Hag-Seed

by Margaret Atwood

  "To the elements be free," he says to her.

  And, finally, she is.

  In a storm at sea, a ship is floundering. Alonso, King of Naples; his brother, Sebastian; his councillor, Gonzalo; and his son, Ferdinand, are on board, as are Antonio, the Duke of Milan; Stephano, the butler; and Trinculo, the jester. As lightning strikes and the ship begins to sink despite the efforts of the Boatswain and sailors, all fear for their lives. This scene is usually played with the elemental spirit, Ariel, visible in the rigging.

  On the shore of a nearby island, fifteen-year-old Miranda pities the drowning ones, but her father, the magician Prospero, says no one has been harmed, and all has been done for her welfare. He then explains why he has raised the tempest. He, not Antonio, is the rightful Duke of Milan. Because Prospero was wrapped up in the study of magic, he delegated the practical affairs of his dukedom to his brother, who took advantage of the situation to league with Prospero's political enemy, Alonso. The latter invaded Milan, and Prospero and the three-year-old Miranda were put into a leaky boat with nothing but some clothing and Prospero's books, supplied to him by the good councillor, Gonzalo. They drifted ashore to the island, where they have been living in a cave-like "cell" for twelve years.

  Now an auspicious star and the deity Lady Fortune have brought Prospero's enemies within his reach. He has ordered the illusion of the tempest to land them onshore. His purposes are twofold: revenge and the betterment of the fortunes of Miranda.

  Prospero puts Miranda to sleep, dons his magic robes, and calls upon his chief attendant spirit, Ariel. Ariel serves Prospero in return for having been released from a cloven pine where he had been imprisoned by the witch Sycorax because he wouldn't fulfill her loathsome commands, but now he wants his freedom. Prospero scolds him for ungratefulness, but promises that if his present plan against his enemies works out with Ariel's help, Ariel shall be free. Ariel then describes the "tempest" he has created. Three groups of travelers have been landed in different places onshore: Ferdinand by himself, Stephano and Trinculo as a pair, though separated, and the court party together.

  Next command for Ariel: to dress as a sea nymph, to render himself invisible to all but Prospero, and to find Ferdinand--who believes his father has drowned. Ariel is to lead him with music to the place where he will see Miranda.

  Prospero wakens Miranda and they go in search of Prospero's other enforced servant, Caliban, the ugly and brutish son of Sycorax. Caliban, Prospero, and even Miranda trade curse words and reproaches: Caliban accuses Prospero of stealing the island from him, and Prospero points out that Caliban has tried to rape Miranda. Caliban wishes he had done so, and peopled the island with Calibans; then, enforced by the pinching of Prospero's spirits, he goes off to collect wood.

  Ariel leads in Ferdinand, who is awestuck by Miranda, as she is by him. So that things won't be too easy and thus lightly valued, Prospero sets an ordeal: he magically disarms Ferdinand, accuses him of being a pretender and a traitor, and says he will imprison him. Ferdinand claims he can bear that if only he can glimpse Miranda once a day.

  Ariel is sent off to keep tabs on the court party: Alonso, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Antonio, and other lords. Alonso is certain that his son has drowned and is very dejected. Gonzalo tries to cheer him up by praising the island and describing the utopian society he would set up if he had the ruling of it. Antonio and Sebastian scoff at him. Ariel appears and puts Alonso and Gonzalo to sleep, whereupon Antonio proposes to Sebastian that they murder them, thus making Sebastian the King of Naples. Ariel, however, wakes the sleepers just in time and speeds off to report developments to Prospero.

  Meanwhile, Caliban is gathering wood when he sees the jester Trinculo approaching. Fearing he is a tormenting spirit, he hides under his cloak. A storm approaches and Trinculo hides under the cloak too, despite its fishy smell and the monster underneath. Stephano the butler approaches, reeling drunk. He gets Caliban drunk too, and Caliban decides to worship Stephano like a god, and serve him as master instead of Prospero. He sings a song to this effect.

  Meanwhile, Ferdinand has been put to work hauling wood. Miranda appears and pleads with him to rest--she will do the work for him. They pledge their love and promise to marry each other. Prospero, unseen, is happy.

  Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are now even drunker, and after a fight engineered by Ariel, Caliban proposes that they murder Prospero and set up Stephano as the island king, with Miranda as the queen. Ariel leads them astray with music, and Caliban tells them not to be afraid, as the island is often filled with ravishing sounds.

  Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, and Antonio are resting in their search for Ferdinand when a banquet is presented to them by some oddly shaped spirits. Prospero watches, invisible, as they approach to eat; but the banquet vanishes and Ariel appears in the shape of a harpy, upbraiding Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian for their criminal mistreatment of Prospero, and implying that the loss of Ferdinand is Alonso's punishment. The three culprits are then driven raving mad, and suicidal as well in the case of Alonso.

  Prospero now visits Ferdinand, releases him from bondage, and greets him as his future son-in-law, but warns him against premature intimacy. He commands Ariel to present another illusion--a masque of three goddesses, who shower the young couple with blessings.

  The show is interrupted when Prospero recalls Caliban's plot to murder him. He explains to Ferdinand that the beings he has seen were spirits, and have vanished, as everything must eventually--being at heart equally insubstantial and dream-like.

  Ariel describes to Prospero how he has led Caliban and his two co-conspirators astray. He and Prospero hang out some gorgeous garments to further entrap and delay them. Stephano and Trinculo want to steal these, though Caliban urges the murder first. The theft is interrupted by a pack of spirit dogs who chase the culprits away, egged on by Ariel and Prospero.

