“Who was your favorite teacher?’ is an often asked question. In my case it would be several different people. First there was my father who read poems and stories to me from the time that I was very young. He took me to bookstores and libraries and transferred his own love of reading to my psyche. Next came my first grade teacher, Sister Camilla, who noticed my tiny bit of dyslexia and showed me how to overcome its challenges so that I might learn to read fluently. Finally came Father Shane who introduced me to a world of literature and artistic expression that my father had only just begun to show me before he died. 

I was already a full blown reader when I walked into Father Shane’s classroom but without much guidance I chose a rather limited number of authors and genres to devour. He challenged me to widen my horizons on a journey to becoming what he called “a citizen of the world.”

Father Shane had us follow scripts while listening to noted actors reading poems with so much feeling that I hung on every word with an understanding that would only deepen as I matured. He took us to performances of Greek plays and concerts featuring the music of great composers. He required us to read one book every single week of the school year and then write a critique of what we had learned from the wide ranging topics and styles. 

It was in Father Shane’s class that I first encountered the works of William Shakespeare. He began with the tragedies and comedies that were easiest for us to understand. He chose different students to read the parts aloud and then coached us on how to draw out the meanings of the words. I became quite adept at understanding what the great bard was attempting to convey in his poetry and plays. I could not get enough of his body of work. 

Eventually we moved on to the greatest hits of Shakespeare like Macbeth and King Lear. By the time we read Hamlet I had been totally enchanted by the works of William Shakespeare. I had also developed a love of my English classes that was almost primordial. Through the words of great authors both ancient and modern I came to understand how alike we humans have always been. I also saw that reading would become a lifetime experience for me that would never end as books became my most cherished possessions. 

When I traveled to London my quest was to visit the Globe Theater and experience a Shakespearean play the way the people did in the days of such productions. I sat on the hard thin seats in the area that would have once been reserved for the wealthy while watching the throng standing below me. I saw the interaction between the actors and the audience and felt as though I had somehow travelled back in time.

It took me awhile to finally watch the movie Hamnet that is garnering rave reviews and prizes. When I finally rented it, I settled in for an evening that I suspected would speak to my very soul and so it did. The story is historical fiction at its best, weaving the little known aspects of Shakespeare’s family life with how tragedy influenced his writing of Hamlet. 

We meet Agnes, who is better known as Anne Hathaway, early on and see that she is an enchanting character who would no doubt have attracted a man like Shakespeare who seemed to understand the human heart better than most people. The marriage and family life of Agnes and William is portrayed as being one filled with love but some tension due to Shakespeare’s need to express himself in his work. The story centers around the untimely death of the couple’s only son, Hamnet, and weaves a connection between the real life event and the writing of the tragedy of Hamlet. 

Every aspect of this movie is superb from its screenplay to the acting. The costuming and visual productions take the viewer back to a time when life was rather brutal for many folks. The reality depicted gives us a picture of the Elizabethan worldview of the era. There is a haunting feel to every scene and the ending is beyond all description. I do believe that William Shakespeare himself would be delighted that his work still rings true even in the complex world in which we now live. Somehow those human emotions that he was able to describe with his beautiful words have transcended the decades and centuries. Hamnet is a bridge back to another time when a genius lived an ordinary life while achieving extraordinary things. It is a must see movie for sure.