Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke Character Analysis in Hag-Seed

The novel’s protagonist, a director who takes a job teaching Shakespeare at a local prison after being ousted from his position as head of a prominent theater festival. Felix is at once a theatrical genius and a lonely and aging man; he struggles to reconcile these two personas, even creating a new name for himself—Mr. Duke—after losing his job, and hiding his true identity from everyone at the prison. For much of the novel Felix is motivated primarily by feelings of grief and resentment, which he expresses through a production of The Tempest he mounts at the prison. He uses the production to lure the politicians who once fired him, Tony Price and Sal O’Nally, to the prison and exact his revenge. At the same time, by focusing on the father-daughter relationship between the play’s two main characters, Prospero and Miranda, he hopes to revive his own daughter Miranda, who died twelve years ago but whose ghostly presence he often hallucinates visiting him. His obsessive pursuit of these goals often makes Felix self-centered, but he also does a lot of good to others along the way. In the prison he is a dedicated teacher, and the program he devises proves both educational and therapeutic for the prisoners. He also takes a lonely and struggling actress, Anne-Marie Greenland, under his wing, mentoring her and eventually throwing her together with Frederick O’Nally, who becomes her boyfriend. By the end of the novel Felix has vanquished his enemies and returned to power as director of the theater festival, but he’s no longer so concerned with his own personal gain, and triumphs chiefly in the benefits his revenge has brought to those around him. While he never overcomes his grief for Miranda, he manages to accept her death, a step which allows him to embark on a new (potential) relationship with his colleague, Estelle. Felix corresponds to Prospero, the Duke of Milan and protagonist of The Tempest.

Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke Quotes in Hag-Seed

The Hag-Seed quotes below are all either spoken by Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke or refer to Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

What to do with such a sorrow? It was like an enormous black cloud boiling up over the horizon…He had to transform it, or at the very least enclose it.

Related Characters: Miranda, Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 15

Explanation and Analysis:

Miranda would become the daughter who had not been lost; who’d been a protecting cherub, cheering her exiled father…What he couldn’t have in life he might still catch sight of through his art: just a glimpse, from the corner of his eye.

Related Characters: Miranda, Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 16

Explanation and Analysis:

By choosing this shack and the privations that would come with it, he would of course be sulking. He’d be hair-shirting himself, playing the flagellant, the hermit. Watch me suffer. He recognized his own act, an act with no audience but himself.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 32

Explanation and Analysis:

Watching the many faces watching their own faces as they pretended to be someone else—Felix found that strangely moving. For once in their lives, they loved themselves.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 58

Explanation and Analysis:

It’s necessary to look like the version of himself that’s become familiar up at Fletcher: the genial but authoritative retired teacher and theater wonk, a little eccentric and naïve but an okay guy who’s generously donating his time because he believes in the possibility of betterment.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Related Symbols: Costumes

Page Number and Citation: 60

Explanation and Analysis:

If she’d lived, she would have been at the awkward teenager stage: making dismissive comments, rolling her eyes at him, dying her hair, tattooing her arms…

But none of this has happened. She remains simple, she remains innocent. She’s such a comfort.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke, Miranda

Page Number and Citation: 62

Explanation and Analysis:

His magic garment is hanging in there too, shoved to the back. The cloak of his defeat, dead husk of his drowned self.

No, not dead, but changed. In the gloom, in the gloaming, it’s been transforming itself, slowly coming alive.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Related Symbols: Costumes

Page Number and Citation: 63

Explanation and Analysis:

This is the extent of it, Felix muses. My island domain. My place of exile. My penance.

My theater.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Related Symbols: Prisons

Page Number and Citation: 82

Explanation and Analysis:

Your profanity, thinks Felix, has often been your whoreson hag-born progenitor of literacy. Along with your whoreson cigarettes, may the red plague rid them.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 91

Explanation and Analysis:

“Colonialism,” says 8Handz, who spent a lot of time on the Internet in his former life as a hacker. “Prospero thinks he’s so awesome and superior, he can put down what other people think.”

Related Characters: 8Handz (speaker), Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 93

Explanation and Analysis:

Fool, he tells himself. She’s not here. She was never here. It was imagination and wishful thinking, nothing but that. Resign yourself.

He can’t resign himself.

