Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hag-Seed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Theater and The Tempest
Vengeance
Imprisonment and Marginalization
Transformation and Change
Grief
Summary
Analysis
Felix congratulates the class on having spotted eight prisons. However, he tells them, there’s actually a ninth they haven’t identified; he’ll reveal it to them after they’ve done the play. In the meantime, he tells them to turn their mind to the jailers. Almost everyone in the play has been jailed by Prospero, even though he himself is imprisoned. Red Coyote points out that Prospero isn’t just a jailer but a “slave driver,” of Caliban and Ariel. Ironically, he adds that Prospero will probably discover oil on the island, “develop it,” and “machine-gun everyone to keep them off it.”
Red Coyote makes a direct connection between Prospero’s behavior and the ways in which colonialist regimes have shaped Canada and oppressed its indigenous people. In this sense he’s demonstrating the continued relevance of Shakespeare’s work, as well as its ability to be timely and prescient in ways Shakespeare himself could not have imagined.
Themes
Some of the prisoners start arguing with Red Coyote, but Felix calls for calm. Although they don’t like Prospero, he asks them to consider the wizard’s lack of options. He’s trapped on an island trying to defend his daughter from Caliban, who’s constantly trying to rape her and is physically stronger than Prospero. Grudgingly and with Felix’s prompting, the prisoners agree that Prospero does have the right to defend himself, although Red Coyote maintains he should never have been on the island anyway.
Still identifying strongly with Prospero, Felix is committed to defending his actions. However, by the end of the novel he’ll be much less concerned with the wizard and more receptive to the actors’ embrace of Caliban.
Themes
After settling this part of the play, WonderBoy asks why Prospero inflicts such elaborate imprisonments on his enemies as well, instead of just killing them and leaving the island. Felix tries to think of a good explanation; he suggests that Prospero is not only trying to get revenge but also secure a calm political situation when he returns to his dukedom in Milan, an aim best achieved by reconciling with Alonso and forging an alliance by marrying Miranda and Ferdinand.
While Felix is speaking off the cuff here, he’s also foreshadowing the decisions he will eventually make in effecting his own revenge: by eventually letting his enemies go, he secures a calm future for himself, as well as benefits for his protégé Anne-Marie.
Themes
However, Prospero doesn’t want to force Miranda to get married; he wants her to fall in love, so he uses his magic to arrange the outcome he wants. Moreover, by tricking Alonso into thinking his son is dead and then reuniting them, he creates goodwill and convinces the other man to agree to the marriage, rather than insisting that his son marry someone richer or more powerful. His treatment of Ferdinand is both an act of revenge and a “calculated stratagem.” The actors approve of Prospero’s cunning, and agree that he’s justified in his actions.
One of the play’s key concerns is that Miranda’s love affair with Ferdinand is both a genuine romance and a trick perpetrated by Prospero. The situation asks whether it’s possible for relationships to be both sincere and contrived. While The Tempest remains ambivalent on this matter, Atwood will suggest that it’s perfectly possible for positive relationships to contain such contradictions.
Themes
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Next, Felix wants to talk about the “enforcers” of the play. Everyone is confused, since no such persons are listed in the cast, but Felix shows them the numerous references to “goblins” in the text, which he explains are magical creatures played by whichever actors aren’t already on stage. They do the play’s “dirty work,” corralling characters like Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo and enabling Prospero’s revenge. While he smiles at the class, he imagines Tony and Sal at the mercy of his own goblins.
The play’s goblins are unnamed and largely unimportant, functioning totally at the behest of Prospero. While Felix will also direct his own goblins, the prisoners will see these roles as valuable and morally righteous—again showing how Felix puts an egalitarian spin on his portrayal of Prospero.
Themes
