Colin Greenland answers “Any thoughts on why Shakespeare is the...”

Robert Blumenthal asked this question about Hamnet:

Any thoughts on why Shakespeare is the only character never mentioned by name?

Colin Greenland My first and persisting thought about Shakespeare's anonymity is that it stops him taking over the book; returns him, as Yakki says, from the superhum…moreMy first and persisting thought about Shakespeare's anonymity is that it stops him taking over the book; returns him, as Yakki says, from the superhuman eminence of universal fame to the level he actually lived on, the same level as the rest of us.

*Hamnet* is the story of a young boy who dies, and what that does to his family. Unusual as they all are, in their daily life and especially in their grief, they could be any family. By withholding Hamnet's father's name, and saying little, for most of the book, about his work, Maggie O'Farrell manages to emphasise his common humanity over and above his individual genius.

Then again, Robert, William Shakespeare is not the only unnamed character; far from it. As Christina points out, the baker's wife is never named, and nor are several others: the cabin boy in Alexandria, just as notably, and the whole of the crew of his ship, in fact; the glassmaker in Murano; William's Latin tutees. Other characters usually named are also frequently referred to by their place, their function, where they fit in a family or social group: Hamnet's grandmother, Agnes's daughter, John's apprentice. Long before we ever learn Agnes's birth-mother's name we have read her entire story, in which she is called only "the girl's mother". John thinks of Bartholomew as "the sheep-farming brother". For all the brilliance of the individual characterisation, it's very much a novel about kin.(less)

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