An Irish Feminist Reading of Agnes in Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet

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In 2020, Maggie O’Farrell published her acclaimed novel Hamnet, offering readers a reimagining of the Shakespeare family - bringing mother, father, daughter and twins to life. Since then, and especially through its screen adaptation, O’Farrell's reparative reinterpretation has further cemented Agnes Hathaway’s memory in our minds.

Hamnet begins with the meeting of William and Agnes, tracing their relationship from their first meeting to their romance, marriage and the birth of their children, ultimately moving toward the devastating loss of their son, Hamnet. However, what stands out in this story is the mysterious figure of Agnes Hathaway. 

In reality, very little is known about Agnes Hathaway beyond what is filtered through her relationship with William Shakespeare. For one, their marriage has long been the subject of debate, as at 26, Agnes married the 18-year-old Shakespeare while pregnant with their first child. What’s more, Shakespeare’s later decision to pursue his career in London, leaving his family behind, has often been read as a sign of an unhappy marriage.

O’Farrell makes her first bold choice by overlooking the historically familiar Anne Hathaway, choosing to use her father’s spelling of her name in his will - Agnes. This marks one of the first steps in reclaiming her villainised persona, the beginning of a process of healing.

Many novelists and biographers have taken it upon themselves to portray Agnes in a rather negative light. Following the previous assumptions, some of the tropes that have followed her include cradle-snatcher, unfaithful wife and promiscuous temptress. These tropes have been cemented in the literary canon, as seen with James Joyce’s depiction of his “Anne” in Ulysses. In his novel, Joyce continues to add to her sexualised and corrupt portrayal, creating  “a further distorted, sexualised and decrepit creature, a haunting portrait of an elderly haggard Anne” (Parey 2025, 524). However, in this case, a different Irish author takes the role of reclaiming her figure in response to Joyce’s and others’ attacks on her character. 

Notably, O’Farrell’s Irish heritage adds a layer of dimension to her novel, as nature and a sense of otherworldliness ground Agnes’ portrayal in the novel and film. The tale of Agnes’ origins and mother is particularly revealing, “her mother, God rest her soul, had been a gypsy or a sorceress or a forest sprite” (O'Farrell 2020). The book develops a mystical narrative surrounding Agnes, in which she is fully in tune with her environment and the spirits that foster her surroundings. These descriptions can also be reinterpreted through pagan and Irish folklore, where nature is seen as the main gateway to the spiritual realm. In turn, the use of the derogatory term “gypsy” can further expose prejudices against Agnes when connected to the Irish traveller community. 

In the novel, O’Farrell continues to reveal the town’s perceptions of Agnes through descriptions that associate her with the natural and animal world:

“The tutor has never seen her but he pictures a half-woman, half-animal: thick-browed, hobbling, hair streaked with grey, clothing clotted with mud and foliage. The daughter of a dead forest witch.” (O'Farrell 2020).

Most interestingly, these descriptions are used to deconstruct the outsider’s negative view of Agnes as the “daughter of a dead forest witch”. Rather than reinforcing this, O’Farrell empowers Agnes through nature, allowing readers and viewers to see how Agnes flourishes alongside her environment. 

One thing that stands out is Agnes’ knowledge of herbs, as she regularly sells potions and medicinal salves to other people in the village. What’s more, her healing practices also form an important episode in her attempts to cure Hamnet from the plague. Much of Agnes’s knowledge has been passed down from her mother,  the “forest witch”, who taught her chants and rhymes to help her remember the healing properties of plants. Agnes continues this tradition, passing it on to her own children. The film also includes a beautiful scene in which this knowledge is shared directly from Agnes’s mother to her, thereby continuing the legacy of strong, independent and resourceful women. In doing so, O’Farrell crafts a female character who exercises her agency boldly, in contrast to many male writers who have stripped it away from her. 

In combination with nature’s central role, the tale-like retelling through vignettes such as the one previously mentioned highlights how tales are materialised and circulate through the art of oral storytelling (Parey 2025, 528). Storytelling has long been central to Irish culture, preserving language and heritage through oral tradition during centuries of colonial pressure - blooming into the culturally rich island it is today. O’Farrell can harness this in ways that present power in stories that centre the “outsider woman”, whilst maintaining what makes her unique in the first place. 

However, the act of retelling past stories is not solely rooted in Maggie O’Farrell’s Irish heritage, but also in the broader need to retell and reclaim the stories of women from the past. Adrienne Rich claims that “re-vision the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of enter-ing an old text from a new critical direction is for women more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival” (Parey 2025, 526). Healing through these acts of survival ultimately becomes a form of resistance to patriarchal order - one in which Agnes Hathaway can finally take centre stage in her own life.

Bibliography 
O’Farrell, Maggie. 2020. Hamnet. London: Editorial: Tinder Press.
Parey, Armelle. 2025. “Memory Gaps and Biofiction in Maggie O’Farrell’s: Interpreting Mystery and Reimagining Anne Hathaway.” English Studies 106 (4): 521–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838x.2025.2509193.

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