The textual conversation between William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (1611) and Margaret Atwood’s novel Hag-Seed (2016) positions readers to realise how individuals must move on from the past in order to achieve fulfilment. Readers recognise how introspection and accepting the past is necessary in order to reconcile with loss and how to achieve freedom, individuals must overcome their restrictive, seemingly predestined capacities. Atwood’s appropriation of The Tempest allows contemporary audiences to gain true insight into the timeless values of self-reflection, reconciliation and challenging one’s destiny.
The textual conversation between The Tempest and Hag-Seed facilitates readers’ appreciation of how introspection and accepting the past is necessary in order to reconcile with loss. In The Tempest, Shakespeare advocates how Prospero’s introspection as he moves on from his preoccupation with revenge, prompts compassion and forgiveness. Shakespeare responds to the rise of Renaissance Humanism during the Jacobean Era, celebrating human control over one’s fate and display of virtues such as empathy and self-enquiry. Shakespeare characterises exiled Duke of Milan Prospero as unwilling to acknowledge how his usurpation by his brother Antonio resulted from preoccupations with magic as he accuses Antonio of being the metaphorical "ivy which had hid my princely trunk” to emphasise his loss and victimise himself. Shakespeare establishes Prospero’s anger towards his past betrayal in the supernatural stage directions [Enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet…] and [...the banquet vanishes], revealing how he uses magic to humiliate and punish the shipwrecked Royal Court. However, Shakespeare exposes how Prospero’s belief that revenge is justified is challenged
by spirit Ariel in “if you now beheld them, your affections would become tender…. Mine would sir, were I human,’ where the juxtaposition between his non-human character with his empathy leads Prospero to reassess his own lack of compassion in “And mine shall.” Shakespeare exposes how after Prospero is satisfied that his enemies have suffered enough, he forgives them, realising “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance,” in the epiphany where he recognises that his abuse of “rough magic” was flawed. Hence, Shakespeare promotes how Prospero’s reconciliation with his anger and desire for revenge catalyses his moral growth.
In Hag-seed, while Atwood shares Shakespeare’s belief in the need to move on from the past, by appropriating Prospero into Felix who is additionally tormented by guilt surrounding his daughter Miranda’s death, she creates a character which modern audiences feel empathy for. Readers then gain a greater appreciation for how introspection allows Felix to realise revenge will not bring fulfilment. Atwood’s 21st century Post Modern secular context reveals dissonances with how Shakespeare commends Christian values of forgiveness, and instead empowers individual happiness through self acceptance. Atwood establishes how like Prospero, Felix, dismissed from Artistic Director by his assistant Tony, cannot resolve his anger in “Lately his vengeance has seemed so close...directed and controlled by himself,” where the third-person omniscient narration discloses his spiteful revenge plot to frighten and punish Tony in a drug fueled chaotic performance of The Tempest.Atwood reveals how contrary to Felix’s expectations, revenge does not bring him fulfilment in the rhetorical question “I
succeeded...Why does it feel like a letdown?” prompting himself to reassess his obsession with vengeance. However, Atwood exposes how unlike Prospero in The Tempest, who overcomes his anger in the stage direction [He embraces Alonso], demonstrating sincerity to reconcile with his enemies, Felix who figuratively “strewn[s] forgiveness around” lacks this sincerity. Alternatively, in Hag-Seed, Atwood exposes how Felix realises it is not revenge that will bring closure, but self-forgiveness for his past behaviour in “To the elements be free,” symbolically freeing himself of his guilt from Miranda’s death. Hence, Atwood appropriates Shakespeare’s insights about the need to reconcile with one’s past, advocating to modern audiences how introspection plays a pivotal role in emotional fulfilment.
The textual conversation also positions readers to realise how in order to achieve freedom, individuals must challenge their restrictive, seemingly predestined capacities. In The Tempest, Shakespeare criticises Caliban’s perception that his imprisonment is inevitable, effectively rendering him unable to escape from his subjugation.Inspired by Montaigne’s essay ‘Of the Caniballes,’ which argues that ‘savage’ societies were more ‘sophisticated’ than European civilisations corrupted by greed and ambition, Shakespeare suggests that Caliban must similarly subvert such assumptions.Shakespeare establishes how Prospero forces the role of savage and slave upon Caliban in the repetition “Thou most lying slave...Abhorred slave,” which enforces a sense of entrapment.Shakespeare emphasises Caliban’s lack of emotional fulfilment in the hyperbole “For every trifle are they set upon me”
where he lives in fear of Prospero’s spirits on the island. Shakespeare satires Caliban’s desire for ‘freedom,’ which he pursues by serving Stephano, a drunken butler, in the dramatic song “CALIBAN [sings]...Ca-caliban Has a new master... Freedom, high day!” revealing how his prolonged enslavement distorts his perception of freedom as simply being free from Prospero’s tyranny. Ultimately, Shakespeare criticises how Caliban cannot escape from his familiar subjugation, when he repents after being overpowered by Prospero in “I’ll be wise hereafter and seek for grace” the cyclic nature of his return to Prospero’s control suggesting his loss of will. Hence, Shakespeare condemns how Caliban’s inability to obtain freedom is inhibited by his subconscious reluctance to challenge his past beliefs of his ‘inevitable’ imprisonment.
In Hag-Seed, while Atwood mirrors Shakespeare’s critique of self-imprisonment, she exposes how unlike Caliban, the prisoners are able to challenge assumptions, using performance to construct their own identity free from their past offenses.Atwood shifts her focus to the transformative power of art rehabilitative programs in the 21st century which allow prisoners whose “...dreams were lost in…[one’s] violent act” to openly express themselves. Atwood initially establishes how the past shapes the identity of the prisoners at Fletcher’s Correctional Facility in “..Leggs. Break-and-enter, assault.” where the truncated sentences emphasise how they are defined by their criminal offences. Atwood suggests that by assuming the character of Caliban in their production of The Tempest, Leggs, who resembles a shunned “hag-seed,” is able to see the good in Caliban “Everyone kicks him around but he don’t let it break him, he says what he thinks,” his admiring tone revealing his own capacity for empathy and self-betterment.
Atwood applauds how Leggs redeems himself through performance in “Leggs has come through for the play,” juxtaposing society’s initial fixation on his past criminal offences.While Atwood celebrates Leggs’s newfound freedom, Shakespeare expresses his disapproval towards Caliban’s self-imprisonment within his ‘predetermined’ roles of savage and slave in “I prithee, be my god,” where despite Caliban’s desire for freedom, he ironically submits to Stephano. By portraying Leggs’s success in achieving freedom, Atwood builds on Shakespeare’s insights by asserting that individuals have the capacity to overcome ‘predestined’ limitations.
Thus, the textual conversation between Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611) and Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (2016) positions readers to realise how individuals must move on from the past in order to progress.