Hag-Seed

2016 novel by Margaret Atwood

Hag-Seed  *+[[Hogarth+Press|Hogarth]],+2016+ *+[[Vintage+Books]],+2017

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First edition

Author| Margaret Atwood
Language| English
Series| Hogarth Shakespeare
Genre| Theatre-fiction
Publisher|

* Hogarth, 2016
* Vintage Books, 2017

Publication place| Great Britain
Media type| Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages| 289
ISBN| 978-0-099-59402-4

Hag-Seed is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, published in October 2016. A modern retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the novel was commissioned by Random House as part of its Hogarth Shakespeare series.[1]

The novel centres on theatre director Felix who loses his job with Makeshiweg Theatre, and is exiled from his position in society, following his betrayal by a trusted colleague. Having suffered in isolation, Felix is granted the position of teaching in a prison literacy program in the Fletcher County Correctional Institute. Thus begins his plot of revenge against those who wronged him.[2]

The novel had varying reception among critics and audiences. A witty, dark and imaginative adaptation of Shakespeare's play, Hag-Seed manages to convincingly create a vengeful Duke Prospero[citation needed] from the slightly ridiculous, and certainly more sympathetic, director Felix. Dealing with themes of loss, revenge, a life of imprisonment and the concept of closure, Atwood uses Felix's lessons on The Tempest to the actor-inmates to demonstrate the parallels between her text and the original play.

The story culminates with a "fantastic climax of dark calamity"[3] in a metaphorical and literal storm.

Atwood's Hag-Seed can be considered an example of what Graham Wolfe calls theatre-fiction: "referring to novels and stories that engage in concrete and sustained ways with theatre as artistic practice and industry".[4]

## Plot summary

[edit]

Hag-Seed follows the life of Felix, once experimental artistic director of the Makeshiweg theatre festival, now an exiled man who speaks to his daughter's ghost. Felix's fall from the theatrical elite is brought about by the betrayal of his right-hand man, Tony. Using Felix's vulnerability after the death of his wife Nadia post-childbirth and the death of his beloved daughter Miranda, Tony used his influence and connections to oust Felix from his position and then have the board instate himself in the role. Worst, for Felix, is the cancellation of his production of The Tempest. A play which he had thrown himself into in order to cope with the loss of his own Miranda.

After an unceremonious firing and being escorted to his car, Felix decides that he must entirely retreat from the theatrical world he's known. Felix plunges into a form of self-inflicted exile, aiming to escape the press he imagines will humiliate him and those who betrayed him. He moves into a ramshackle cottage off the grid and relies on his unofficial, cash-in-hand landlords, Maude and Bert, for his power access.

Nine years into his seclusion, Felix has spent his time imagining a life shared with his dead daughter and keeping track of the two men who betrayed him; Tony and the minister of heritage Sal O'Nally. Following an advertisement for a teaching position at the literacy program in the Fletcher County Correctional Institute, Felix applies for the position using the name 'Mr. Duke'.

Hired by Estelle, who recognises him as Felix, Felix convinces her to give him a chance in the position to teach through performing Shakespeare - and to keep his true identity a secret. A professor at Guelph University, Estelle will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the program. However, as his work proves a success, she secures further funding and eventually organises a visit to a prison performance by two newly appointed government ministers, Tony and Sal.

Four years into the prison program, Felix now has his opportunity for revenge. Choosing to finally stage The Tempest he casts Anne-Marie, his original actress for the role of Miranda[citation needed] and begins readying the actors within the prison as part of his revenge scheme.

