Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold

In Act 2, Scene 1 of The Tempest, Antonio tells Sebastian that “what’s past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge.” The first part of this well-known line indicates that events of the past have led up to the current moment like words written by a playwright. But what Antonio means by the second part of his statement is open to interpretation. He might be justifying the murder he and Sebastian are planning, as if he and Sebastian are characters whose actions are essentially predetermined. Or, he might be claiming that they have free will and their own choices will determine what happens next.

• How does Atwood’s text self-consciously use Shakespeare’s play as its own prologue?
• What conversation is Hag-Seed having with The Tempest, and is that conversation “predetermined,” or does it demonstrate Atwood’s “free will”?
• How does the intertextuality of Hag-Seed relate to its thematic concern with letting go and moving on from the past?

Teaching Suggestion: As you prepare students to answer this prompt, it may be helpful to point out that it is essentially an analogy: It compares Antonio’s quote to the relationship between The Tempest and Hag-Seed and then asks which interpretation of Antonio’s quote is more accurate in the context of this textual relationship. In this context, Shakespeare’s play is the past—the prologue—and Atwood’s text is like Antonio and Sebastian, enacting the future. How are Atwood’s choices shaped by the necessity of responding to a pre-existing text? Why make this choice at all? How does intertextuality relate to Atwood’s themes?

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with executive function challenges may find it difficult to organize their thoughts in order to respond to this prompt. You might offer them a graphic organizer that allows them to track overt references to The Tempest as well as similarities and differences in the plots and characters of the two texts. They can then use this organizer as the basis for thinking about the prompt questions. Answering the prompt effectively requires that students review large amounts of text: English language learners, students with dyslexia, and those with attentional or executive function issues may have more success working in small groups or with partners. You may also wish to revisit the definition of intertextuality that students created for the second short answer activity or provide one, such as “intertextuality is the understanding that every text is influenced to some degree by texts that came before it.”