Hagseed and Tempest Essay - Comparative Essay
, QUESTION: ‘The act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, reveals that
ideas and values endure through time.’ To what extent does this statement
reflect your study of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Margaret
Atwood’s Hag-Seed?
The post-colonial meta-fictional novelised adaption Hag-seed by Margaret
Atwood (2016) shares a provocative conversation with Shakespeare’s Jacobean
tragic comedy the Tempest (1610), the overarching values of freedom (both
physical and psychological) and forgiveness and revenge are shaped by each
texts strikingly different respective contexts of the age of discovery (1610) and
the post-colonial discourse which followed (2016) that is explored through the
characterisation of Caliban and Prospero in The Tempest and the extension
and innovation of those characters in HagSeed, Felix and the prisoners. The
conversation between both texts proves the enduring value of universal
themes and the study of both texts as a pair has allowed me to understand
that forms and values transform with context through my looking back to the
Tempest with the post-modern context allowing for connections to be
developed in terms of the changes in values between the respective texts.
Shakespeare’s the Tempest explores the universal value of freedom (both
psychological and physical) through the characterisation of Caliban as a noble
savage, with the purpose of criticising the treatment of native peoples which
operated during his context of the age of discovery, at this time Europeans
endeavoured to colonise ‘newly found land’ through their extensive overseas
exploration leading to the demise of native peoples and attitudes of European
dominance. The exploitation of Caliban results in an inability to escape the
psychological prison of his ‘colonised mind’ and is cemented through
interactions between Caliban and the Trinculo and Stephano. Shakespeare is
able to critique the eurocentric ideals during the Age of Discovery through the
juxtaposing characterisation of Caliban and the Shakespearean fools, Trinculo
and Stephano. Shakespeare’ harsh depiction and condescension of Caliban is
essentially a warning sign of how slavery is increasingly problematic and has
the capacity to exploit and abuse good-hearted and inwardly sophisticated
native people by the rather incompetent unnatural masters or in this case the
incompetent Shakespearean fools.
Caliban is a character that is full of eros and some undesirable traits but, he
also speaks in Iambic pentameter, a rhythmic and metered unit of speech
indicative of educated and noble (even godly) individuals yet, the ‘supposedly’
, QUESTION: ‘The act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, reveals that
ideas and values endure through time.’ To what extent does this statement
reflect your study of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Margaret
Atwood’s Hag-Seed?
The post-colonial meta-fictional novelised adaption Hag-seed by Margaret
Atwood (2016) shares a provocative conversation with Shakespeare’s Jacobean
tragic comedy the Tempest (1610), the overarching values of freedom (both
physical and psychological) and forgiveness and revenge are shaped by each
texts strikingly different respective contexts of the age of discovery (1610) and
the post-colonial discourse which followed (2016) that is explored through the
characterisation of Caliban and Prospero in The Tempest and the extension
and innovation of those characters in HagSeed, Felix and the prisoners. The
conversation between both texts proves the enduring value of universal
themes and the study of both texts as a pair has allowed me to understand
that forms and values transform with context through my looking back to the
Tempest with the post-modern context allowing for connections to be
developed in terms of the changes in values between the respective texts.
Shakespeare’s the Tempest explores the universal value of freedom (both
psychological and physical) through the characterisation of Caliban as a noble
savage, with the purpose of criticising the treatment of native peoples which
operated during his context of the age of discovery, at this time Europeans
endeavoured to colonise ‘newly found land’ through their extensive overseas
exploration leading to the demise of native peoples and attitudes of European
dominance. The exploitation of Caliban results in an inability to escape the
psychological prison of his ‘colonised mind’ and is cemented through
interactions between Caliban and the Trinculo and Stephano. Shakespeare is
able to critique the eurocentric ideals during the Age of Discovery through the
juxtaposing characterisation of Caliban and the Shakespearean fools, Trinculo
and Stephano. Shakespeare’ harsh depiction and condescension of Caliban is
essentially a warning sign of how slavery is increasingly problematic and has
the capacity to exploit and abuse good-hearted and inwardly sophisticated
native people by the rather incompetent unnatural masters or in this case the
incompetent Shakespearean fools.
Caliban is a character that is full of eros and some undesirable traits but, he
also speaks in Iambic pentameter, a rhythmic and metered unit of speech
indicative of educated and noble (even godly) individuals yet, the ‘supposedly’