Related Characters: Miranda, Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 109

Explanation and Analysis:

…the island is a theater. Prospero is a director. He’s putting on a play within which there’s another play. If his magic holds and his play is successful, he’ll get his heart’s desire. But if he fails…

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 118

Explanation and Analysis:

But my other name’s Hag-Seed, or that’s what he call me
He call me a lotta names, he play me a lotta games
He call me poison, a filth, a slave,
He prison me up to make me behave,
But I’m Hag-Seed!

Related Characters: Leggs (speaker), Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Related Symbols: Prisons

Page Number and Citation: 179

Explanation and Analysis:

Idiot, he tells himself. How long will you keep yourself on this intravenous drip? Just enough illusion to keep you alive. Pull the plug, why don’t you? Give up your tinsel stickers, your paper cutouts, your colored crayons. Face the plain, unvarnished grime of real life.

Related Characters: Miranda, Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Related Symbols: Costumes

Page Number and Citation: 182

Explanation and Analysis:

…it’s Ariel who changes Prospero’s mind, from revenge to forgiveness, because despite the crap they did, he feels sorry for the bad guys and what they’re being put through…so we take it that’s okay—to change our own minds.

Related Characters: 8Handz (speaker), Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Page Number and Citation: 253

Explanation and Analysis:

Prospero says to the audience, in effect, Unless you help me sail away, I’ll have to stay on the island – that is, he’ll be under an enchantment. He’ll be forced to re-enact his feelings of revenge, over and over. It would be like hell.

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke (speaker)

Related Symbols: Prisons

Page Number and Citation: 282

Explanation and Analysis:

But at least he’s given them a start. His life has had this one good result, however ephemeral that result may prove to be.

But everything is ephemeral, he reminds himself. All gorgeous palaces, all cloud-capped towers. Who should know that better than he?

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke, Anne-Marie Greenland, Frederick O’Nally

Page Number and Citation: 289

Explanation and Analysis:

…That was his idea, if not of hell exactly, then at least of limbo. A state of suspension, somewhere on the road to death. But on second thought, what did he have to lose? The Road to death is after all the road he’s on, so why not eat well during the journey?

Related Characters: Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke, Estelle

Page Number and Citation: 290

Explanation and Analysis:

What has he been thinking—keeping her tethered to him all this time? Forcing her to do his bidding? How selfish he has been! Yes, he loves her: his dear one, his only child. But he knows what she truly wants, and what he owes her.

Related Characters: Miranda, Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke

Related Symbols: Prisons

Page Number and Citation: 292

Explanation and Analysis:

Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke Character Timeline in Hag-Seed

The timeline below shows where the character Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke appears in Hag-Seed. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Felix carefully inserts his false teeth into his mouth, but as usual they don’t fit very... (full context)

Felix practices his voice exercises in the mirror, feeling how “deflated” and “reduced” his existence now... (full context)

Standing up straight, Felix examines the paunch that he’s just starting to develop. He sternly orders himself to put... (full context)

Felix knows that Tony’s rise to power is partly his own fault. He never supervised him... (full context)

Even if Felix hadn’t been thus weakened, Tony probably still would have “ambushed” him. Felix always left all... (full context)

To create these spectacles, Felix had to hire the best actors, set designers, and costume makers. For this, he needed... (full context)

He now knows that this was idiotic. Tony had slyly encouraged Felix to stay away from festival cocktail parties and events that catered to donors and the... (full context)

Imprisonment and Marginalization Theme Icon

Tony even encouraged Felix to put on productions that created a stir among audiences and the Board, such as... (full context)

First to “leave” Felix is his wife Nadia, who dies of an infection just after giving birth. He often... (full context)

Even though he doesn’t have a lot of time to spend with her, Felix is enthralled by Miranda. He even takes her to the theater, where she sits quietly,... (full context)

Felix refuses to believe that Miranda is actually gone from the universe. He recalls all the... (full context)

In order to “transform, or at the very least enclose” his sorrow, Felix devotes himself to a new production of The Tempest, which he believes will be a... (full context)

Felix himself will play Prospero; through the play he can be the protective and wise father... (full context)

Felix is about to begin rehearsals for The Tempest when Tony makes his coup. During a... (full context)

