Module A – Extended Response Between On Tempest & Hagseed Essay

Resource Description

This is an extended response between The Tempest and Hag-Seed for English Advanced, Module A.

To what extent do you think that Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed stays true to the ‘spirit’ of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, while also reimagining or reframing aspects of it to offer something new for the modern audience?

Introduction

Shakespeare and Atwood have critiqued the notion of imprisonment and femininity through their commentary towards metaphorically imprisoned protagonists accompanied by the feminine representation of their social milieu. Created as the products of humanist Jacobean England and a feministic and secular postmodern society, the textual conversation between Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” and Margaret Atwood’s adaptation “Hag-Seed” encapsulates this notion as timeless values are reshaped to suit their contexts. Margaret Atwood has meticulously reimagined imprisonment and feminism in order to better complement her secular and post-modern audience. Such refocusing is reflective of Atwood seeking to respond directly to her audience, while also reflecting the concerns of her and their social milieu