Chapter summaries By Any Other Name Jodi Picoult

Chapter 22: Shakespearean References

Spoiler Notice: This chapter contains no unfolding narrative; it is a reference appendix that does not reveal new plot developments. It does, however, list the many Shakespearean echoes intentionally planted throughout the novel, so reading it will foreground key parallels that might be considered thematic spoilers.

Summary

Chapter 22, titled "Shakespearean References," shifts from storytelling to annotation. Picoult assembles dozens of quotations from the Shakespearean canon—plays, sonnets, and narrative poems—and pairs them with brief reminders of where similar situations, emotions, or phrases appear in Emilia’s life as imagined in the novel. The chapter opens with a note explaining that these Easter eggs were left for readers who want to trace how Emilia’s experiences might have inspired the writing attributed to Shakespeare. The entries range from famous lines (“What’s in a name?”) to more obscure ones (from Arden of Faversham), each accompanied by page references and short contextual clues. Historical digressions—like the Groatsworth pamphlet, the true identity of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the female-scholar arguments for Arden of Faversham being penned by a woman—are woven in, turning the chapter into a compact handbook for the novel’s central literary-historical claim.

Key Events

  • The chapter explicitly confirms that the entire novel has been threaded with deliberate Shakespearean parallels.
  • Connections are drawn between Emilia’s defiant spirit and Katherine’s famous speech of submission in The Taming of the Shrew, underlining the tension between performed obedience and interior rebellion.
  • The rue that Ophelia keeps for herself in Hamlet is linked to Emilia’s own loss—rue being an abortifacient—suggesting that personal grief was transmuted into art.
  • Emilia’s own poem based on Ovid’s Fasti is identified as the blueprint for The Rape of Lucrece, reinforcing the idea that she was the source of a second long poem dedicated to Southampton.
  • The character of Alice in Arden of Faversham, now thought by some scholars to be the creation of a woman, is presented as a mirror of Emilia’s capacity for both passion and transgression.
  • Lines from Othello spoken by the character Emilia (“I will play the swan, and die in music”) are placed beside Emilia Bassano’s own life as a final, self-aware coda.

Character Development

Though no new scenes occur, this chapter completes the portrait of Emilia as a literary progenitor. It shows her not as a passive muse but as an active, hidden intelligence whose joys and wounds found their way into the most enduring lines in English. The sheer volume of allusions—from the sonnets to the revenge tragedies—builds a cumulative case that Emilia’s inner world was the quarry from which the plays were hewn. The chapter also subtly develops the character of the novel itself, revealing the meticulous architecture beneath the dual timelines.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Authorship and Erasure: The chapter is an extended meditation on who speaks and who is remembered. By attaching Emilia’s name to so many famous passages, Picoult symbolically restores a lost voice.

The Power of Naming: The title of the novel and of this chapter both point to the significance of names. The Juliet line “What’s in a name?” becomes a manifesto against the historical accident that attached Shakespeare’s name to works that might not be his.

Transformation of Pain into Art: Repeatedly, the darkest moments in the plays—Ophelia’s madness, Desdemona’s death, Alice Arden’s desperate love—are linked to events in Emilia’s fictionalized biography. Suffering is reframed as creative fuel.

Women’s Agency in a Patriarchal World: The chapter foregrounds the way female characters in the plays resist, negotiate, or subvert male authority, mirroring Emilia’s own struggle for recognition and autonomy.

Why This Chapter Matters

This appendix-like chapter functions as the novel’s thesis statement made visible. It demonstrates that By Any Other Name is not merely telling a story but conducting a thought experiment: what if the life of a real Elizabethan woman directly seeded the Shakespearean canon? By gathering the allusions in one place, Picoult invites readers to examine the evidence themselves, making the case that the plays are saturated with a female experience that mainstream scholarship has long overlooked. It transforms the reading experience from emotional immersion into critical engagement, encouraging us to re-examine the preceding chapters with new eyes.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. How does Chapter 22 connect Emilia’s personal experiences to specific Shakespearean works? The chapter lists direct parallels: her early loss finds an echo in Ophelia’s rue; her fraught marriage resembles Katherine’s taming; her defiance speaks through Emilia in Othello; and her own poetic drafts evolve into The Rape of Lucrece. These connections suggest that her biography was the raw material for the plays’ most intimate moments.

  2. What evidence does Picoult include beyond the fictional parallels to support the idea of Emilia’s authorship? She incorporates historical notes, such as the possibility that the Groatsworth pamphlet targeted actor Edward Alleyn rather than Shakespeare, the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were relatives of astronomer Tycho Brahe, and the modern feminist scholarship attributing Arden of Faversham to a woman. These details root the fictional conceit in genuine academic debate.

  3. Why might the author have chosen to present these references in a separate chapter instead of weaving all of them into the narrative? A separate appendix prevents the historical story from becoming bogged down in annotation while still allowing interested readers to explore the intertextuality in depth. It respects the pacing of the narrative and gives the allusions a documentary weight, turning the novel into a layered puzzle that rewards scrutiny without disrupting the emotional journey.

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