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 wakes up on Saturday feeling hungover from all the energy he’s expended on the play. He walks sleepily into the bright living room, wondering where Miranda is. She rarely appears in the morning when the sun is so high. He castigates himself for thinking so much about her, telling herself he’s maintaining “just enough illusion to keep [himself] alive.” He should give up his “tinsel stickers” and “paper cutouts” and face the grim reality of his actual life. But, he argues with himself, real life comprises even the things “we can’t see.”
It’s interesting that Felix compares his imaginings to “tinsel” and “paper”; he’s likening them to a costume, or the materials the prisoners use to decorate their set. Especially given the connotations of costumes in the play, this metaphor aptly captures the mingled truthfulness and unreality in Miranda’s appearances to him.
Themes
Felix shakes himself out of this reverie and makes himself some coffee and cereal. He barely has any food left in the cupboard; if he goes on like this much longer, he might become one of those people who die of starvation because they forget to eat.
While Miranda’s presence helps Felix remember to eat, his dependence on her keeps him trapped in loneliness, worrying about dying in solitude.
Themes
On his computer, Felix searches for Tony and Sal. There’s another politician in their pack now, Sebert Stanley. In just a short time they’ll all be within Felix’s reach. He wonders if they’ll recognize him, and how they’ll behave when he realizes he controls their fates.
Felix never mentions or seems to think about the “fates” he’ll assign his enemies—just to be in control of their futures for a brief moment is revenge enough for him.
Themes
Next, Felix looks over his calendar. This week they’re filming his scenes, and since there’s only time for one take, he’ll have to be on point. For the first time, he tries on his magic cape. Doing so is like “stepping back into a shed skin”; he immediately feels powerful and confident. However, when he calls aloud for Ariel to come to him, his voice “sounds fraudulent.” Suddenly, he doubts his ability to play Prospero: no one could possibly communicate all the aspects of his character.
Felix doubts his ability to live up to Prospero, but he himself is proving as nuanced—and probably far better intentioned—than his inspiration. In fact, the ways in which he diverges from his character aren’t a limitation but a strength.
Themes
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Telling himself not to give up, Felix tries the line again; this time he hears Miranda’s voice in his ear, continuing with Ariel’s speech. Startled, Felix drops the staff he’s been holding. He realizes that Miranda has decided to understudy Ariel, and he’s amazed by her cleverness in finding a part that will allow her to blend into the production. The only one to know she’s there will be him. He wants to hug her, but it’s impossible—no one can touch a spirit like Ariel.
Felix’s daughter obviously corresponds to The Tempest’s Miranda in name, but as an unearthly, invisible spirit she takes on Ariel’s characteristics as well. Moreover, in that Felix conjures up Miranda and sometimes appears to control her, he seems to reenact Prospero’s somewhat tyrannical relationship with Ariel as well.
Themes