The play culminates in a drug fueled chaotic performance of the play, Sal and Tony are frightened and punished. The novel ends with Sal's son Freddie becoming the embodiment of the character of Ferdinand and is set up with Anne-Marie. Felix is restored to his former position and finally, like Prospero sets Ariel free, he releases the ghost of his daughter.[5]

## Main characters

[edit]

* Felix Phillips: Director seeking revenge, stand in for the character of Prospero.
* Miranda: The deceased daughter of Felix.
* Nadia: The deceased wife of Felix, mother of Miranda.
* Tony (Anthony Price) : Traitor to Felix, replaces him as artistic director.
* Sal O'Nally: Heritage Minister and long-time rival of Felix's.
* Lonnie Gordon: Chairman of the Festival Board.
* Maude and Bert: Felix's landlords.
* Mr. Duke: Alias used by Felix
* Estelle: Professor at Guelph University, hires Felix for the prison position and knows his real identity.
* Anne-Marie Greenland: Wild, one time gymnast and dancer, cast in Felix's unfinished production, cast once again as Miranda
* 8Handz: A hacker, plays Ariel
* WonderBoy: A charming con-artist, plays Ferdinand
* Bent Pencil: A "warped" accountant, plays Gonzalo
* Red Coyote: Indigenous inmate and actor, plays Stephano
* Snake Eye: "Ponzi schemer" and property fraudster, plays Antonio
* Shiv: Allegedly connected to a Somali drug-gang
* Leggs: In prison for assault and breaking and entering, plays Caliban
* Freddie: Son of Sal, falls in love with Anne-Marie and becomes assistant director to Felix

## Development history

[edit]

In June 2013, Random House announced the Hogarth Shakespeare series, as part of which well-known novelists re-tell a selection of Shakespeare's plays.[6] Later that year, it was announced that Margaret Atwood's adaptation of The Tempest would join Jeanette Winterson's Winter's Tale adaptation and Anne Tyler's Taming of the Shrew adaptation as part of the project.[7] The Hogarth Shakespeare series, Hag-Seed included, was intended to launch in 2016 to coincide with the four-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death.[8]

## Explanation of the novel's title

[edit]

Felix asks his students to make a list of "curse words" used in The Tempest. On the list is "hag-seed." Felix bans all swearing from rehearsals save for the curse words from the list.[9] "Hag-seed" (Hag meaning both, a witch and a type of fish) refers to Caliban, because he is the son of a witch named Sycorax, and also due to his appearance which is closer to a fish than a human.

## Awards and nominations

[edit]

Hag-Seed was on the long list for the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.[10][11]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Groskop, Viv (2016-10-16). "Hag-Seed review – Margaret Atwood turns The Tempest into a perfect storm". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
2. ^ Atwood, Margaret (August 2017). Hag-Seed : The Tempest Retold. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. London. ISBN 9780099594024. OCLC 1001957163.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
3. ^ Groskop, Viv (2016-10-16). "Hag-Seed review – Margaret Atwood turns The Tempest into a perfect storm". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
4. ^ Wolfe, Graham. Theatre-Fiction in Britain from Henry James to Doris Lessing: Writing in the Wings. Routledge, 2019. 2.
5. ^ Graue, Anne (2016). "This Brave New Rendering A Review of Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold". Margaret Atwood Studies: 30. ISSN 1081-9622.
6. ^ Flood, Alison (2013-06-26). "Shakespeare's canon to be reworked by authors including Jeanette Winterson and Anne Tyler". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
7. ^ Bury, Liz (2013-09-09). "Shakespeare retold: Margaret Atwood and Howard Jacobson join new series". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
8. ^ Gopnik, Adam. "Why Rewrite Shakespeare?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
9. ^ Groskop, Viv (2016-10-16). "Hag-Seed review – Margaret Atwood turns The Tempest into a perfect storm". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
10. ^ "Women's Prize for Fiction: Margaret Atwood among finalists". BBC. March 8, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
11. ^ "Canadian authors make long list for Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction". The Star. March 7, 2017. Retrieved 2020-02-23.