Felix asks what’s wrong, not particularly interested, because he knows that Tony will take care of... (full context)

Felix thinks Tony is joking; he created the festival, after all, and without him it would... (full context)

Tony says that Felix’s “contact with reality” is becoming impaired by his grief. For the Board, Felix’s recent decision... (full context)

Felix is in shock. He asks if he can at least finish his production of The... (full context)

Felix asks who his replacement will be, and Tony admits that the Board has asked him... (full context)

Just then, two security guards enter the room, evidently waiting on Tony’s command. Despite Felix’s protests, Tony has him escorted out into the rain to his car, where he finds... (full context)

Felix sees the Board’s chairman, Lonnie Gordon, shuffling towards him with an umbrella. Weakly, he tells... (full context)

Lonnie gives Felix his annotated script of The Tempest as well, but Felix sneers that he’ll never need... (full context)

Lonnie advises Felix to take a rest, especially after his two recent losses. He came to both Nadia’s... (full context)

Driving away, Felix feels so numb that it’s as if someone else is driving his car. He soon... (full context)

Driving on, Felix spots a tiny cabin built into the earth, set far away from the road. He... (full context)

Felix knows that choosing to martyr himself in this primitive shack is an act of sulking,... (full context)

Felix drives back to the rented cottage where he currently lives. Ever since he’s lost his... (full context)

Felix calls a moving company to pack up his things and sets off to find the... (full context)

Felix and Maude agree that he can live in the shanty and improve it as he... (full context)

Felix soon realizes that the world hardly notices his disappearance. In fact, the festival seems to... (full context)

Felix makes a bank account and rents a PO box in a nearby town, setting them... (full context)

Sometimes Felix amuses himself by imagining Maude as Sycorax, the witch from The Tempest, and Walter as... (full context)

Having settled into his new accommodations, Felix doesn’t know what to do with himself. He tries to avoid theater news but always... (full context)

To fill his time, Felix slogs through Russian novels checked out from the library, but he’s discouraged by all the... (full context)

After a while this too grows boring, and Felix spends increasing amounts of time sitting on a deck chair and staring into space. When... (full context)

Felix thinks about traveling, but knows it would be lonely and pointless. He knows he could... (full context)

Felix decides he needs something on which to focus. There are two “projects” that appeal to... (full context)

Felix decides to concentrate on revenge first. All the plans that come to mind seem impractical;... (full context)

In order to be better informed, Felix starts to track Tony’s movements as much as possible. It’s easy to do this because... (full context)

Six years after Felix loses his job, Tony leaves the festival and runs for political office, winning a seat... (full context)

In fact, Felix’s growing obsession with spying is less insane than another development in his life. For years... (full context)

In the years when Miranda would have been in elementary school, Felix “helps” her with homework and quizzes her on multiplication tables. He starts to cook meals... (full context)

Usually, she plays outside all day. When Felix hears birds squawking in the forest, he assumes Miranda has provoked them. In the winter... (full context)

When Felix has been out of work for eight years and Miranda is twelve, he finally takes... (full context)

Almost immediately, Felix is granted an interview. He buys a new shirt and trims his beard, hoping to... (full context)

Estelle immediately ferrets out Felix’s real identity; she’s been attending plays at the festival since she was a child. He... (full context)

Estelle warns Felix that he won’t receive a large salary, and that the work will be difficult: he’ll... (full context)

Seeing that Estelle is impressed with him, Felix stipulates his own conditions. He’s uninterested in teaching the usual novels and short stories offered... (full context)

Trying to sound authoritative, Felix states his belief in “hands-on” education and says that he will stage Shakespeare productions with... (full context)

While Felix’s first three weeks are indeed difficult, and he once has to threaten to quit, his... (full context)

Now Felix has been teaching his course for three years. He chooses his plays carefully, usually political... (full context)

Felix uses the same method to teach each play. He gives each student a shortened text... (full context)

...each character one by one, discussing what “makes them tick” and what their motivations are. Felix never has to say anyone is wrong, because with Shakespeare there’s always more than one... (full context)

...the text, the prisoners rehearse the play, create a soundtrack, and make costumes from materials Felix brings from the outside—obeying all the prohibitions against sharp objects. Since there are rules against... (full context)

