MODULE / RUBRIC
These TWO TERMS are what comparative study can reveal between and within texts.
What are resonances and dissonances?
This is the century or year The Tempest was written.
17th Century (1609/10)
This indentured spirit says, “Mine would, sir, were I human” to Prospero.
Who is Ariel?
This title comes from an insult used against Caliban in The Tempest. Atwood reclaims the insult by using it as the name of Felix’s prison play.
What is Hag-Seed?
These characters are transformed by Atwood to make modern commentary. Name any pair.
Who is Prospero & Felix, Ariel & 8Handz, Ariel & Miranda, Miranda & Anne-Marie, Caliban & Prisoners, Antony & Tony, etc.
This technique draws attention to a text as a constructed work, including the process of storytelling and the fact that an audience is watching a performance.
What are metaliterature and metafiction?
This belief explained the natural order of society, with everyone having a set place and level of power.
What is the Great Chain of Being?
This character revered humanity as "How beauteous mankind is! / O brave new world, / That has such people in't!"
Who is Miranda?
This international project invited authors to rewrite Shakespeare’s plays for modern audiences.
What is the Hogarth Shakespeare Project?
Atwood updates Caliban’s experience by representing these people as marginalised figures who are excluded and controlled by society.
Who are the prisoners?
Bonus $100 = Name ONE prisoner.
These three repeated language devices help connect texts and show similarities and differences between them.
What is motif, allusion and intertextuality?
This setting explores modern issues like prison, justice, rehabilitation and control. It also shows how art can help people change and find their voice.
What is the prison setting?
This character can represent Indigenous people affected by European colonisation through his resistance, loss of power and forced loss of language.
Who is Caliban?
Atwood reframes these themes through the experiences of marginalised prisoners. Identify BOTH concepts.
What are colonisation and disenfranchisement?
Atwood uses this dramatic feature to recreate Shakespeare’s story while allowing the characters to reinterpret its ideas for a modern audience.
What is theatre/The Arts?
These three words describe how a reimagining of one text can connect with the details of another text.
What is mirror, align, or collide?
This historical period of European exploration and expansion shaped ideas about new lands, Indigenous peoples, power and control explored in both texts. Name BOTH.
What are the Age of Exploration and Colonialism?
Prospero declares, “I’ll break my staff… I’ll drown my book” as symbolic representations on these themes.
What are the symbols of rejection of revenge and magic, and the choice of forgiveness, reconciliation, and humanity?
Atwood challenges the limited role of women in 'The Tempest' through this critical perspective / lens / movement. Identify ONE example.
What is the feminist perspective? (i.e. Anne-Marie is brash, crude, confident, independent, and actively involved in the theatre production to reimagine what Miranda might have been like if she had greater freedom and agency, Miranda's ghost acts a Felix' consciousness to compare his misdeeds.)
These settings are a metaphor for "imprisonment" in both 'The Tempest' and 'Hag-Seed'. Explain ONE example from EACH text.
What is the island or Prospero’s magical realm in The Tempest OR the prison, the shack, Felix’s mental/emotional state, or the theatre production in Hag-Seed?
Complete the following sentence on the module's purpose...
“By comparing the two texts, audiences can recognise that…”
What is “By comparing the two texts, audiences can recognise that textual conversations reveal both resonances and dissonances between texts, as composers reimagine and reframe ideas in response to changing contexts, values and perspectives, creating new meanings”?
Atwood's contemporary context leads audience to question Shakespeare's representation of key themes. Identify TWO.
What is authority, colonial power, gender assumptions, mental health, and systems of control?
Prospero’s treatment of Antony explores this key theme. Explain what message Shakespeare conveys through a Humanist perspective.
What is revenge and forgiveness? From a Humanist perspective, Shakespeare suggests that revenge can perpetuate conflict, while forgiveness and reconciliation allow individuals to restore relationships and return to a more harmonious society.
Atwood parallels Felix's actions with that of Prospero in relinquishing control. Explain how using ONE textual quote.
‘Let your indulgence set me free’ - Prospero, The Tempest
‘“To the elements be free,” and, finally she is"’ - Felix, Hag-Seed
Both texts end with these similar themes as a resolution to the plot. Explain using ONE-TWO quotes or references.
What is resolution through forgiveness/Reconciliation/ Restoration of order through Prosper's plea, “Let your indulgence set me free,” while Felix says, “To the elements be free,” releasing Miranda?