Characters
Prospero was usurped as Duke of this Italian city by his brother Antonio.
Milan
Atwood includes a performance of *The Tempest* within her novel, a technique known as...
Metatheatre / metafiction
The play opens with this event, conjured by Prospero's magic, which strands Alonso's party on the island.
Storm / Shipwreck
Caliban's claim "This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother" raises this issue linked to Jacobean exploration.
Colonialism / Colonisation
Shakespeare wrote this play around 1611 for the court of this king.
James I
Felix takes this alias when he teaches Shakespeare in a prison.
Mr Duke.
Felix describes Fletcher in a rapid run of short phrases (island domain, place of exile, penance, theatre). What is this technique?
Parataxis / Congeries (listing)
Felix works in Fletcher Correctional Institution through this prison education program.
Literacy Through Literature?
The prison program in Atwood's novel reflects this contemporary value, the belief that education and art can change people.
Rehabilitation
Atwood's novel was commissioned in 2016 for this project, marking 400 years since Shakespeare's death.
The Hogarth Shakespeare project
Prospero freed this spirit from the tree in which the witch Sycorax had imprisoned it.
Ariel
Miranda exclaims "O brave new world, / That has such people in't!" yet the audience knows the people are the usurpers, an example of this technique...
Dramatic Irony
Caliban plots with these two comic characters to murder Prospero.
Stephano and Trinculo.
This emotion drives Felix's retreat from the world after the loss of his daughter.
Grief.
Atwood echoes Shakespeare's structure by dividing her novel into these.
Five acts
Felix is ousted from his theatre festival by this ambitious colleague, who mirrors Antonio.
Tony.
Atwood's title, taken from Prospero's insult to Caliban, is an example of this language concept connecting the two texts.
Allusion / intertextuality
Felix plans to use the prisoners' production of The Tempest to do this to Tony and his allies.
Take revenge (trap or expose them).
Where The Tempest explores colonial power over Caliban, Hag-Seed shifts the focus to this contemporary form of power over the inmates.
Incarceration / Penal System
Anne-Marie's slangy, informal way of talking about being a girl is an example of this technique, which updates Shakespeare's formal verse for a modern audience.
Colloquialism / colloquial language
Shakespeare's Miranda is a living young woman, while Atwood's Miranda collides with her in this way.
She is dead (a ghost / exists in Felix's imagination)
Felix reads Prospero's Epilogue plea to "set me free" as proof that "the ninth prison is the play itself." What is the technique?
Metaphor / Extended Metaphor
After plotting revenge, both Prospero ("The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance") and Felix make this same choice.
Forgiveness / Mercy.
Shakespeare's Miranda largely obeys her father, while Atwood's Anne-Marie pushes back on how Miranda should be played, showing a shift in values about this issue.
Gender roles / agency of women
Shakespeare writes in dramatic verse for the stage, while Atwood reframes the story in this form, giving direct access to Felix's inner thoughts.
Novel / prose narrative