When everything is finished, the play is shown via closed-circuit TV in every cell. Felix watches with the Warden and other guards, always happy to hear cheers and applause coming... (full context)

After the screening, Felix throws a cast party with potato chips, soda, and contraband cigarettes. Everyone likes to watch... (full context)

Felix lives for the three months during which he teaches his class. But during the rest... (full context)

Today marks the beginning of the fourth iteration of Felix’s class, and he’s nervous—despite his previous success, he knows he could still mess things up.... (full context)

Felix uses this persona to keep himself aloof from the prisoners’ lives and personal arguments. He... (full context)

When Felix turns, he can see Miranda sitting at the table. She’s sad because he’s going to... (full context)

...and pushing him away, but in this form “she remains simple, she remains innocent.” Still, Felix thinks she’s been in a bad mood for a while and wonders if she’s fallen... (full context)

Felix prepares to brave the snow and coax his car to start—he’s long replaced the convertible... (full context)

Shoveling the snow off his car, Felix feels his advancing age. However, eventually he gets it going and drives out of the... (full context)

Felix remembers an email he received from Estelle a month ago, inviting him to lunch. Felix... (full context)

Excitedly, Estelle tells Felix that she’s arranged something special for him. Over the years, she’s done lots of favors,... (full context)

Pretending to be calm, Felix asks who else is coming. He already suspects it’s Tony, since his own nemesis has... (full context)

...hopes that this visit might save her “baby,” and she’s thrilled with the results that Felix has managed to achieve; she’s been telling everyone that Felix manages to use the arts... (full context)

Fortunately for Felix, Estelle has kept the secret of his identity from the Ministers, referring to him only... (full context)

Estelle asks Felix which play he’s chosen for this year. Although he’d been planning on Henry V, just... (full context)

...the Ministers will like his choice of play; she twists her hands in consternation, but Felix reassures her that both the Ministers will “relate” to it as well. (full context)

Felix drives up the hill where the prison is located. Snow is still falling, and he... (full context)

Felix passes through the metal detector, greeting the guards, Dylan and Madison. Neither of him suspect... (full context)

Madison asks what play Felix will stage this year; the guards enjoy watching the performance as well, and Felix always... (full context)

Madison asks if The Tempest has a fight scene, and Felix says vaguely that there’s something of the sort. But when he tells them the play... (full context)

...cellblock but rather the wing where prisoners meet with social workers, priests, and teachers like Felix. Felix doesn’t ever interact with these people, whom he thinks of as “moralizing” and judgmental. (full context)

Many of these workers see Felix as a bad influence, allowing “damaged men” to re-enact scenes of violence and carnage that... (full context)

In the classrooms where Felix conducts his classes, there are no video cameras—he’s insisted that the actors must feel secure... (full context)

The last room on the hall is a large classroom where Felix holds his discussions and lectures. Thanks to Estelle’s maneuvering, it has a computer, although no... (full context)

Felix stands in in front of his new class. He’s never exactly sure who will be... (full context)

Although he never mentions it, Felix knows what crimes each actor has committed—usually gang involvement, drug dealing, and theft. There’s even... (full context)

Felix can already see the perfect actors for some roles: WonderBoy, a former con artist, would... (full context)

Smiling as if he “knows what he’s doing,” Felix commences the speech he gives each year, welcoming everyone to the Fletcher Correctional Players and... (full context)

Felix explains that the actors will be organized into teams for each of the principal characters.... (full context)

Now, knowing he has to be persuasive, Felix introduces The Tempest as this year’s play. They’ve all had time to read the play... (full context)

When Felix opens the floor for questions, Leggs—arrested for breaking and entering, now a veteran actor who... (full context)

Felix is prepared for this hostility. In previous plays, the only female characters were supernatural or... (full context)

...stickler for tedious details, who reminds the class that someone still has to play Ariel. Felix promises to discuss this later; for now, he wants the prisoners to make a list... (full context)

When he arrives at the second class two days later, Felix is feeling relaxed and confident. Adopting his “avuncular” voice, he asks a volunteer to read... (full context)

...use those insults. Someone asks if “shit,” which appears in the play, is allowed, but Felix nixes the idea, saying that “too much shit is monotonous, and monotony is anti-Shakespeare.” Sweeping... (full context)

