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Textual conversations allow a perfect and personal amalgamation of our own experiences and the moral lessons taught by the texts. Textual conversations expose the benefit of the experience detailed in Literature and how they relate to our life and the human condition. All expectations, thoughts, and experiences are relative to our past experiences, our whole lives are experienced in comparisons and evaluation compared to prior experiences so it is only logical that textual conversation and comparison highlight the true significance and purpose of texts that may not be gathered through a single reading. The meta-theatrical nature of The Tempest is played on by Atwood through the extended metaphor of her protagonist’s theater. Atwood refuses to tell a single story, instead, she stretches the beginnings of stories created by Shakespeare into a small series of intertwining vignettes. While The Tempest at first glance may seem a story of revenge for a political betrayal is brimming with powerful and poignant allegories for imprisonment, purity in love, and how expectations can be broken or stretched when a true assessment is made with no bias or preconception.
In Shakespeares The Tempest and Margaret Atwoods retelling Hag-Seed, almost all the characters spend time trapped in metaphorical and physical prisons. Shakespeares protagonist Prospero finds himself trapped on a desert island after losing his kingdom in a coup orchestrated by his brother Antonio, Atwoods equivalent, Felix exiles himself to a remote cabin following his betrayal by a trusted colleague resulting in the loss of his position in the theater. However, the two protagonists responses to their imprisonment are starkly divergent. While Shakespeare’s Prospero congers his magical abilities to imprison others, enslaving and detaining the half-human monster Caliban who inhabited the island before him. On the other hand, when Felix takes a teaching job at Fletcher Correctional Center, Felix takes the direction of a group of men who, like Caliban, have been exiled and ostracized within their own society, he uses his power as a director to help them confront their troubled pasts and to stage a revolt against the politicians who exploit the prisoners and benefited from the continuation of their cycle of incarceration. Atwood gives the marginalized characters in her narrative a chance to speak, thus looking to a future of empowerment, unlike the fate that followed Caliban, rather than a continuation of the cycle of institutionalized incarceration. 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. The Metaphoric language in this quote portrays Felix’s realization that he has been imprisoned or tethered as the quote says the memory of his daughter deep within him and that it is finally time to let go of the desire for control and allow that memory to be ‘free.’ The novel suggests that it was through the process of performance that Felix came to know his late daughter and to accept that she is gone, rather than trying to grasp at her fading memory indefinitely. In addition, Imprisonment is not just a physical dilemma within The Tempest, many metaphorical prisons also exist with a major one being Caliban’s entrapment in language. Calibans frustration stems from his physical entrapment on the island through this exchange between Caliban and Miranda. We understand that Miranda thinks Caliban is being freed through education, but Caliban realizes nothing of true value can be gained while he is still an imprisoned slave. You taught me language, and my profit wont Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you for learning me your language! . Caliban Retorted angrily in response to Mirandas self-satisfied claim in Act I that, as an uneducated savage, he should be grateful for the education he received. Caliban then implies that he has gained nothing of true value from his education. Given that hes been stripped of all meaningful agency, the only thing he can do with his captors language is express just how much he despises them. Through this passage, we comprehend the intertextuality of The Tempest and how Calibans frustration with his captor’s attempted education highlights the universal human experience of differing viewpoints.
Purity in love and friendship is another theme thats subtle yet vital to comprehend for an in-depth reading of The Tempest, its littered throughout the Tempest and then skillfully subverted in Hag-Seed. Ferdinand expresses his love via a Metaphor, comparing his love for Miranda to the freedom a slave desires. Ay, with a heart as willing. As bondage eer of freedom. Heres my hand . Truly pure love is displayed within the relationship of Ferdinand and Miranda among a sea of lies and doublecrossing. Ferdinand Expresses his love for Miranda on multiple occasions yet this in my opinion is by far the most poetic we see Ferdinand become throughout the play. This statement signifies that the love Ferdinand receives from Miranda sets him free, as their lives are now connected by the forces of true love. Similarly, in Act III Ferdinand has the chance to demonstrate and quantify his love for Miranda in Prospero’s eyes. ‘Their labor Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters, Point to rich ends. Would be as heavy to me as odious, but The mistress which I serve quickens whats dead And makes my labors pleasures.’ Within this passage Prospero has asked Ferdinand to complete a disagreeable task, Ferdinand then instructs Miranda that he will undertake Prospero’s task anticipating it will enhance his chances of taking Mirandas hand in marriage. This passage illustrates the many compromises and hardships that characters must endure to achieve their ambitions.
Transformation of Miranda from the naive girl who can scarcely remain still long enough to hear Prospero’s story in Act I, scene ii, and who is charmed asleep and awake as though she were a puppet, is replaced by an independent and mature individual this moment. I weep at my unworthiness, that dare not offer, What I desire to give, and much less take…And all the more it seeks to hide itself The bigger bulk it shows. plain and holy innocence. I am your wife, if you will marry me. If not, Ill die your maid. To be your fellow, You may deny me, but Ill be your servant, Whether you will or not. Here Miranda delivers this speech to Ferdinand proclaiming her unequivocal love for him. however Miranda doesn’t merely propose marriage, she essentially insists upon it. This is the first of two instances in the play that Miranda seems to break out of her archetypal Shakespearean women’s role of the common good or evil dichotomy portrayed with Shakespeares women’s characters like Lady Macbeth as pure evil or the height of purity in Othellos Desdemona, this differentiation of character was an important step that Harwood would have considered when creating Hag-seed another book that treats people who some consider less than equal as relatable and likable characters. Within the speech Miranda declares her sexual independence, using a metaphor that indicates pregnancy (the bigger bulk trying to hide), which seems to transform Miranda all at once from a girl into a woman Miranda seems to come to a point at which she can no longer remain silent about what she thinks. It is not that her desires get the better of her; rather, she realizes the necessity of expressing her desires. Furthermore, this speech portrays Caliban in a warm and poetic light which is much more reminiscent of Hag-Seed than The Tempest. Harwood portrays Caliban as she does with most charters that are depicted as evil or wicked by subverting that idea and finding sections of warmth and compassion in their charters. ‘Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about my ears, and sometimes voices. That, if I then had waked after a long sleep. Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches, Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked, I cried to dream again.’ This speech by Caliban is often noted as the most poetic passage in ‘The Tempest,’ to some extent, Caliban counters his image as an intimidating, misshapen, and inarticulate monster. He speaks of music and rhythm, coming either organically from the island or from one of Prospero’s conjurings, Caliban enjoys the music so intensely that he wishes to be stuck or imprisoned in a dream with that song. This speech marks Caliban as one of Shakespeare’s many intricate, multi-dimensional characters.
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