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Hag-Seed Study Guide © 2021 eNotes.com, Inc. or its Licensors. ALL RIGHTS RESER

Hag-Seed Study Guide © 2021 eNotes.com, Inc. or its Licensors. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution or information storage retrieval systems without the written permission of the publisher. 1 eNotes | TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 HAG-SEED STUDY GUIDE SUMMARY Summary THEMES Themes CHARACTERS Characters ANALYSIS Analysis QUOTES Quotes 2 Summary Summary Hag-Seed is Atwood’s rewriting of Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. It is the story of Felix, an artistic director for the Makeshiweg Theater Festival. The story starts with Felix’s production of The Tempest. He has lofty plans of putting on the show of the century. In addition, the play was designed in memory of the loss of his daughter, Miranda. Felix is a lonely man who has lost both his daughter and wife. His life work is put to waste, though, when the villain of the story, Tony, finds a way to cancel his play. He retreats to his lonely home in Southern Ontario where he is left waiting for twelve years. In the meantime, Tony replaces Felix as the artistic director of the festival. He is finally hired by the Burgess Correctional Institution as an instructor for Literacy Through Theater. Felix dives head first into his new position and uses the opportunity to restage his long-lost play. He convinces the inmates that they want to perform his version of The Tempest. In preparation for the play, Felix invites government officials to show off the progress of the inmates. Though, it becomes clear that Felix’s intentions are mostly selfish. To Felix’s dismay, he learns that Tony will be attending in his new role as a politician. Felix takes advantage of the moment and gets his revenge. Rather than show a prerecorded version of the play, Felix has the cast perform it live. As part of the play, the prisoners put on a fake prison riot, which terrifies the politicians who are watching. In the midst of the chaos, Felix catches Tony on camera plotting to murder another politician. Felix uses the footage as blackmail and gains back his job as the artistic director of the festival. The story ends with Felix coming to terms with the loss of his daughter. Themes Themes A central theme in the story is revenge. Felix has been wronged by Tony when his play is canceled at the art festival. Felix spends years devastated and sets his eyes on revenge. The opportunity appears when he becomes an instructor at a prison rehabilitation theater program. Here he convinces the prisoners to put on his version of The Tempest. Local politicians are invited to see the progress of the prisoners. Tony has been climbing the ranks since stealing Felix’s position at the art festival. He is now a politician and attends Felix’s latest performance. As part of the play, Felix has the prisoners fake a prison riot. During the fake riot Felix records Tony plotting to murder a fellow politician. Felix then uses the footage as blackmail and gets his old job back. Felix is made relatable through his mourning of his daughter, Miranda. Miranda passed away years ago unexpectedly at the age of three. Felix has been in mourning ever since and has attached his grief to the play, The Tempest. He planned to perform at the art festival in her memory. When the play is canceled he is trapped in his own grief. He retreats to his lonely, rural home and sees her ghost. He is only able to let go of her when he puts his play on in the prison. 3 The nature of the art industry is essentially another theme. Atwood adapts this Shakespearean play written in the 1600s to a modern day scenario where a creative mind is hopelessly conned out of his own job. Atwood shares a side of the art industry that is ugly and competitive. Tony is a heartless villain who is willing to take down the dreams of others, in order to climb his own career ladder. While Felix’s intentions are at first artistically pure, once he is wronged, he too uses art to seek revenge. Characters Characters Felix. Felix is the Prospero of Atwood’s version of the Shakespeare play, The Tempest. Felix is an ambitious art director of the Makeshiweg Theater Festival. His youngest daughter unexpectedly died at the age of three and Felix is putting on his own version of The Tempest at the festival. However, his archenemy, Tony finds a way to cancel his play. Felix retreats to his lonely rural home in Southern Ontario. He lives in solitude, haunted by the ghost of his deceased daughter. Felix determines it is time to interact with the outside world when he begins to hear his daughter’s voice. He gets a position as an instructor for a nearby prison theater program. He convinces the inmates that they want to produce his version of The Tempest. This new job gives him one last opportunity to put on his dear play. Tony. Tony is the Antonio of this story. He is the archenemy of Felix and the ultimate antagonist. He cancels Felix’s play and then takes his position as director of the art festival. Tony climbs the ranks and becomes a politician. He is inadvertently invited to see Felix’s play in the prison in his new role. As part of his revenge on Tony, Felix has the prisoners fake a prison riot during their performance. Felix then catches Tony plotting to murder a fellow politician on camera. Felix blackmails Tony to get his old job back. Miranda. Miranda is Felix’s deceased daughter. She appears as a fantasy conjured up by Felix’s lonely mind. Felix aims to put on the performance of a lifetime in her memory. He is devastated when he is not able to do so at the festival. However, once he is able to perform his version of The Tempest in the prison he is finally able to stop mourning her. Analysis Analysis There are many different retellings of Shakespeare's plays. Some have been successful while others have flopped. Hag-Seed seems to be one of the few that has done overwhelmingly well. Hag-Seed is the story of a play inside a play. The overarching plot is a classic rendition of The Tempest. It is the story of betrayal and revenge. The play inside the play is also a version of The Tempest. The Prospero of the story is Felix, an artistic director of an art 4 festival who is staging his own take on The Tempest. His archenemy, Tony, cancels his performance and he lives in solitude in Southern Ontario for twelve years. He finally takes a position as an instructor for a prisoner rehabilitation program. It’s through his play that he is able to take his revenge on Tony. Atwood aptly adapts a play written in the 1600s to modern times. While there is much that is different from Shakespeare’s plot line, Atwood stays true to the emotion it evokes and characterization of Prospero/Felix and Antonio/Tony. Felix, like Prospero, is relatable in his mourning. While Prospero mourned the loss of his wife, Felix mourns the loss of his daughter. Furthermore, Atwood uses ghosts, also commonly referenced in Shakespearean plays. Felix is haunted by the ghost of his daughter. It is only when he is convinced that he hears her voice that he determines he must engage with the outside world. In addition, Atwood remains true to the plot development of Shakespeare. Shakespeare is famously known for his complicated structural use of a play inside a play. Atwood differs from Shakespeare in her description of the “storm.” There is no literal storm in her renditions of The Tempest. Instead, the storm is the chaos that ensues between characters. Unlike Shakespeare, Atwood also allows Felix to be free at the end of the story. He is set free from mourning his daughter and begins to plan cruises. Meanwhile, the inmates he used in his revenge plot remain imprisoned. The stark contrast between him and the other characters can be heavily critiqued. Quotes Quotes This Tempest would be brilliant: the best thing he'd ever done. He had been—he realizes now— unhealthily obsessed with it. It was like the Taj Mahal, an ornate mausoleum raised in honor of a beloved shade, or a priceless jeweled casket containing ashes. But more than that, because inside the charmed bubble he was creating, his Miranda would live again. Felix is obsessed with his production of The Tempest. He has been planning this production for years and it is carefully crafted. Felix is to put on his version of the play at the Makeshiweg Theater Festival where he is the artistic director. He considers it to be the most important culminating moment of his life. He has put all of his creative self into the uploads/S4/ hag-seed-guide.pdf