At the heart of the human condition lies the individual’s desire to achieve personal justice. Transcending texts communicate ANSWER Q, through a lens that is representative of the author’s audience and zeitgeist. Consequently, re- imaginings reveal contextual dissonances from the original, though they ultimately resonate through their representation of LINK. This idea has been developed through a complementary study of ’s tragicomedy, ‘’ (1611) and Margaret Atwood’s metatheatrical, re- imagined novel, ‘Hag-Seed’ (2016). While both protagonists pursue revenge upon usurpation, their ultimate moral epiphanies enable Shakespeare and Atwood to didactically emphasise the significance of forgiveness and liberation. Wherein, Shakespeare reconciles his ideologically tensional Jacobean era, adhering to ‘Christian Humanism’, and Atwood concurs that liberation enables spiritual fulfilment. LINK both texts explore the journey towards and outcomes of justice. In revealing our inherent Machiavellian nature, Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ explores the individual’s desire for power as integral towards vengeance. ’s method of attaining power and control is through illusionary threat towards and . Within the initial Act, Ariel struggles against Prospero’s absolute control over him, causing Prospero’s threat to imprison Ariel under the “cloven pine”, referring to previous circumstances under ’s rule, which forces Ariel in forfeit to, “do my spiriting gently”. Prospero further inflicts magical torture to cease disobedience, seen where Shakespeare alludes to Colonialism through Caliban’s chastise, emphasised through procatalepsis in, “you taught me language and my profit on’t/is I know how to curse”, which resulted in Prospero’s assonant retaliation “thou shalt have cramps”. Thus, reflecting Prospero’s gain of power and control through illusion over both Ariel and Caliban, prompting the audience’s pathos

for both victims. This enables Shakespeare to didactically offer a problematic alternative to his existing political system, through the exercise of absolute power couched in terms of monarchical rule. The “’s illusions” prompt characters to reveal their egocentric desires, enabling Shakespeare’s emphasis of our inherent pursuit for personal justice. The island’s illusions sources Caliban – “in a meditative state”, to uncover his lust and covetous for Prospero’s power, evident in the hypothetic, “The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me” and, amplified through assonance, “I will kill this man. His daughter and I shall be King and Queen”. A yearning for personal justice is apparent here, as Caliban views himself as a victim of prejudice. By contrast, in alluding to Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’, Shakespeare, under the anarchy’s rule, didactically exposes the paradoxical nature of a society without sovereignty through Sebastian and Antonio’s comedic ridicule of Gonzalo’s utopic monologue. Wherein, Gonzalo wishes to facilitate “No sovereignty”, as the sovereign, evident through syncope in, “I’th’commonwealth”, causing Sebastian to expose, “yet he would be king on’t”. Thus, Shakespeare maliciously conveys the accumulation of power and control, by means of both serving his didactic purpose, and giving insight into the nature of revenge. Analogously, Atwood’s ‘Hag-Seed’ explores power and control through the appropriated protagonist, ‘Felix Phillips’ against Machiavellians ‘Tony’ and ‘Sal’. Atwood’s postmodern loathing for the corruption of the corporate world, characterises her portrayal of Felix’s usurpation. This is marked by the alliterative repetition of Felix’s derogatory rumination “That devious, twisted bastard, Tony”. Further, Atwood’s resent of opportunism is demonstrated in Felix’ simile, “Tony’s risen like a gas balloon ever since/and Sal was his ladder”, and in Felix’s refrain regarding Tony, “now he had a mini-kingdom”,

where ‘mini-kingdom’ serves as a synecdoche for power. A contextual dissonance appears here because, in ‘The Tempest’, Alonso and Antonio merely assisted one other in their usurpation of Prospero, rather than that of betrayed, revealing Atwood’s perceived increase of greed in the contemporary world. Felix’s eagerness for the vengeful act is displayed where Atwood uses bicolon to foreshadow his authority, “they’ve always been out of his reach, but now they’ll be entering his space”. Atwood’s 21st Century secular outlook is further displayed where she inverts societies conventions, evident during Tony and Sal’s “bad trip”, which prompted TimEez to ironically describe them with criminal-associated epithets, emphasised through parataxis in “Gibbering lunatics. Street people. Addicts. Dregs of society”. Hence, Atwood appropriates Shakespeare’s portrayal of power and control as she creates pathos for the avenger. Both texts characterise the fulfilment of justice through a vengeful act of illusion, though mitigated by exultant epiphanies of forgiveness and liberation. Prospero’s control over Ariel enables him to inflict illusionary anguish in the form of a ‘harpy’, evident in Ariel’s monologue commencing with, “You are three men of sin”. Similarly, Atwood re-contextualises vengeance through Felix’s power over the inmates in that this enables him to capitalise on Tony and Sal’s temporarily vulnerable state, forcing them into a drug-fuelled illusion evident in 8handz’s paired alliteration, “It’s beyond a bad trip, they’re scared shitless”. Whilst Felix’s revenge is more severe, Atwood’s postmodern view ultimately causes her emphasis on the importance of social contact in humanising us. This is not only demonstrated by the pathos created for Felix’s isolation, but also where 8Handz and propose to alleviate the revenge, apparent in 8Handz’s interrogatory, “Don’t you feel sorry for them?”, resulting in Felix to concede, “you’re right, that’s enough vengeance”.

Comparably, Shakespeare reconciles 17th Century ideological tensions during his Jacobean era through ‘Christian Humanism’. This is displayed through Prospero’s reconciliation of binary opposites: revenge and forgiveness, manifested within his aside, “I do forgive thee, unnatural though thou art” and the alliterative epitome, “the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance”. Thus, when Prospero ‘embraces Alonso’, the stage direction adds to the significance of “virtue” over “vengeance”. Atwood resonates here, “Felix had strewn forgiveness/which had been a greater pleasure”. Hence, a usurpation of natural order in ‘The Tempest’ and forced unemployment in ‘Hag-Seed’, have lead to acts of both vengeance and forgiveness. Analogous to Prospero, Atwood conveys Felix’s liberation through his delegation of freedom towards the once imprisoned, evident in Felix’s claim, “I want an early parole for my special effects technician” and within the ultimate line of the novel where Felix conquers his denial in liberating Miranda, “To the elements be free…And, finally, she is.” Prospero’s “I’ll break my staff…and…I’ll drown my book” symbolises both his triumph in no longer requiring magic as a supernatural weapon, but is also emblematic of Shakespeare’s request for liberation from the arts, epitomised in Prospero’s ultimate yearn, “let your indulgence set me free.”. Thus, Shakespeare and Atwood similarly convey fulfilment through a reconciliation of power with moral epiphanies of liberation and forgiveness. William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ and Margaret Atwood’s ‘Hag-Seed’ contextually collide with their depiction of power and control. However, their similar notions of fulfilment, as a poignant meld of vengeance, liberation and forgiveness, enable the timeless textual conversation on human tendency.