Felix already knows which actress he wants to play Miranda: Anne-Marie Greenland, the girl he engaged... (full context)

...has worked mostly as a dancer; there are several impressive videos of her on YouTube. Felix wonders if she has a partner or husband, but no such information appears on any... (full context)

On the appointed day, Felix picks Anne-Marie up at the coffee shop, making a rare foray into Makeshiweg. They go... (full context)

Diving into his plans, Felix announces that he wants Anne-Marie to return to her abandoned role—but this time, in a... (full context)

Anne-Marie asks if Felix will be taking on the role of Prospero, and he assents. Suddenly, she smiles; saying... (full context)

Felix asks about the meaning behind Anne-Marie’s bicep tattoo, a small bee. She explains that after... (full context)

Felix begins his next class by dramatically announcing that he’s persuaded an “exceptional” actress to take... (full context)

Trying to sound formal and distant, Felix says that Anne-Marie will come to the prison for a read-through next week. Still, he... (full context)

Felix shifts the discussion to a more difficult topic: who will take on Ariel’s part. Several... (full context)

Instead, Felix encourages the actors to think more “widely” about Ariel. He points out his many superpowers—the... (full context)

Felix encourages the actors to discuss possible costumes for Ariel, and PPod suggests green skin and... (full context)

Next Felix asks the class to think about what would happen without Ariel’s role in the play.... (full context)

When Felix leaves the prison, crows watch him start up his car. He drives home absently, feeling... (full context)

While preparing a lackluster dinner of eggs and tea, Felix thinks over the plot for revenge he’s been hatching. At first it seemed simple: when... (full context)

...it would be better to give up his vengeance, and with it his “former self.” Felix doesn’t even know if his theatrical accomplishments are worth defending in this way, and he... (full context)

In his bedroom, Felix looks at his “wizard’s garment,” which has been waiting so long to be used. Examining... (full context)

When Felix returns to the living room, Miranda is sitting in the corner, looking worried. He promises... (full context)

On Monday, Felix drives to class with his confidence restored. This week he will devote to analyzing the... (full context)

...the prison and, like everyone else, they’re excited and intrigued. Full of importance, they tell Felix that she’ll have to wear a security pager at all times, and wish him luck... (full context)

In the classroom, Felix starts to explore the history of the island where The Tempest takes place. It was... (full context)

No one seems particularly enthusiastic about all these details. Pausing, Felix posits the idea that the island is like a “mirror,” providing each character “a reflection... (full context)

As they write, Felix reflects that besides being a mirror, the island is a theater. Like any director, Prospero... (full context)

Only one person wants to play Gonzalo, but fortunately it’s Bent Pencil, the very person Felix wanted to cast. Alonso and Sebastian aren’t popular with anyone, but lots of people want... (full context)

Before this discussion, Felix bathes in the cabin; he only does this once a week, because it’s so difficult... (full context)

After bathing, Felix puts on his pajamas and makes a glass of cocoa. Once he’s lying in bed,... (full context)

When he arrives at class on Wednesday, Felix asks the actors to imagine the kind of being that Caliban is. The actors describe... (full context)

Felix points out that Caliban has other layers as well. Like Ariel, he can sing and... (full context)

Felix acknowledges the fact that most of the actors don’t like Prospero, and tells them to... (full context)

Felix congratulates the class on having spotted eight prisons. However, he tells them, there’s actually a... (full context)

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... (full context)

...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... (full context)

Next, Felix wants to talk about the “enforcers” of the play. Everyone is confused, since no such... (full context)

On Thursday, Felix has plans to meet Anne-Marie for lunch and brief her before her first meeting with... (full context)

Felix looks over the notes he’s made for Anne-Marie, which state the casting assignments as well... (full context)

...the Pill, a middle-aged doctor jailed after prescribing opioids to college students who later overdosed. Felix describes him as easily taken advantage of. Bent Pencil, a pompous but respected accountant convicted... (full context)

Felix has added an “Announcer” part, who summarizes each scene in order to allow the audience... (full context)

Next, Felix has notes assigning crew parts to different actors, based on their skills. For example, he’s... (full context)

The same day, Felix meets Anne-Marie for lunch. Somehow she already looks younger and more open; Felix thinks she’s... (full context)

