Hag-Seed (Atwood)

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Hag-Seed...then take off on your own:

1. First things first: read the Bard's original play, The Tempest, so you can identify the numerous parallels that Margaret Atwood builds into her homage.

2. In the original Tempest, Prospero was a magician, and a stage impresario of sorts: he "directs" a storm to strand his rivals on the island. He also stages artifice by arranging a play within a play and manipulating Ferdinand to fall in love with Miranda. In Atwood's version, how does Felix parallel the "role" of Prospero? How is he, as an impresario, similar to Prospero? How does he differ?

3. What is the root cause of Felix's almost maniacal revenge?

4. How do Felix and his inmate-actors work together to shap the play and further Felix's plot? Talk about the way in which the director and cast make use of the scant resources offered by the prison.

5. Critics have long referred to The Tempest as "self-referential," that within the play Shakespeare sometimes winks at the audience. He revels in the power of the playwright and actors to create a false reality that reflects and enlarges the true reality of his audience. In what way is Hag-Seed self-referential?

6. What do you think of the ending? Some find it a little too neat and others over-the-top. What do yo think?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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