HSC Module A: 20/20 Essay notes for The Tempest and Hagseed

1What is a textual conversation?

To truly understand what we are supposed to be looking out for in our critical evaluation of Hag-Seed and The Tempest, we refer to the rubric for Module A: Textual Conversations.

The rubric dictates that students are to explore how the “comparative study of texts can reveal resonances and dissonances between and within texts” and consider how the reimagining or reframing of certain facets of a text “,mirror[s], align[s] or collide[s]” with the other text. Put simply, students are to consider the similarities and differences between the representation of “values, assumptions or perspectives” in the two texts to then impute a reasoning to why these aspects of the texts may mirror, align or collide with one another based on context, authorial perspective, audience and more.

The textual conversations between Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, and Margaret Atwood’s modern appropriation of the tragicomedy, Hag-Seed, is a complex one. To really comprehend this conversation we must consider how each text is influenced by the other, but is also a product of the composer’s context, values and perspective, ultimately shaping overall meaning.

2How does context influence this textual conversation?

Context informs composers’ perspectives and so, shapes their purpose and meaning. As such, it is important to keep these social influences in the back of your mind as you navigate the textual conversations.

Some of Shakespeare’s contextual influences include:

Renaissance Humanism vs Christian Providentialism

The growing prevalence of Renaissance Humanist ideals during Shakespeare’s composition of The Tempest espoused the outlook that individuals were capable of acting autonomously and were not following a predetermined path dictated by religious providence. This further fostered a climate of individuals seeking power, knowledge and new adventures. Shakespeare’s presents the nuances within these humanist ideologies through his portrayal of Prospero whose quest for knowledge and agency in creating his own destiny leads to his ethical and moral turpitude as explored further below.

The Age of Discovery

The Tempest was written during a period when many great expeditions were undertaken by Europeans to colonise new lands. In that same period, Montaigne’s Of the Caniballes gained wide recognition following John Florio’s translation of it into English in 1603. The essay introduced the idea of cultural relativism: the concept that human behaviour is a product of culture and as such cannot be judged by those without this cultural context.

These endeavours to colonise the non-European world included the institution of European governance systems in conquered territories and often resulted in the unjust subjugation of native peoples to allow for the exploitation of their land. This is manifested in Shakespeare’s portrayal of how Prospero deems himself of greater civility and intelligence than the island native Caliban. He then enslaves and exploits the spirit as a means to his own selfish ends, serving as an allegorical parable for the intricacies in the implications of European Colonisation at the time.

The Great Chain of Being and the Divine Rights of Kings

The Great Chain of Beings was the Elizabethan belief that there was distinct hierarchy from everything within the universe as dictates by God, and that monarchs were in power by divine mandate itself, and thus had the divine right to only be answerable to God. In alignment with this ideology, Shakespeare’s entire work is a quest to restore this hierarchical structure that was displaced by Antonio’s greed for power and Prospero’s own neglect for his duties as a ruler due to his preoccupation with his studies. As Prospero questions the failure of the Great Chain, he realises that to truly restore order they must all engage in introspection, repentance and forgiveness, in a true display of compassion.

Some of Atwood’s contextual influences include:

High Incarceration Rates

At the time Atwood was composing her work, incarceration in the United States was the highest it had ever been since the early twentieth century. Furthermore, there was a stark disparity in the demographics of these incarcerated peoples where ethnic people of colour were disproportionately represented. Influenced by both the overwhelming incarceration in America, and Canada’s adoption of the Nova Scotia Restorative Justice System that challenged traditional adversarial justice, Atwood explores intricacies the inmates’ experiences as an alienated and marginalised collective.

Shifting Social Paradigms

Atwood reflects the growing empowerment of females in modern society through her distinctly different representation of women in Hag-Seed. While in The Tempest, Miranda was characterised to be of innocent purity and passivity, Felix’s daughter is more empowered in her role as the catalyst of his ethical transformation.

3Concepts and Themes in the Textual Conversation

Pursuit of Revenge

Both texts ultimately expose the futility of revenge to provide emotional fulfilment and its incapacity to serve as a solution to resolve suffering and loss. Felix and Prospero are both motivated by revenge and as a result, neglect their moral obligations. Prospero is blinded by his desire to restore his position as prescribed by God’s Great Chain of Beings, but in exacting his revenge he is deceitful and cunning, in neglect of the Christian ideals of compassion and mercy. Similarly, Felix too falls prey to the corruption caused by his desire for vengeance against Sal and Tony.

Sample Topic Sentence: In The Tempest, Shakespeare exposes how the sophisticated nexus between hubris and the inherent human desire for power and revenge leads to ethical turpitude and ultimately impedes individuals from achieving personal fulfilment.

Imprisonment

As Felix famously sums up that The Tempest is “a play about prisons”, the recurring motif of prisons is evident throughout both texts to the extent that Hag-Seed is quite literally set in a penitentiary centre.

The most salient interpretation of these prisons is both protagonists’ confinement within their obsessive pursuit for revenge. It is only when he forgives his enemies that Prospero is truly set free. We also see that individuals such as Caliban in The Tempest and the prisoners in Hag-Seed are imprisoned within society’s perception of them.

Ultimately, both composers advocate for empathy, compassion and forgiveness for individuals to break free of these internal shackles as further discussed below.

Compassion and Forgiveness for Reconciliation

Shakespeare presents the perils of an obsessive thirst for vengeance only to provide a solution for it through compassion and forgiveness. The Jacobean-Christian principle of unconditional forgiveness and divine absolution of sin underpin Shakespeare’s portrayal of how Prospero’s forgiveness and renunciation of magic and his past grievances in “this rough magic, I here abjure”, are the key to his reconciliation. Through returning to the Christian ideals of compassion and forgiveness, Prospero manages to restore order.

While Atwood’s appropriation still asserts the enduring relevance of self-reflection and compassion for personal development, her postmodern secular context challenges Shakespeare’s representation of unconditional Christian clemency through the relative lack of reconciliation between Felix and his adversaries. Despite this distinction, Atwood does, in agreeance with The Tempest, propose the futility of seeking revenge through Felix’s confession after he exact his revenge through the hypophora “Why does it feel like a letdown?”.

Both texts didactically warn against the pursuit of vengeance yet explore reconciliation in distinct ways, reflective of their contextual influences.

Good vs Evil and the Alienation of the ‘Other’

Shakespeare represents the conflict between Renaissance Humanism and the predeterminism of Christian Providence through his portrayal of Prospero’s moral ambiguity. Prospero’s kindness towards Miranda and his altruistic reconciliation at the end of the play starkly contrast his cruel subjugation of Caliban and Ariel, and his shipwrecking of his enemies.

Alternatively, Shakespeare also explores the Christian Providence through his relatively one-sided judgement of Caliban to be the ‘evil spirit’ and Ariel as the ‘good spirit’. He presents how Prospero deems that Caliban, as Sycorax’s offspring, must be evil without hope for redemption. Ultimately Caliban is the alienated ‘other’ and his anger at his mistreatment drives his behaviour which ultimately, fulfils Prospero’s judgement of Caliban’s evil tendencies.

In contemporary society, this overly reductionist judgement of good and evil characters leads to incarcerated individuals struggling to reintegrate into society and being marginalised both within the system and after they complete their sentences. Reflective of this, Atwood presents the ethical depravity of individuals in power, such as Sal, and presents a more human side of the prisoners to challenge audiences’ assumptions about the personal characters of incarcerated individuals.

So, both composers blur the distinction between wholly altruistic or wholly corrupt motivations to challenge audiences’ assumptions about the prevalent perceptions of good and evil in their respective contexts.

5Final thoughts

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