Every life has its kernel, its hub, its epicentre, from which everything flows out, to which everything returns. This moment is the absent mother's: the boy, the empty house, the deserted yard, the unheard cry.
-- Narrator (1, Part 1)

Importance: This quotation pierces through Hamnet's search for his family with an abrupt yet brief premonition. Framed as a cryptic aside from the omniscient narrator, the quotation foreshadows the tragic events to come after Chapter 1's seemingly mundane introduction. The absent mother is the crucial player in this quotation. Agnes, not at home at the beginning of the novel, misses Hamnet's search for help and thus is unable to treat his sister, Judith, when she falls ill with the bubonic plague. A skilled healer, Agnes might have had a chance to save Hamnet's life if she had been home earlier to hear his calls for help; because she was not home, this becomes the pivotal moment...