## External links

[edit]

* Hag-Seed Reader's Guide
* Atwood on Re-Writing The Tempest

* v
* t
* e

Works by Margaret Atwood

Novels|

* The Edible Woman (1969)
* Surfacing (1972)
* Lady Oracle (1976)
* Life Before Man (1979)
* Bodily Harm (1981)
* The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
* Cat's Eye (1988)
* The Robber Bride (1993)
* Alias Grace (1996)
* The Blind Assassin (2000)
* Oryx and Crake (2003)
* The Penelopiad (2005)
* The Year of the Flood (2009)
* MaddAddam (2013)
* The Heart Goes Last (2015)
* Hag-Seed (2016)
* The Testaments (2019)
* Fourteen Days (2024, with others)

Short fiction
collections|

* Dancing Girls (1977)
* Murder in the Dark (1983)
* Bluebeard's Egg (1983)
* Wilderness Tips (1991)
* Good Bones (1992)
* Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994)
* The Labrador Fiasco (1996)
* The Tent (2006)
* Moral Disorder (2006)
* Stone Mattress (2014)
* Old Babes in the Wood (2023)

Short stories|

* "Rape Fantasies" (1977)
* "The Resplendent Quetzal" (1977)
* "Happy Endings" (1983)
* "Unearthing Suite" (1983)
* "Freeforall" (1986)

Poetry
collections|

* Double Persephone (1961)
* The Circle Game (1964)
* Expeditions (1965)
* Speeches for Doctor Frankenstein (1966)
* The Animals in That Country (1968)
* The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970)
* Procedures for Underground (1970)
* Power Politics (1971)
* You Are Happy (1974)
* Two-Headed Poems (1978)
* True Stories (1981)
* Interlunar (1984)
* Morning in the Burned House (1995)
* The Door (2007)
* Dearly (2020)

Non-fiction|

* Survival (1972)
* Negotiating with the Dead (2002)
* Writing with Intent (2005)
* Payback (2008)
* Burning Questions (2022)

Film and television|

* Snowbird (1981)
* Heaven on Earth (1987)

* v
* t
* e

William Shakespeare's The Tempest

Characters|

* Prospero
* Miranda
* Ariel
* Caliban
* Sycorax
* Ferdinand
* Gonzalo
* Stephano

Sources|

* A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight
* Decades of the New World
* "Of Cannibals" (Montaigne)
* Ovid's Metamorphoses
* Erasmus's Naufragium
* Commedia dell'arte
* Sea Venture

Films|

* 1908
* 1911
* 1960
* 1963
* 1979
* 1980
* 1992
* 2010

Adaptations|

| Music|

* Three Shakespeare Songs (Vaughan Williams)
* The Tempest (Sullivan)
* The Tempest (Sibelius)
* The Tempest (Tchaikovsky)
* The Tempest (ballet) (Nordheim)
* "Don't Pay the Ferryman" (1982)

|

Screen|

* Yellow Sky (1948)
* Forbidden Planet (1956)
* Tempest (1982)
* The Journey to Melonia (1989)
* Prospero's Books (1991)
* The Tempest (1998)
* Shakespeare's Shitstorm (2020)
* Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (TV, 2022–2023)

Paintings|

* Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest (c. 1736–1738, Hogarth)
* Ferdinand Lured by Ariel (1850, Millais)

Musicals|

* Beach Blanket Tempest
* Return to the Forbidden Planet
* Amaluna

Plays|

* The Tempest (Dryden)
* The Sea Voyage
* The Mock Tempest (1674 Duffet)
* Une Tempête (1969 Césaire)
* The Sea (play) (1973)
* I'll Be The Devil (2008)

Operas|

* The Tempest (1756 Smith)
* Die Geisterinsel (libretto 1796)
* Die Geisterinsel (1798 Reichardt)
* Die Geisterinsel (1805 Zumsteeg)
* Der Sturm (1955 Martin)
* Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1991 Nyman)
* The Tempest (Adès 2004)
* The Enchanted Island (2011 Sams)

Poetry and
prose fiction|

* "Caliban upon Setebos" (Browning)
* "The Sea and the Mirror" (Auden)
* Indigo (Warner)
* A Midsummer Tempest (Anderson)
* Island (Rogers)
* Hag-Seed (Atwood)

Video Games|

* The Book of Watermarks (1999)

Phrases|

* "Ariel's Song"
* "Full fathom five"
* "Sea change"
* "What's past is prologue"

Sculpture|

* The Tempest (1966)

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