So did you feel the Hamlet-ness of that storyline was central? Like that Ann thought to herself, "I'd like to tell the Hamlet story--but differently!" Because I more thought that it was a case of, "I want to have an heir get outraged over an illegal/sacrilegious turn of events, and ... hey, that's a little like Hamlet--it would be fun to drop some more Hamlet details in there."

I'm not hard-and-fast stuck on my opinion ... I guess I just didn't see Shakespeare's Hamlet's themes carried over that much to this story, whereas there were plenty of other themes. But then again, retellings don't really have to stick to the themes at all, now that I think of it...