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 suddenly in the morning, haunted by a dream he can’t remember. He thinks that he should have listed dreams as one of the main themes of The Tempest; characters are always falling asleep or comparing the fantastic events of the plot to dreams. He wonders if Shakespeare knew what he was doing when he wrote, or if he was “sleepwalking part of the time.” Felix tells himself not to come up with new ideas at this late date.
It’s interesting that dreams are so important in The Tempest—like the theatrical illusions that Felix creates, they are both obviously false and sometimes very influential in the real world. In fact, the prevalence of dreams may be one of the play’s ways of interrogating the interactions between theater and the real world.
Themes
Today the cast will be shooting Felix’s first scene with Ariel, so he packs the magic garment into a bag after he gets dressed. Anne-Marie has presented him with a hat, in order to keep his head warm, and which he now wears to class. When he questioned her about WonderBoy recently, she admitted that he wants to write her letters after the play is over. Felix vigorously advises against this, but she tells him to stay out of it; they haven’t shot her love scenes yet, and if she lets WonderBoy down now he won’t perform well. Felix laughs that she’s “ruthless,” but she counters that she learned everything from him.
Anne-Marie’s considerate gift shows that she’s started to develop filial feelings for Felix offstage as well as in the theater. Like the imaginary Miranda, she takes care of him, but unlike Miranda she can help Felix start a positive new life in the real world. Moreover, it’s clear from her manipulation of WonderBoy that she’s inheriting Felix’s single-minded, sometimes unscrupulous fixation on the success of his plays.
Themes
In fact, the scene turns out perfectly. Anne-Marie makes a white costume for herself and projects “rapt enchantment,” while WonderBoy is “the embodiment of yearning desire.” Felix hopes that the actor won’t be too distraught to lose Anne-Marie, but he reminds himself that as “a con man playing an actor,” the young man is “a double unreality.”
Felix feels that WonderBoy is inherently untrustworthy, but he himself puts forth layers and layers of illusions. Even to people who know his true identity, like Anne-Marie and Estelle, he’s constantly dissembling his real goals and motivations.
Themes
When Felix surveys himself in the mirror now, he realizes he’s looking gaunt. For the first time Miranda comes with him to the car, although she’s initially hesitant to get in. He hopes she doesn’t remember her last car ride, on the way to the hospital with a high fever. Why hadn’t he noticed her symptoms earlier? He can’t even remember the production that had distracted his attention at the time.
By keeping Miranda in the cottage, Felix has been able to enjoy her presence without reckoning with the circumstances of her death. Taking a first step into the real world, she both develops like a “real” girl and conjures up the specter of her demise.
Themes
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Soothingly, Felix tells Miranda that the car is a magic machine that will take them anywhere they need to go. She seems to like the ride, and she’s astonished at all the ordinary things they see along the way. He reassures her that the prison guards won’t be able to see her; indeed, she doesn’t even make a noise going through the metal detector. Offhandedly, he tells Dylan and Madison that he’ll be stopping by the next day to deliver some equipment.
Even though Miranda’s ability to pass through the prison “undetected” seems to emphasize her unreality, it actually makes Felix more convinced of her presence and full of new purpose in his work.
Themes
The class is already assembled. Anne-Marie has brought the goddesses in their new outfits: a rainbow gown for Iris, a garment of plants for Ceres, and a nurse uniform with fangs for Juno. The cast likes everyone except Juno, who Shiv says “looks like my wife.” Felix dismisses everyone to rehearse while they shoot his scenes.
It’s interesting that no one takes the goddesses seriously except for Anne-Marie. Neither the prisoners nor Felix devote much thought to the possibility of the play’s women to empower themselves; it’s up to Anne-Marie to keep them from slipping into stereotypes of passivity and vulnerability.
Themes
8Handz is already in costume; although he knows his lines perfectly, he is still nervous. He asks Felix if they can do a second take; he’s been hearing feedback in his microphone, as if someone else is saying the lines along with him. Trying to seem calm, Felix asks if the voice is male or female, but 8Handz dismissively says it’s probably just his own. Quietly, Felix reminds Miranda not to speak so loudly.
Miranda’s “presence” in 8Handz’s earphones strengthens her alignment with Ariel and makes her seem more real—possibly not just living in Felix’s head. Just as he hoped all those years ago, staging The Tempest really does help Felix feel closer to his deceased daughter.
Themes
