Anne Hathaway (wife of Shakespeare) is imagined by James Joyce's character Stephen Dedalus, who makes a number of references to Hathaway. In "Ulysses", he speculates that the gift of the infamous "second-best bed" was a punishment for her adultery, and earlier in the same novel, Dedalus analyses Shakespeare's marriage with a pun: "He chose badly? He was chosen, it seems to me. If others have their will Ann hath a way." Anne also appears in Hubert Osborne's "The Shakespeare Play" (c.1911) and its sequel "The Good Men Do" (1917), which dramatises a meeting between the newly widowed Anne and her supposed old rival for William's
Anne Hathaway perceived image, she says, "People have this idea of me as just being a very prim, professional girl, which I suppose I am, but I do cut loose and have fun in my life". Hathaway is one of the most accomplished actresses of her generation. In a review of her work in "Twelfth Night", Charles Isherwood wrote, "on screen or onstage Ms. Hathaway possesses the unmistakable glow of a natural star". An "Esquire" writer says many of her good performances have been overlooked, describing her career as "subtle brilliance that has largely gone unnoticed". Discussing her career in 2015, Hathaway