...part has always been in her head, waiting for the day she could use it. Felix says he’s excited to perform together, but she’s a little grim to think that the... (full context)

Felix shows Anne-Marie his notes, and she protests that he shouldn’t have told her about their... (full context)

Anne-Marie says that Felix is already playing her “overprotective dad,” but reminds him that teenage girls always desert her... (full context)

Feeling that he has an ally in his project, Felix is cheered and confident. Then, for a second, he doubts himself: maybe she’s not laughing... (full context)

After making copies of his cast list, Felix collects Anne-Marie and drives to the prison. She’s a little daunted by the grim atmosphere.... (full context)

Felix introduces Anne-Marie to Dylan and Madison as a well-regarded actress. Politely, they give her a... (full context)

Felix shows his new actress around his classroom wing and she immediately claims one of the... (full context)

Before announcing the cast, Felix reminds the actors that they have to accept the decisions, even if they don’t like... (full context)

...uncertainly what she should start doing. To ease her into the routine of the class, Felix starts to run through their scenes together until 8Handz appears at the door, looking for... (full context)

Once she’s gone, Felix asks 8Handz what he knows about the prison’s surveillance systems; he wants to “see without... (full context)

Now, there’s only five weeks left until Tony and Sal arrive at the prison and Felix’s plan either succeeds or fails. He can feel them growing closer in their political orbit... (full context)

...show is nowhere near ready. Some goblins have quit, and scuffles have broken out when Felix was distracted. He only has a few scenes on video, and the keyboard he ordered... (full context)

Almost everyone is flubbing their lines; in his old life Felix would berate his actors for these kinds of mistakes, but he knows he can’t behave... (full context)

...wants to use instead of a speech by Prospero widely considered long and boring. Ruefully, Felix thinks that SnakeEye is cutting him out of the play, just as Antonio does to... (full context)

...gets into a formation and, on Anne-Marie’s signal, launches into an aggressive and rhythmic dance. Felix is impressed. SnakeEye begins the rap, which tells the story of Prospero’s exile from the... (full context)

After finishing the rap, everyone looks hopefully at Felix. The routine is excellent—in fact, it’s so much better than Prospero’s speech that Felix wants... (full context)

...how his love for Miranda preserved him through his darkest days—a particularly resonant passage for Felix. Many of the prisoners have children, and SnakeEye wants to superimpose their pictures onto the... (full context)

To cheer himself up, Felix goes to Toronto over the weekend to buy props. First, he stops at a toy... (full context)

Next, Felix goes to a costume store and buys blue wings, makeup and face paint in various... (full context)

Finally, Felix stops at a woman’s swimwear store to buy a blue swim cap. When the saleswoman... (full context)

When Felix returns to his cottage, the sun is setting beautifully and snow flurries are falling. A... (full context)

During Felix’s next session at the prison, Miranda reads the entire Tempest. Felix has never wanted her—a... (full context)

...music in one of the classrooms. 8Handz is busy with the cables and cameras that Felix has procured for him. Felix sets up a folding screen in the main room, behind... (full context)

Felix is worried that knitted attire for the goddesses is “bad taste…[and] not the kind of... (full context)

...first scenes on video, and today are shooting Caliban’s scenes. In full costume, Leggs tells Felix that his team has written an extra number for Caliban, choreographed by Anne-Marie. Worried about... (full context)

Anne-Marie claps enthusiastically at the end of the rap, and after a minute Felix does as well. He’s a little choked-up at Leggs’s performance; he knows that it’s only... (full context)

Felix wakes up on Saturday feeling hungover from all the energy he’s expended on the play.... (full context)

Felix shakes himself out of this reverie and makes himself some coffee and cereal. He barely... (full context)

On his computer, Felix searches for Tony and Sal. There’s another politician in their pack now, Sebert Stanley. In... (full context)

Next, Felix looks over his calendar. This week they’re filming his scenes, and since there’s only time... (full context)

Telling himself not to give up, Felix tries the line again; this time he hears Miranda’s voice in his ear, continuing with... (full context)

Felix wakes up suddenly in the morning, haunted by a dream he can’t remember. He thinks... (full context)

Today the cast will be shooting Felix’s first scene with Ariel, so he packs the magic garment into a bag after he... (full context)

