Hamnet: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

In the 1580s, Agnes is enthralled by her daughter Susanna. But then, one day, when she is feeding Susanna some gruel, she notices a terrible stench in the house. As she searches for its source, she finds that she suddenly knows two things: first, she is pregnant again. Second, the smell isn’t a physical thing, it’s a sign of something amiss in her world. Agnes hurries to Susanna, sniffing her, suddenly worried that the smell might be emanating from her. But it isn’t; the baby smells like pears and warm sheets. She begins to sing a song with Susanna, and they are still singing when Agnes’s husband comes down the stairs and slumps into a chair. The sour smell comes back stronger than ever. It is coming from him. She sees it, like a cloud hanging over his head.

Anxiously, Agnes looks at her husband. He is pale, staring blankly as if his soul has been stolen in the night. She can’t understand how this could have happened under her nose. She thinks of the baby curled deep inside her body. She longs to tell him, but she cannot face the possibility of the news making him sadder. She frets that their marriage, their family, or their life together is the root of his discontent. But when she tries to ask him how he is feeling, he twists away from her touch and protests that he is just tired. And with a curt wave of his hand, he climbs the stairs back to their bedroom.

In the darkness of night, Agnes tries to talk to her husband again, and again he has little to say. But finally, he admits that he feels lost. Agnes begins to watch him closely, like a doctor observing a patient for symptoms of illness. She notices his insomnia, his grogginess, his reticence to attend to his tutoring, and his evident unhappiness at family meals—especially when John praises Gilbert. She watches him grow darker. She wants to help him, but she doesn’t know how; for the first time in her life, she can’t intuit what to do. She worries about what will happen when he can no longer keep his anguish bottled inside. He stays out drinking. He grows irrationally angry over things. One night, he hurls his papers and inkwell against the wall, waking Agnes and Susanna.

The next morning, as the husband sleeps, Agnes ties Susanna to her back and walks out to Hewlands to find Bartholomew. He listens carefully as she describes her husband’s angst. Then he tells her that a man needs work, proper work, to steady him and give him purpose. Especially an over-educated, cerebral man. Especially a man living in the shadow of his brutish and abusive father. Agnes tells Bartholomew her plan. She wants John to send her husband to London to extend the glove-making business. When he’s established, she can follow, with Susanna and the next baby. But the idea can’t come from her; she hopes that Bartholomew, as a business associate, could suggest it to John. With a nod and a smile, he agrees.