“Hamnet and Hamlet are actually two perfectly interchangeable forms of the same name.as recorded in the Stratford annals of the late 16th and early 17th centuries”, the data comes from an article by Steven Greenblatt, a Shakespeare specialist who interpreted that the origin of the English playwright’s most famous work was connected to the death of his 11-year-old son in 1596.
The phrase opens the novel “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell. And also its film version, which premieres in a few days in Argentine cinemas. It is based on this fact that the Irish author created her own version of the most tragic episode in the poet’s life. The result was a moving book, published in 2020, that quickly became a global success.
“Hamnet”, the film, is on its way to achieving similar results: a global success endorsed by the public and critics. By now it has already won many awards from the main festivals in which it was presented. One of the most important was the Golden Globe for best drama and best female lead performance. and it is a great candidate to win the Oscar for Best Picture this yearan award for which it is also nominated in 7 other categories. Directed by Chinese director Choé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Emily Watson“Hamnet” also has luxury producers: Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes. Maggie O’Farrell herself is the author of the script. And a colorful fact in the casting: the boy who plays Hamnet in the film (Jacobi Jupe) is the brother of the teenager who plays Hamlet (Noah Jupe) in the setting of the tragedy that the film fictionalizes.
Both the book and the film have as their central theme the impact of death and the way in which each one negotiates with despair. Art, as in the case of Shakespeare, can be a possible way to transmute grief and share it with the world.
Fact and fiction
Behind the story that “Hamnet” tells is the mysterious biography of William Shakespeare. While specialists still debate whether the playwright was the true author of “Macbeth” or “King Lear,” his private life is also mired in darkness. There are only some recorded data (births, marriages, deaths) and the rest is left to the imagination.
About those specific real data O’Farrell – a writer with a long and renowned career – put together a possible version, against the grain of the usual (unverifiable) narratives.. His main intervention runs from the center of the scene to William to put the focus on Agnes, his wife. It was always known about her that she married pregnant with her first daughter, Susanna, and then had twins (Judith and Hamnet), that she was older than her husband and that she lived her entire life in Stratford-upon-Avon, completely away from Shakespeare’s activities. The most accepted version was always that William got along badly with her, that she seduced him with bad tricks to get him to the altar and that she was simply an illiterate peasant.
O’Farrell completely turns this version on its head. And here the question of names is important again. In the records of the time, Shakespeare’s wife is Anne, except in his father’s will where she appears as “Agnes.” O’Farrell takes this name for his character, as a way of reinventing him for a new story.
And Agnes is exceptional in every way. The Woman Shakespeare Really Deserved. Gifted with a special sensitivity, she connects with nature in a profound way. Create magical potions from herbs. He is able to tell the future just by touching a person. His love is overflowing and palpable in each of the minutes and tasks of the day. He does not respect social rules and operates based on his ideas and instinct. But life confronts her with a great failure: the death of her son. She feels that way because she can’t see the danger in time or stop it from leaving.
Another contribution of O’Farrell to the story is attributing the tragic end of Hamnet to the plague. And this connects with another characteristic of the novel: its careful historical reconstruction. Through its pages we can imagine what life was like in a community linked to agricultural production and what the daily lives of women were like. In this reconstruction it is perfectly plausible that the boy had contracted the disease that devastated all of Europe so many times.
“What I did was go back to the plays and read them in a different way, to see if I could find her, because I have always felt that I can see Hamnet in Hamlet. I thought she should be there too,” O’Farrell confessed in an interview with the BBC. That careful reading, as she says, connected her with many data on the customs of the time. For example, with the knowledge that the playwright exhibits of the medicinal and magical power of herbs, knowledge that was surely in the hands of women and that came to him through his wife.
In “Hamlet”, intertwined with the story of the prince of Denmark, the writer believes she sees the traces of William’s mourning. A transposition of the hopeless grief caused by the death of a son, reflected in an action in the opposite direction: it is the son, in the tragedy, who speaks with the ghost of his dead father.
Painful and moving, “Hamnet” is a poetic and intimate reconstruction of an indescribable feeling, at any time and for any human being.
the movie
In the film, the screenplay strictly respects the original story. Surely, the fact that Maggie O’Farrell is one of its authors contributes to this fidelity. It just develops differently the fictional staging of “Hamlet” at The Globe Theater.
The production is austere to the extreme and has features of a theatrical performance. Only when describing Agnes’ relationship with nature does the director allow herself a more baroque composition. Silence is a palpable presence in all scenes.
Jessie Buckley’s remarkable performance has the power to make the rest of the cast disappear in many moments of the film.. The actress, whom we met in “The Dark Daughter” and “They Speak,” manages to be the clearest image of grief and pain. And although Paul Mescal is one of the favorite actors of this era and makes a correct William, he has little brilliance compared to his partner.
It could be said, in general terms, that the film version is worthy of the novel. But it’s not enough. The best experience, the one we recommend; is to delve fully into both. Cross Renaissance England, enjoy the haunting magic of Agnes and then yes, re-read (or discover) the wonderful verses that William Shakespeare left us.
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