...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... (full context)

When Felix surveys himself in the mirror now, he realizes he’s looking gaunt. For the first time... (full context)

Soothingly, Felix tells Miranda that the car is a magic machine that will take them anywhere they... (full context)

...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. (full context)

...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... (full context)

...cast has created the sets, sung their songs, and fought amongst themselves throughout it all. Felix alternately castigates himself for taking on this project and “congratulates himself on his judgment.” The... (full context)

Felix makes another trip to Toronto, where he buys bowler hats and white makeup for Stephano... (full context)

The next day, Felix eats eggs for breakfast and checks on Tony and Sal, who are attending one function... (full context)

When they meet at their usual lunch place, Felix suspects that Estelle has dressed up for him more than usual. Felix orders a martini,... (full context)

Estelle is puzzled that Felix doesn’t seem more disappointed. He’s actually thrilled, because this new slight is exactly what he... (full context)

Felix asks who else will be accompanying the ministers, and Estelle pulls out a file folder... (full context)

...the list is Sal’s son Frederick, an aspiring actor who has been unsuccessful so far. Felix immediately dismisses him, assuming that his father pulled strings to get him into university theater... (full context)

Felix asks anxiously if any of the men know his real identity, but Estelle reassures him... (full context)

It’s the day of the performance, but first Felix has to give a “pre-battle speech.” He adjusts his magic garment and walks down the... (full context)

Encouragingly, Felix tells the actors that they’re ready for anything. His reminder that these politicians want to... (full context)

Next, Felix goes over the instructions one last time. The sailors will escort the politicians into the... (full context)

Anxiously, Bent Pencil says he hopes no one will get hurt, but Felix reassures him everything will be fine, as long as they don’t fight. He reminds the... (full context)

The other demonstration cell will be the “nap-time location” for Sal and Lonnie. Felix reminds the goblins how important it is that everyone is placed in the right room,... (full context)

Felix sits down behind the folding screen. Over the sailors’ audio feeds, he can hear Sal... (full context)

...Tony owes Sal for all the help he’s given him, starting the day they ousted Felix Phillips; but he thinks it’s now better to ally himself with a candidate who owes... (full context)

...black handing around soft drinks in blue and green cups. Watching from his hiding place, Felix sees TimEEz settle into a chair behind the men, ready to lift their security pagers.... (full context)

Behind the folding screen, Felix bangs the floor with his cane. 8Handz stands with his hand over the Play button,... (full context)

Listening from the other room, Felix eagerly asks 8Handz if he has everything on tape. Tony must have been planning to... (full context)

...the speakers in the classroom, and the men venture down the hallway towards the music. Felix says that he feels a little guilty for subjecting Lonnie to this ordeal, but he... (full context)

Felix asks 8Handz what exactly is in the grapes, and the young man lists off a... (full context)

...poisoned. Lonnie, who feels nothing strange, is confused. Watching on the screen, 8Handz cheers but Felix tells him to leave the men to the trip and check on Frederick and Anne-Marie.... (full context)

...demons. Lonnie is hiding behind the table. 8Handz worries that they overdid the drugs, but Felix insists he followed the instructions; still, they need to speed up the action in order... (full context)

On Felix’s cue, Red Coyote and TimEEz (as Stephano and Trinculo) “prance” into the classroom, to the... (full context)

Seeing how scared the men are, even 8Handz starts to soften; he asks Felix if he feels sorry for them. In Felix’s ear, Miranda whispers that she would feel... (full context)

...settling down. Everyone is assembled except for Anne-Marie and Frederick. To a magnificent drum roll, Felix finally appears, arrayed in his magic garment. He greets them with one of Prospero’s speeches... (full context)

Tony alone is immediately angry, accusing Felix of sabotaging him, and threatening to end the literacy program. Felix waves away their threats... (full context)

To enforce his demands, Felix reveals that he’s captured all their drug-induced raving on video—an embarrassing spectacle that would damage... (full context)

...Sebert stare resentfully at him. Lonnie asks if the riot was real at all, but Felix ignores him. Gesturing to Sal, who is still worried about Frederick, he says he has... (full context)

