Hag-seed

The novel begins with the opening storm scene from Felix’s production of The Tempest. It ends with the beginning of a prison riot.

After losing his job as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival, the protagonist, Felix, is furious. His anger is squarely directed at his former assistant and the man who betrayed him, Tony Price. He also believes the Heritage Minister, Sal O’Nally, to be responsible for his downfall. 

It is revealed that Felix’s wife, Nadia, tragically died shortly after the birth of their daughter, Miranda. Miranda then dies at the age of three. These compounding tragedies send Felix spiralling and, desperate to escape the trauma of his life, he invents a new identity – Mr. Duke. 

He begins a period of isolation that lasts for nine years, during which time he begins to converse with his dead daughter, in what is both an indication of how stricken he is with grief and also the beginnings of his attempt to make sense of what has happened to him. 

While in this self-exile, he takes a job at the Fletcher County Correctional Institute and begins teaching Shakespeare to the prisoners there. 

The novel jumps four years into the future, where Felix has just discovered that funding for his course in Shakespeare is under threat and that two government ministers will be coming to the prison to evaluate the worth of the program. Fate has dictated that the two ministers are none other than Tony and Sal – Felix’s enemies. Realising that the moment for his revenge has arrived, Felix begins plotting against the men. 

He decides that he will use a production of The Tempest, using the inmates to fill all the roles except for Miranda’s, who will be played by Anne-Marie Greenland, the actress whom Felix originally wanted to play Miranda before he was fired. 

Felix convinces the inmates to join him in his production of the play. He gives each cast member two roles: their own from the play, and as one of ‘Prospero’s Goblins.’ Felix selects ‘8Handz’ as Ariel, because he has experience in technology and surveillance systems. Leggs, in prison for breaking and entering, is cast as Caliban. Felix casts himself as Prospero. 

The bond between Felix and Greenland increasingly resembles that of a father and his daughter. Nonetheless, the memory of Miranda continues to weigh heavily on Felix’s mind. Miranda’s ghost communicates her desire to be involved in the production of The Tempest, and Felix decides that she can be Ariel’s understudy. 

During the interactive performance of The Tempest, Tony attempts to encourage Sebert to murder Sal and Lonnie for Tony’s political gain. 

The Goblins had provided drinks spiked with sedatives for Sal and Lonnie. The door to the room where they were being kept is opened, and they enter another room that is empty except for a table in the centre with grapes in a bowl on it. Everyone except Lonnie eats some of the grapes, which were spiked with drugs that produce a hallucinatory effect, terrifying those who consumed it. 

Felix has arranged for 8Handz to record everything, and he plans to use the footage of the ministers hallucinating to discredit them. 

Sal’s son, Freddy, and Greenland fall instantly in love – Felix approves of the match. Felix is guided by spirit Miranda to abandon the final part of his plan in favour of virtue.

The cast present reports about what they learned about The Tempest during their production of it. Even Felix has learned something new – that he should let go of his revenge plot and try to move on. The cast have also moved on, in different ways. Some of them start a band, while others begin new lives outside of prison. Spirit Miranda is impressed by the inmates’ passion and energy, which forces Felix to adopt a more empathetic tone. 

As Felix packs up his things and gets ready to leave what has been his home for the past nine years, he reflects on the success of his plot. He is especially happy that he did not have to release the footage – instead, by just having Tony know of its existence, he has been able to get what he wants. Ultimately however, Felix has learned that forgiveness and mercy are superior to revenge. 

The novel ends with spirit Miranda being freed from the ‘prison’ of her father’s anguish. He releases her with the same line as Prospero does to Ariel: ‘To the elements be free.’