Was William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” inspired by the death of his son?

How much of *Hamnet *is true? What’s real (and what’s speculation) in the Oscar-nominated tear-jerker

Was William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" inspired by the death of his son?

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications.

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March 9, 2026 8:00 a.m. ET

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Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in 'Hamnet'. Credit:

Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features/Everett

Here's the thing about Chloé Zhao's *Hamnet* — it's not an adaptation of *Hamlet*, nor is it a biopic about that play's author, William Shakespeare. So, what is it?

Jessie Buckley leads the Oscar-nominated drama as Agnes, a woman in 16th-century England who marries and builds a family with a young Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), then a Latin tutor and fledgling playwright.

Zhao's film, like the Maggie O'Farrell book on which it's based, explores how their union is fractured by the death of their young son, Hamnet. The child's death inspires the author to pen what would become his most famous work, *Hamlet*.

It's a compelling idea for a story, but is it based on real events? The life and times of the Bard, after all, are famously subject to debate. (Some argue he didn't even write the plays published under his name.)

Furthermore, Zhao and her creative team have made it clear that emotional truth was more important to them than historical fidelity. “Chloe straightaway said that we are not making a museum piece or a document, we're focusing on the story,” said costume designer Malgosia Turzanska in a December 2025 interview with **.

Below, we sort through what's true and what's speculation in *Hamnet*.

Who was Agnes Hathaway?

Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew and Jessie Buckley as Agnes in 'Hamnet'.

Courtesy of Focus Features

Though Buckley's character is named Agnes in Hamnet, the wife of Shakespeare was most often referred to as Anne. Speaking with the BBC in November 2025, O'Farrell said she chose to call her Agnes because that's how her father referred to her in his will. She figured "[if] anyone would know her name it would be her father."

She continued, "We've only ever really been given one narrative about her, and most biographers have just run with it, which is that she was an illiterate peasant who trapped him into marriage, that he hated her, that he ran away to London to get away from her."

In her book (and in Zhao's adaptation), Agnes is depicted as an herbalist and the daughter of a "forest witch." While there's no evidence to support this portrayal, O'Farrell said she was inspired by the women in Shakespeare's work, many of whom have "second sight."

She also drew on history. "I read that every household had, at that time, a medicine garden. And it would've been the responsibility of the woman of the house, the matriarch, to know how to make medicines and to treat ailments. It would not have been something that men knew about."**

Did William Shakespeare have a son named Hamnet?

Jacobi Jupe, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, and Olivia Lynes in 'Hamnet'.

Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features/Everett

Something that's agreed upon by Shakespeare scholars is that, yes, the author had a son named Hamnet who died at the age of 11. As noted by Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro in the *Atlantic*, records show that Hamnet was baptized in 1585 and buried on Aug. 11, 1596.

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"One of the things that spurred me on to writing the novel was because I always felt that Hamnet, the boy, was much too overlooked," O'Farrell told ** following the book's publication in 2020. "He was much too underplayed. He wasn't given a voice, enough of importance. He's lucky if he gets maybe two minutes [in a biography]. They mention he was born and then they mention he dies."

How did Shakespeare’s son die?

Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet in 'Hamnet'.

Focus Features/Everett

In O'Farrell's book and Zhao's movie, Hamnet dies of the bubonic plague, though there's no proof that this is how the real Hamnet actually died.

O'Farrell herself acknowledged as much to EW. "Obviously, it isn't actually known what the real Hamnet Shakespeare died of," she said. "There's no cause of death recorded for him, just his burial. But there was no shortage of anything that could kill you, unfortunately, in Elizabethan times. I mean, there are any number of very dangerous diseases. You could even have just cut your finger and then you could have died of sepsis a couple of days later."

Shapiro is skeptical of Hamnet having died by the plague, as he notes there's no evidence of an outbreak in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's hometown, in 1596.**

Was Hamlet inspired by the death of Shakespeare’s son?

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in 'Hamnet'.

Agata Grzybowska/FOCUS FEATURES

While there's nothing definitive stating that *Hamlet* was directly inspired by the death of Hamnet, the fact that it was first performed roughly four years after the child's death could lead one to assume as much. It's also agreed upon by scholars (and stated in *Hamnet*'s prologue) that Hamnet and Hamlet were spelled interchangeably at the time.

That said, there's ample evidence that Shakespeare's *Hamlet* was derivative of other works. As chronicled by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the story of Hamlet was very likely inspired by an old Scandinavian tale that was printed in the early 1500s and made available to Elizabethan readers in the 1570 collection *Histoires Tragiques. *It was first adapted for the stage around the 1580s, with many citing English scribe Thomas Kyd as the author. Shakespeare's riff on the material was simply the latest "remake," if you want to think of it in modern terms.

This, of course, doesn't negate the possibility that Shakespeare was drawn to the story in the wake of Hamnet's death. But as actor Ian McKellen, who's played Hamlet multiple times in his career, recently put it, Shakespeare's imagination "certainly didn't just come from family life."

Did Shakespeare play the Ghost in Hamlet?

Jessie Buckley as Agnes in 'Hamnet'.

Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features

In *Hamnet*, Shakespeare is shown playing the ghost of Hamlet's father in *Hamlet*'s first production at the Globe Theatre in London. This is supported by poet Nicholas Rowe, who wrote in 1709, more than a century after the production, that Shakespeare played the role.

Here's what Rowe wrote in *Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear*:

"His Name is Printed, as the Custom was in those Times, amongst those of the other Players, before some old Plays, but without any particular Account of what sort of Parts he us'd to play; and tho' I have inquir'd, I could never meet with any further Account of him this way, than that the top of his Performance was the Ghost in his own *Hamlet*."**

Where can I watch Hamnet?

*Hamnet* is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.

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Source: “EW Drama”