around the country with his acting company to avoid the restrictions in London.

I’ve noticed Shakespeare often used the idea of plague in his plays to show things at their worst – think of Mercutio’s famous curse, “A plague on both your houses,” in Romeo & Juliet. It’s also interesting how he portrayed the impact of public health measures on his characters. In that same play, Friar John gets stuck in quarantine while trying to get a crucial letter to Romeo, which really highlights how those restrictions could change everything.

The plague is powerfully symbolic of devastation and decay. Many famous plays, including Macbeth and King Lear, use imagery of disease to highlight both physical decline – like when King Lear mentions “a plague sore” and “corrupted blood” – and the resulting mental anguish.

Like a hidden illness, the plague could destroy a person from within, and feel impossible to overcome—a feeling Shakespeare himself may have known through profound sorrow.

Some of the photographs in this article also appear in the book Even as a Shadow, Even as a Dream by Chloé Zhao, created with Jessie Buckley and Agata Grzybowska. The book is available now from MACK.

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2025-11-26 19:07