MODULE A: TEMPEST AND HAG-SEED ESSAY
• Textual conversations allow audiences to understand and appreciate changes in attitudes and values over time, by considering the resonances and dissonances that exist between texts. • This is evident when comparing William Shakespeare’s tragicomedy, The Tempest, with Margaret Atwood’s postmodernist appropriation, Hag- Seed. • Both composers communicate the different attitudes and perspectives towards similar concepts of humanity, exploring values of x in their respective context. • Ultimately, this enhances our understanding of these ideas, while also demonstrating how perspectives on social and historical contexts can change over time.
• The Tempest explores themes of power and literal imprisonment through its setting and characters. • This is evident in Prospero’s enslavement of Caliban, a native of the island, who is referred to as a “poisonous slave, got by the devil himself”. • Prospero’s use of derogatory language and animalistic imagery, symbolises the negative attitudes of colonisers towards natives in the 1600s. • Caliban’s submissiveness, which is due to a paralysing fear of Prospero’s magic, “I must obey. His art is of such power”, further symbolises this power imbalance between colonisers and natives. • Power and imprisonment are further explored through Prospero. Prospero himself, experiences the retribution of power after being exiled by his “unlawful brother”, Antonio. • Prospero presents Antonio as a brother “so perfidious!”, symbolising his anger and desire for vengeance after 12 years of being imprisoned on the island. • The opening stage directions ‘a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning’ symbolically introduces the disruption to natural order of the Jacobean chain of being through Prospero’s sovereign overthrow, stimulating the desire for revenge. • Prospero’s daughter Miranda remains his sole reminder of the past and a tool that he uses to reclaim his lost dukedom. • Metaphorically, he claims Miranda to have saved his life as she was worth living for after he had been banished; “cherubim Thou was that did preserve me.”
• In contrast, Atwood focuses her ideas of imprisonment on the constraints of Felix and Miranda’s relationship, reinventing the concept of revenge using ideals of 21st century familial love. • Without Miranda, Felix would never have had the desire to reproduce The Tempest and obtain revenge against those who led to its cancellation. • Miranda, according to Felix personified, “was what had kept him from sinking down into chaos,”, after the death of his wife Nadia. • The Tempest wasn’t only a production to Felix it was the resurrection of his daughter who had passed away. • Hyperbolised, she was the driving force for the success of the production; “This Tempest would be brilliant: It was like the Taj Mahal……But more than that……his Miranda would live again.” • Felix is imprisoned by his all-consuming guilt. This is manifested through his self-inflicted 12-year exile, which he describes as being “lost at sea … in a rotten carcass [where] the very rats have quit”. The motif of water, which is symbolic of loss within The Tempest, establishes an image of isolation and loneliness. • Similar to Prospero, all Felix’s obsessiveness stem from his loss’s, he rhetorically expresses: “Didn’t the best art have desperation at its core?” • Tony’s betrayal can be seen, in a 21st-century context, to be ‘just business’; as the corporate world runs on taking control and shifting power paradigms, parallel to ideal values of British Colonialism.
• The obsessive desire for revenge within both, The Tempest and Hag-Seed explore the consequences of figurative imprisonment, provoking a rediscovery of compassion and the restoration of humanity. • Initially consumed with the preconception of prioritising knowledge within his ‘magic books’, Antonio’s betrayal awakens Prospero to an awareness which he expresses metaphorically: “Of all the world I loved… he was the ivy which sucked my verdure.” • Prospero’s unwilling incarceration on the island physically isolates him from his rightful place as Duke of Milan, however his desire for revenge psychologically imprisons him. • The personal betrayal of Prospero by his brother is more profound in a world view during the Elizabethan era than it is 21st century, as the theme of revenge and tragedy was very popular.
• Transformed by this betrayal, Prospero becomes a creature of tyranny whose threats of violence: “I’ll render an oak and peg thee…” symbolises the negative consequences of confronting discoveries. • The restoration of Prospero can only occur when he is able to rediscover his humanity. • Ariel’s plea, “Your charm so strongly works ‘em / Your affections would become tender” foreshadows a sense of mercy and compassion from Prospero, from which he is able to later “forgive (Antonio) thy rankest fault,” and free himself from this psychological burden.
• Like Prospero, Felix’s obsessiveness to gain revenge culminates in his ability to face grief and ultimately, psychologically free himself. • Rhetorically, Felix expresses his discontent after executing his revenge upon his factotum, Tony; “what to do with so much sorrow?”. • Felix is not freed from his misery through getting revenge as the outcome of the production is simply to reinstate powers which the enemies had taken away, rather than core moral values. • In the same way, Prospero needed Ariel to encourage him to put an end to the enemies’ suffering, Felix also needed to let go of his daughter’s memory, this is symbolised by; “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance, he hears her inside his head. It’s Miranda. She’s prompting him”. • Felix becomes aware by keeping Miranda’s memory alive, neither of the two can have closure. Atwood metaphorically expresses; “Without memory there is no debt”. • Upon this realisation, Atwood employs emotive language in Felix’s dialogue, to which he grants her liberty; “to the elements be free…and finally, she is.”
The Tempest, hinges upon the belief in magic as of form of executing revenge, a premise that goes against our contemporary understanding of how the world works. At the time of The Tempest’s production in the seventeenth century, magic was of great cultural significance. Prospero delegates, Ariel, a spiritual presence, to help execute his vengeance upon his brother; “At this hour, Lie at my mercy all mine enemies”. Shakespeare foreshadows Prospero’s imposition of moral justice by force. The storm in Shakespeare’s play is not a real storm as it is achieved through the magical power of Prospero: “If by your art, my dearest father, you have/ Put the wild waters in this roar,” Accordingly, the storm symbolises a play produced by Prospero within the original play of Shakespeare, Atwood explains: “Prospero is a director. He’s putting on a play, within which there’s another play. If his magic holds and his play is successful, he’ll get his heart’s desire.” The kinaesthetic imagery provided In Act 1, Scene 2, discloses Caliban in an attempt to rape Miranda as he wishes to; “people the island”. As a result, Prospero treats Caliban as something otherworldly and less than human, foreshadowing the utilisation of his magic to subjugate him; “thou shalt have cramps, side-stitches”. Prospero abuses his position of power and divine arts to exact revenge primarily upon two people; Antonio and Caliban.
Likewise, Atwood’s hero, Felix utilises modern day magic to gain vengeance and recreate his Tempest. Felix is able to conjure his own type of magic through the help of 8Handz using visual and audio effects; “8Handz is behind the folding screen that hides the computer screen, control panel, central microphone and the two sets of headphones”, the imagery provided is reflective of Atwood’s contemporary take on magic in Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. For Felix, this is the grand moment that he has been waiting for and is not prompted to cease it any sooner than necessary; “Retribution may be slow in coming, but when it does come, the wicked will be crushed to dust”, is used as a metaphor to further express his burning desire for revenge. As a result, through the help of 8Handz, Felix is able to stage the interactive piece that ultimately leads to successfully
enacting his revenge, emotively he expresses; “I couldn’t have done it without Ariel,” says Felix, “without 8Handz”. Overall, Atwood explores how magic-like qualities can be created through the use of special effects that have become possible due to the technological capabilities of the contemporary world in order for Felix to execute his revenge.
Magic and its counterpart in 21st century – technology, paradoxically provide both freedom and constraint.