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.