Hag-Seed: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Felix knows that Tony’s rise to power is partly his own fault. He never supervised him properly, and he always trusted his loyalty. However, he excuses his thoughtlessness with the fact that, at the time, he was overcome by grief at the death of his only child. He pulls away from this painful thought, telling himself to pretend it’s “only a movie.”

Even if Felix hadn’t been thus weakened, Tony probably still would have “ambushed” him. Felix always left all the practical and mundane details of the show to Tony, while he focused exclusively on his role as Artistic Director, creating “the lushest, the most beautiful, the most awe-inspiring” theatrical productions that wowed audiences and turned the Makeshiweg Festival into one of the most prominent theater festivals in the country.

To create these spectacles, Felix had to hire the best actors, set designers, and costume makers. For this, he needed large budgets, and drumming up money was Tony’s gift. Felix always thought of this as a lesser talent, only a small contribution to his productions. He thought of himself as a “cloud-riding enchanter” while Tony was an “earth-based factotum.”

He now knows that this was idiotic. Tony had slyly encouraged Felix to stay away from festival cocktail parties and events that catered to donors and the Board—taking on all these duties himself so that Felix had more time to focus on the productions, or on the central roles that he sometimes took for himself.

Tony even encouraged Felix to put on productions that created a stir among audiences and the Board, such as a production of Titus Andronicus with a naked and copiously bleeding Lavinia, or Pericles staged in outer space. Felix is never perturbed by bad reviews, which he views as evidence of audience participation. Now he sees those productions as “flights of fancy” only possible for an “earlier Felix.” Just before Tony’s coup, everything changed for him.

First to “leave” Felix is his wife Nadia, who dies of an infection just after giving birth. He often tries to remember her, but she fades away quickly, leaving him to take care of his newborn daughter, Miranda. This task is the only thing that keeps him from succumbing to grief, although he has a lot of help. Since he doesn’t know the first thing about childcare, he hires nannies and babysitters to take care of her while he’s at work.

Even though he doesn’t have a lot of time to spend with her, Felix is enthralled by Miranda. He even takes her to the theater, where she sits quietly, unlike “lesser” toddlers. He makes plans to travel with her when she’s older and teach her everything he knows. But, at the age of three, she suddenly contracts meningitis. Her nanny isn’t even able to reach him on the phone, since he’s in rehearsal with orders not to be interrupted. By the time he gets to the hospital, Miranda is already dead.

Felix refuses to believe that Miranda is actually gone from the universe. He recalls all the lost Shakespearean daughters and thinks that if some of them returned to their fathers, his Miranda should as well.

In order to “transform, or at the very least enclose” his sorrow, Felix devotes himself to a new production of The Tempest, which he believes will be a “reincarnation” of Miranda. Through the play, he can imagine his daughter growing up into a beautiful young woman, always a companion for her father. He vows to create the most spectacular setting possible for his “reborn” Miranda, outdoing himself in every way. He imagines Ariel as “a transvestite on stilts” and searches out a talented child gymnast named Anne-Marie Greenland to play Miranda, hoping that her performance will be so “fresh” as to actually seem real.

Felix himself will play Prospero; through the play he can be the protective and wise father that, in real life, he wasn’t. For the wizard’s famous magic garment, he decides on a cape made of unstuffed plush toys – fake rabbits, lions, tigers, and bears. The costume will reflect Prospero’s “supernatural but natural” abilities. He believes that The Tempest will be the best play he’s ever done, although in retrospect he knows that his obsession with it was self-destructive, as it could never actually bring Miranda back to him.