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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hamnet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loss and Grief
Fate and Fortune
Freedom, Restraint, and Genius
The Power of Love
Identity, Choice, and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
In 1596, Agnes sits on the floor by Judith’s pallet, unaware of the heat of the fire, her hunger and thirst, and her exhaustion. Mary watches her tend to Judith. Mary sees how imminent Judith’s death is. She understands the desperation with which Agnes clings to her daughter’s hand, trying to hold her in this mortal life. And she knows how hopeless that attempt is; she herself tried three times, but she lost three of her daughters anyway. Cruelty and devastation lurk in all places, she knows; a person can never let down her guard. She fights back tears as she anticipates the tasks of washing Judith’s body and preparing it for burial. When Eliza asks if the time has come to write to the father, Mary gives a brief nod.
The previous chapter ended with Agnes making a choice to sacrifice her closeness with her own husband, albeit temporarily, for his happiness. The theme of her sacrificial love continues into this chapter as she ignores her own physical discomforts to tend to Judith. Readers see Agnes through Mary’s eyes here, and Mary consciously reiterates the idea that grief and suffering are inevitable. Considering this, the book posits love as the only thing strong enough to give beauty and purpose to life.
Themes
Eliza writes a short letter, which Mary prepares to send to London. Meanwhile, Hamnet wakes from an uneasy sleep with a feeling that the world has suddenly tilted crooked. He lurches to his feet, intent on reaching Judith. His head fills with pain. Dizzy and disoriented, he stumbles down the stairs. Eliza and Agnes doze, but Judith looks straight at him from her pallet by the fire. He stumbles, then crawls to her. He twines his fingers in hers, comforted by the sensation of completion this touch gives him. They have always fit together like halves of a walnut. The tears on her face come from his eyes.
Hamnet is clearly very sick too, even though the focus and attention of the family rests entirely on Judith. This highlights the idea that fate comes from unanticipated directions. As Hamnet interlaces his fingers with Judith’s, he feels complete in a way that suggests the twins are each one half of a single being. And this, in turn, should remind readers about Agnes’s vision of her life, one which includes only two children.
Themes
Judith murmurs that he will survive without her, but Hamnet refuses to. He will go with her, despite her weak protests. He feels Death hovering in the room, watching and waiting. He wonders if he can insist that it take him too. Then, he thinks of something. He and Judith look so alike that they can fool anyone—even Agnes and their father—when they choose to switch places. He turns to face Death, tells it to close its eyes, just for a moment. Then he gently lifts Judith from the hollow her body has made in the straw of the pallet. He lies down there himself. Judith tells him to stop, but he whispers to her that she must stay. They both know that they cannot both live. But if only one of them will, it will be her. Hamnet insists.
The book personifies Death in this scene, suggesting Hamnet’s burning, hallucinatory fever but also firmly establishing its view that the veil between the physical world and the world of the supernatural and spiritual is thin and permeable. Hamnet and Judith are two halves of one whole, and they both express a confident belief that they cannot both exist as separate creatures. Their lives and energies must be reintegrated. Each wants the other to stay, raising a question about why Hamnet prevails. This will be answered in later chapters.
Themes
