Teaching Shakespeare, "HAMNET," Maggie O'Farrell

Published 2020, 306 pages

Dialectic Journal/Lesson Plans: 197 pages, 80,442 words

Historical fictional biography of Shakespeare's marriage to Anne Hathaway and focusing on their first home at Stratford, a day's ride from London and the Shakespeare theaters. 

O'Farrell emphasizes the problems of marriage and raising a family away from Shakespeare's audience.  His audience was from the bustling streets of London when people were workers, readers and theater patrons.  She emphasizes their relationship both personally and family-wise.  Anne (Agnes in the book) and Hamnet (Hamlet) were the focus of most of the story.  When Shakespeare was away Agnes directed her Stratford family raising a girl and a set of twins.  Although the female twin caught what seemed to be a deadly form of the plague, she recovered and Hamnet died.  

The last part of the book documented Agnes's strip to London to see her husband's play, "Hamlet" in which she discovered more about her buried son and her genius husband. She is deeply moved and  transfored bythis play--many say it is Shakespeare's masterpiece.  The audience sees it in a different, more personal way, with O'Farrell's story.