  At Prospero's command, Ariel is now to fetch the court party. When he describes to Prospero how much they are suffering and says he feels sorry for them, Prospero is impressed that a mere air-spirit can feel pity and decides to follow Ariel's example. He orders Ariel to release them from their madness. Then he says it's time for him to abjure his "rough magic," break his staff, and drown his book of spells.

  The court party is led in by Ariel. Prospero confronts Alonso and Antonio and their confederate, Sebastian, with their treachery toward him, but says he forgives them. He warns Antonio and Sebastian, in an aside, that he knows about their plan to murder Alonso, but won't say anything about it just yet.

  Alonso is still grieving the loss of Ferdinand. Prospero says he too has lost a child--a daughter--but then brings him to his "cell" and reveals Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess together. Alonso, amazed and grateful, embraces the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda. Miranda, for her part, is astonished that there is suddenly a new world filled with such amazing people. Prospero remarks that they are new to her. (He himself knows them for what they are.)

  The Boatswain enters, fetched by Ariel, and explains how he and the mariners have awakened to find their ship safely in harbor. Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, bedraggled and sore; they are suitably chastised and repentant. Prospero acknowledges that Caliban, "this thing of darkness," is in some sense his.

  Plans are made for the return to Italy and the impending wedding. Prospero will have his dukedom again. Miranda and Ferdinand will eventually be the Queen and King of Naples. Ariel will ensure calm seas for the voyage.

  Prospero finishes the play with an epilogue, in which he tells the audience that since his magic spells have now been overthrown, he must remain imprisoned on the island unless the audience pardons him, and sets him free by using its own magic to applaud the play.

  It has been a great pleasure to work on this book, partly because it gave me the opportunity to read so much about Shakespeare and The Tempest, and also about the value of literature and drama within prisons.

  The following books and films were particularly helpful:

&nb
sp; Julie Taymor's film of The Tempest, with Helen Mirren as Prospera.

  The Globe on Screen's version of The Tempest, with Roger Allam as Prospero.

  And the Stratford Festival's version of The Tempest--which I also attended in person--with Christopher Plummer as Prospero.

  The Shakespeare Insult Generator.

  David Thomson's suggestive book, Why Acting Matters.

  Northrop Frye's essay on The Tempest in his book On Shakespeare.

  The excellent and highly useful edition of The Tempest in the Oxford World's Classics series; the editor is Stephen Orgel.

  Isak Dinesen's story "Tempests" in her collection Anecdotes of Destiny.

  Andrew Dickson's book Worlds Elsewhere, which explores the many varieties of Shakespeare performances worldwide and across time.

  There is a very long tradition of prison literature. I have read in it here and there, both while writing my novel Alias Grace and more recently while working on Hag-Seed. Apart from such well-known contemporary books as Orange Is the New Black, I was particularly interested this time around in books that dealt with literature and drama being taught or being experienced within prisons. Stephen Reid's collection of essays, A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden, was generally suggestive, as was Rene Denfeld's astonishing novel The Enchanted. Avi Steinberg's account of working as a prison librarian, Running the Books, was helpful, as was Andreas Schroeder's Shaking It Rough. More particularly, Laura Bates's memoir, Shakespeare Saved My Life, was encouraging. It was helpful too to learn of the prison college programs run by Bard College and, through that knowledge, to learn of many others.

  That being said, it must also be said that Fletcher Correctional is of course a fictional institution. It's doubtful that any place exactly like it exists, though many share some of its features.

  Felix Phillips borrowed his last name from the late Robin Phillips, longtime theatre director at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. To see his magic at work, view the excellent documentary Robin and Mark and Richard III, in which he transforms an unlikely actor into the sinister Richard before your very eyes.

  Anne-Marie Greenland plays the part of Miranda thanks to an auction run by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.

  And much about conversing with dead loved ones and other strange experiences can be learned in The Third Man Factor, by John Geiger.

  My gratitude to my longsuffering editors, Becky Hardie of Hogarth and Louise Dennys of Knopf Canada, who nudged me to tell more; and to my copyeditor, Heather Sangster of Strongfinish.ca. Also to my editor of over twenty-six years at McClelland & Stewart, Ellen Seligman, who passed away in March 2016 without having been able to read this book.

  Thanks also to my first readers: Jess Atwood Gibson; Eleanor Cook; Xandra Bingley; Vivienne Schuster and Karolina Sutton of Curtis Brown, my U.K. agents; and to Phoebe Larmore, my longtime agent in North America; and to Ruth Atwood and Ralph Siferd.

  And to Louise Court, Ashley Dunn, and Rachel Rokicki, of Penguin Random House, who sped me on my way during publication time.

  Thanks also to Devon Jackson, who helped with some primary research on prisons. Also to my assistant, Suzanna Porter; and to Penny Kavanaugh; and to V. J. Bauer, who designed my website at margaretatwood.ca. Also to Sheldon Shoib and Mike Stoyan, who keep track. And to Michael Bradley, Sarah Cooper, and Jim Wooder, to Coleen Quinn and Xiaolan Zhao, and to Evelyn Heskin; and to Terry Carman and the Shock Doctors, for keeping the lights on. Finally, my special thanks to Graeme Gibson--an old enchanter, though happily not the one in this book.

  What's next on

  your reading list?

  Discover your next

  great read!

  * * *

  Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.

  Sign up now.