Visualizing Stratford-upon-Avon

Having studied 21 Shakespeare plays in just two years, I consider myself a serious Shakespeare fan, though I haven't visited his birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, yet. At my friend Jo's recommendation, I watched a film, read chapter summaries of a novel, and did some extended reading over the last couple of days. With that, several visions of the place have been intriguingly formed in my mind, as if I had visited Stratford-upon-Avon before.

The film was Hamnet, a 2025 historical drama film opening with a written prologue stating that in Stratford, England, "Hamnet" and "Hamlet" were considered the same name. The film dramatises the family life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes Hathaway as they cope with the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet. The film has received numerous accolades, with the latest being eight nominations at the 98th Academy Awards.

Hamnet was directed by Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, based on the 2020 novel by O'Farrell. Born Zhao Ting in 1982 in Beijing, China, Chloé Zhao was sent by her parents to England in 1998 and moved to Los Angeles, USA, by herself in 2000. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in politics and minored in film studies. Later, she found herself drawn more to people than to politics, so she followed up on her undergraduate film minor and stepped into the field of filmmaking, with her first short film released in 2009. Fast forward to 2020, with her masterpiece Nomadland, Chloé Zhao became the second woman (and the first non-white woman) to win the Academy Award for Best Director.

Born in 1972 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland to Irish parents, Maggie O'Farrell is the author of the novel Hamnet, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction and the fiction prize at the National Book Critics Circle Awards, both in 2020, and was adapted into the film Hamnet in 2025. O’Farrell explained in an interview that she "was always baffled and saddened by how little mention he [Hamnet] receives in biographies and literary criticism". O'Farrell stated she wrote the novel, "to attempt to give him a voice and a presence. In addition, O'Farrell drew on personal experience, citing her fear of potentially losing her own child, who had contracted meningitis at the age of four.

Among others, Hamnet stars Jessie Buckley, an Irish actress and singer. Born in 1989, Buckley began her acting career in 2008 as a contestant on the BBC talent show. Along the way, she has received many accolades, including winning the 98th Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet. I was enthralled by her acting throughout the film, which was so natural and relatable, and reminded me of my mom's unconditional, infinite love for me.

The novel Hamnet relates to the real-life death of William Shakespeare's only son Hamnet in 1596. It describes the circumstances of William Shakespeare's marriage with Agnes Hathaway (portrayed as a herbalist), the birth of their children and the subsequent death of Hamnet, potentially from bubonic plague, which influenced Shakespeare's subsequent writing in his tragedy play Hamlet. The story includes some of the known facts of Shakespeare's life in the Tudor Period but also includes myths and other imagined fictions surrounding Hamnet's death.

In the absence of a copy on hand, I read chapter summaries online to get a complete picture of the book. The reading was captivating, and I was particularly intrigued to learn that William Shakespeare and Agnes Hathaway wed by "handfasting", a traditional practice referring to the couple's making a pledge fast by shaking or joining hands, without obtaining approval from their families in advance. When they were married in 1582, Hathaway was pregnant at 26 years old and Shakespeare had just turned 18. Three children were born to Hathaway and Shakespeare: Susanna in 1583 and the twins Hamnet and Judith in 1585.

Among the various themes explored in the novel, I was most impressed by "loss and grief". Set in the late 16th century, Hamnet portrays life at a time when loss and grief were all too common. Agnes’s mother dies in childbirth; three of Mary’s (Shakespeare's mother) children die in infancy and childhood; deadly outbreaks of plague recur frequently. However, each loss of life is a unique, multifaceted tragedy to its family, no matter how commonplace it may be, as showcased by Hamnet’s death at age 11. In light of this—that grief is inevitable in life, and that each loss is unique—the way to handle grief lies not in trying to avoid or ignore pain and suffering, but rather in finding ways to transcend and transform them. To this end, when Agnes finds Hamnet again on stage in her husband’s play, assuring her that her son’s existence will be remembered, she begins to recover from the loss and walk out of her grief.

As part of my extended reading, I learned that Agnes Hathaway outlived her husband by seven years. Very little is known about her life beyond a few references in documents. She is believed to have grown up in Shottery, a village just to the west of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. She is assumed to have grown up in the farmhouse that was the Hathaway family home, which is located at Shottery and is now a major tourist attraction for the village. Her father, Richard Hathaway, was a yeoman farmer. He died in September 1581 and left his daughter the sum of £6 13s 4d (six pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence, with purchasing power equivalent to £1,363.70 in 2017) to be paid "at the day of her marriage".

One of Shakespeare's sonnets, number 145, may make reference to Anne Hathaway, with the words 'hate away' as a pun on 'Hathaway', and that of 'And saved my life' as another pun on 'Anne saved my life':

Those lips that Love's own hand did make

Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate'

To me that languish'd for her sake;

But when she saw my woeful state

Straight in her heart did mercy come,

Chiding that tongue that ever sweet

Was used in giving gentle doom,

And taught it thus anew to greet:

'I hate' she alter'd with an end,

That follow'd it as gentle day

Doth follow night, who like a fiend

From heaven to hell is flown away;

'I hate' from hate away she threw,

And saved my life, saying 'not you.'

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death on 23 April 1616. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones. Translated as follows, the curse was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear,

To dig the dust enclosed here.

Blessed be the man that spares these stones,

And cursed be he that moves my bones."

Although she desired to be buried with her husband, Agnes Hathaway was interred in a separate grave next to him in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon. The inscription states, "Here lyeth the body of Anne wife of William Shakespeare who departed this life the 6th day of August 1623 being of the age of 67 years." A Latin inscription followed, believed to be by her daughter Susanna, which translates as "Breasts, O mother, milk and life thou didst give. Woe is me—for how great a boon shall I give stones? How much rather would I pray that the good angel should move the stone so that, like Christ's body, thine image might come forth! But my prayers are unavailing. Come quickly, Christ, that my mother, though shut within this tomb may rise again and reach the stars."

Together with my wife, I visited England one and a half years ago. Before the trip, I had been recommended by a few friends—who were also Shakespeare fans like me—to include Stratford-upon-Avon in our itinerary. However, our 12-day trip was simply too short for us to cover Stratford-upon-Avon, apart from our planned stay in London and York. Having visualized the place over the last few days, I'll certainly visit in person Anne Hathaway's Cottage, among other memorial sites of the Bard in Stratford-upon-Avon, in my next trip to England.