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
Before his last class, Felix slits open twenty bags of potato chips, inserts cigarettes inside, and reseals them with a heat crimper. The next day he meets Anne-Marie at the prison; everyone has insisted she attend the cast party. Frederick wanted to come too, but she told him it was just “for the guys.” She tells Felix that WonderBoy has finally stopped pursuing her and accepted that their relationship only existed within the parameters of the play.
Already, it seems that Anne-Marie and Frederick are an established couple. It’s interesting that she contrasts him with WonderBoy—after all, both relationships began as existing only in the play. This juxtaposition suggests that illusion best leads to genuine feelings in cases where compatibility already exists.
Themes
As Felix goes through security, Dylan and Madison congratulate him on the play, saying it exceeded their expectations. Anne-Marie gives the guards some cookies while they ask about the next year’s production.
Although Dylan and Madison see nothing unusual about the play, in fact it has transformed both Felix and Anne-Marie’s lives and futures.
Themes
When the cast has assembled, Felix warmly congratulates them on their performance, ironically dubbing it an “excellent demonstration of the practical uses of theatre arts” and reminding them that they’ve saved the Literacy Through Literature program for future prisoners. He tells them it’s the best production of The Tempest he’s ever directed (actually, it’s the only one).
Theater is “practical” for the prisoners because it gives them new skills and allows them to experience personal growth, thus empowering them to successfully reenter society. However, it’s also been more immediately empowering in that it allows them to challenge the very status quo leading to their imprisonment and stigmatization.
Themes
Leggs raises his hand and expresses the admiration of all the actors for Felix. He’s actually blushing as he speaks. Felix bows modestly and changes the subject: it’s time for the final assignment—the different teams’ presentations about the afterlives of their characters.
Felix has earned the respect of the prisoners not just by allowing them to wreak havoc on dirty politicians but by being one of the few people to look past the stigma of imprisonment and appreciate their potential.
Themes
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