...shakes Sal’s hand, while Frederick eagerly asks her if she’s free for dinner that night. Felix shrugs, saying that no one can fight “true romance.” (full context)

...with the Warden and other officials: doubtless a calmer affair than what they’ve just endured. Felix wonders if they will make any allusions to the “lockdown” or their hallucinations. Probably not—instead,... (full context)

Frederick and Anne-Marie follow them to the reception, but first she kisses Felix on the cheek and says she wishes he really was her dad—he would be an... (full context)

Felix and 8Handz gather up all the speakers and videos they’ve distributed across the rooms. As... (full context)

...voice is singing the children’s rhyme “merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” Felix used to sing that song to Miranda when she was a child. He feels chilled,... (full context)

In the darkness, Felix walks towards his car and drives away from the prison. He’ll be eating dinner alone... (full context)

Before his last class, Felix slits open twenty bags of potato chips, inserts cigarettes inside, and reseals them with a... (full context)

As Felix goes through security, Dylan and Madison congratulate him on the play, saying it exceeded their... (full context)

When the cast has assembled, Felix warmly congratulates them on their performance, ironically dubbing it an “excellent demonstration of the practical... (full context)

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... (full context)

...where he can be useful but not have to obey someone else all the time. Felix nods approvingly, telling them the story is very inventive. (full context)

Everyone is silent at the end of this grim conclusion, but Felix concedes that the team has done a good job and awards them full points. He... (full context)

Anne-Marie interrupts Felix as he starts to call up Team Gonzalo; she wants to provide her own ending... (full context)

While the class takes a coffee break, Felix asks Anne-Marie if the goddesses really would have been able to exercise the power with... (full context)

When the report is ended, Felix asks curiously how this project turns out. Bent Pencil says he will have to imagine... (full context)

...mother wasn’t perfect, but she’s the only person who loved him. Other actors nod, and Felix senses that “tough though fallible mothers are being remembered.” After her death, Caliban was kind... (full context)

Felix hands out the bags of potato chips; everyone starts joking and clowning, although Felix knows... (full context)

Felix commends them on the powerful text, and Anne-Marie asks what happens once Caliban escapes. Leggs... (full context)

As the cast party is drawing to a close, 8Handz reminds Felix about the ninth prison, the one they couldn’t identify before. Felix explains that while Prospero... (full context)

Prospero never explains what exactly he feels guilty about, but Felix posits that since The Tempest is essentially about Prospero producing his own play, “maybe the... (full context)

...which—unless the audience helps him out—Prospero will be trapped forever, reliving his feelings of revenge. Felix points out that Prospero’s last line is “set me free,” a phrase he would never... (full context)

As she walks out of the classroom with Felix, Anne-Marie is almost tearful. Dylan congratulates her on her cookies and Felix on his play.... (full context)

Felix is packing up the few possessions he has in his cottage. After his electricity went... (full context)

Felix has finally been able to make his enemies suffer, and he’s followed his revenge with... (full context)

Felix has even gotten his old job back and could stage the Tempest he originally envisioned,... (full context)

...people working together, full of enthusiasm and wonder for set designs and costumes. Watching them, Felix feels a “strange mixture of nostalgia for the past mixed with joy for the future.”... (full context)

Meanwhile, Estelle has arranged for Felix to go on a cruise, which she presents as a relaxing break after the last... (full context)

Felix has accepted the offer but stipulated that 8Handz come as well. He’s finally been granted... (full context)

Now, Felix surveys his magic garment, and impulsively decides to take it on the cruise. He leaves... (full context)

Felix picks up the photo of his daughter that rests on his night stand. Miranda is... (full context)

Felix asks himself why he’s forced Miranda to stay with him for so long, doing everything... (full context)

Hag-Seed

Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke Character Analysis

Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke Quotes in Hag-Seed

Chapter 2 Quotes

Chapter 5 Quotes

Chapter 8 Quotes

Chapter 9 Quotes

Chapter 12 Quotes

Chapter 13 Quotes

Chapter 14 Quotes

Chapter 17 Quotes

Chapter 18 Quotes

Chapter 28 Quotes

Chapter 29 Quotes

Chapter 41 Quotes

Chapter 47 Quotes

Epilogue Quotes

Felix Phillips / Mr. Duke Character Timeline in Hag-Seed