Hagseed/Tempest Flashcards
Imprisonment thesis:
Atwood’s Hag-seed unpacks and explores a secondary concern of The Tempest; ‘imprisonment’. In doing so, she invites audiences to reinterpret and reconsider their understanding of the original text.
In reference to Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ Felix shares his unique insight on the play:
“Oh the actors will relate to it alright… It’s about prisons”.
This intertextuality begins to reshape our understanding of the original text, and Atwood playfully reverberates this notion through Estelle’s reply;
“Really? I never thought… maybe you’re right.”
An example of such is when Prospero frees Ariel from his imprisonment,
“Thou shalt be free / As mountain winds”
The simile of ‘Mountain winds’ is Prospero’s manipulative romanticisation of freedom.
Firstly, Ariel is imprisoned by his literal imprisonment.
“From what a torment I did free thee”
Next, Ariel is therefore imprisoned by Prospero’s command.
“Thou my slave”
Lastly, Prospero is imprisoned by his cunning manipulative tendencies, which is reinforced through his request in the epilogue;
“Set me free”
which resonates with Atwood’s meta-fictive interpretation – Prospero is a practitioner of theatre and thus imprisoned by such.
Prospero feels plagued and controlled by his lust for revenge the fallacious nature of his prediction
“bountiful Fortune hath mine enemies Brought to this shore… if now I court not but omit, my fortunes, Will ever after droop”.
Later, Prospero has an epiphanic revelation
“It’s better to act virtuously rather than vengefully”.
Antithetically revealing the morality of Christian Humanism.
Atwood presents a story in line with Shakespeare’s notion of a human lust for revenge.
This is his last chance. His only chance. To vindicate himself, to restore his name, to rub their noses in it – the noses of his foes.”
The biased narrative voice exaggerates Felix’s lust for revenge, influenced by Atwood’s more cynical and ironic post-modern form, and consequentially comments on a selfish human-nature.
Inversely, however Atwood doesn’t present the same Christian-humanist solution to this lust for revenge.
It took Felix to liberate others with his theatre to realise the righteousness of humanist values and to “pardon” (or in other words; forgive) Tony and Sal. Even then, Atwood’s cynicism shines through – with Felix keeping an incriminating USB, which may prove “critical in the future”.
In doing so, Atwood proves humanity’s lust for revenge to have overcome temporal limitations,
however, she also suggests that a true and genuine forgiveness is harder to achieve in the post-modern context.
