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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hag-Seed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Theater and The Tempest
Vengeance
Imprisonment and Marginalization
Transformation and Change
Grief
Summary
Analysis
When he arrives at the second class two days later, Felix is feeling relaxed and confident. Adopting his “avuncular” voice, he asks a volunteer to read the final list of curse words. Bent Pencil stands and recites them all, from “blasphemous dog” to “insolent noisemaker” to “hag-seed.” When Felix asks for questions, Red Coyote takes issue with the fact that that “earth” and “tortoise,” both considered sacred to many Native Canadian tribes, are used as insults. 8Handz suggests that this is the result of Prospero’s colonialist mindset. Felix says that, in the context of the play, “tortoise” just means a slowpoke.
By discussing the ways in which Prospero’s worldview is informed by a sense of racial superiority, 8Handz and Red Coyote are touching on issues that probably influenced Shakespeare as he was writing the play—Britain’s new and uncertain role as explorer and colonizer. As such, they show how Shakespeare’s concerns remain relevant and gripping in the contemporary age.
Themes
Red Coyote contends that no one should use those insults. Someone asks if “shit,” which appears in the play, is allowed, but Felix nixes the idea, saying that “too much shit is monotonous, and monotony is anti-Shakespeare.” Sweeping away further objections, he announces a spelling quiz.
In their discussion of the insults, the prisoners are both engaging with the play as it was originally written and transforming it into something uniquely their own.
Themes
