Hag-Seed

Felix’s daughter, who dies at the age of three, just before Felix is fired from his position at the festival, in a sudden attack of meningitis. Although Felix was often a distracted caregiver, leaving Miranda with nannies while he planned and rehearsed his plays, he’s also a devoted father, enthralled by his daughter’s every action and proud of her ability to sit quietly in a crowded theater, seeming to take in the plays despite her age. Some years after her death, Felix begins to imagine that Miranda is visiting him as a spirit; although it’s never clear how seriously he takes these delusions, the ghostly Miranda begins to keep him company in his cabin every day, growing over the years from a young child into a sensitive but mature teenager. In some ways, her “existence” keeps Felix from going insane from grief and loneliness; he remembers to eat because he thinks he needs to feed her, and the idea that he’s taking care of her gives him a sense of purpose. On the other hand, his obsession with her and inability to confess his imaginations to anyone else keeps him from overcoming his grief and forming meaningful new relationships. The ghostly Miranda takes a strong interest in Felix’s staging of The Tempest, even learning Ariel’s part and whispering the lines in Felix’s ear. However, by the end of his production Felix realizes that by conjuring up Miranda’s presence he’s not preserving his daughter but rather trapping her and himself. Just as Prospero released Ariel, his spirit helper, at the end of the play, Felix releases the ghost of Miranda in order to start a new life. Miranda corresponds to the characters Miranda and Ariel in The Tempest.