Hag-Seed Study Guide

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eNotes | TABLE OF CONTENTS

HAG-SEED STUDY GUIDE 1

SUMMARY 3
Summary 3

THEMES 3
Themes 3

CHARACTERS 4
Characters 4

ANALYSIS 4
Analysis 4

QUOTES 5
Quotes 5

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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.
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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
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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 play. However, his archenemy, Tony, cancels his performance and steals his position as director.

Fool, he tells himself. She’s not here. She was never here. It was imagination and wishful thinking,
nothing but that. Resign yourself. He can’t resign himself.

Felix has been mourning the loss of his daughter for twelve years. In addition to putting all of his creative soul into
his play, he also has attached personal meaning to his work. He has planned to memorialize the loss of Miranda
through his production of The Tempest. However, when his play is canceled, Felix is trapped in his own grief. He
returns to his sad, lonely, rural home in Souther Ontario. He is completely isolated except for the ghostly company of
his deceased daughter. Felix sees her ghost all over the home. He goes in and out of recognizing that it is his own
imagination. Only when he hears her voice does he decide that it is time to interact with the real world.

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 Suddenly revenge is so close he can actually taste it. It tastes like steak, rare.

This quote exemplifies the role of revenge in the story. Hag-Seed is a rendition of The Tempest, with revenge as a
central theme. Felix was the artistic director for a Canadian art festival when all of the sudden his archenemy, Tony,
cancels his performance and steals his position. Felix retreats to his sad rural home. He eventually takes a new
position as an instructor for a prison rehabilitation theater program which allows him to plot revenge against Tony.
Felix has the prisoners pretend to riot as part of their performance of The Tempest. In the midst of the chaos, Felix is
able to record Tony plotting the murder of a fellow politician. Felix salivates at the thought of revenge and uses the
tape as blackmail. He ultimately wins back his job as director of the festival.