Is it truly a ghost, or is Felix slowly losing his mind? Combined with his rage-fueled quest for vengeance, the novel twists and turns into a dark gamble. As the inmates debate whether Prospero actually sees spirits, Felix believes himself to be interacting with the ghost of his daughter. Felix is positioned as Hag-Seed’s Prospero, a ringleader driven by a desire to reclaim what is rightfully his, but there’s something of the treacherous Caliban in him as well. The play-within-a-novel-inspired-by-a-play format could easily get mired in its competing narratives and characterizations, but Atwood skillfully navigates the layers using the inmates’ study of Shakespeare as a means to explore the novel’s dynamics. Felix spots his chance for revenge and begins crafting a unique version of The Tempest. Several years after leaving Makeshiweg, he’s told that Tony and his accomplice, Sal O’Nally, will be visiting the prison in their new roles as Minister of Justice and Minister of Heritage. He takes a job as the instructor of a prison literacy course, turning it into a Shakespeare workshop that produces an annual play. On the verge of staging The Tempest, Felix is relieved of his position by the Board-a blow that amounts to Tony’s betrayal in Felix’s eyes.Īfter retreating to a shack in the woods, Felix plots his revenge. While working for the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, he focused on the art and his grief for his lost daughter rather than the power dynamics, particularly the ambitions of his assistant Tony Price. The book follows Felix Phillips, an artistic director who never anticipated a coup. With Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood reimagines Shakespeare’s The Tempest in a novel that blurs the lines between genius and madness.

But Shakespeare also boasts an unwavering, pop culture appeal, and his iconic characters are ripe for reinterpretation. It’s a fascinating anomaly-a man who paid the bills by writing to delight the masses is now beloved by the academic elite. Margaret Atwood’s novel Hag-Seed (2016) is a retelling of The Tempest that transfers the actions from the magic island of the original play to present-day Canada: the avant-garde artistic.

Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare’s work remains the pinnacle of English prose.

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