This quote from Shakespeares infamous play Hamlet seems to be echoing to us a message of power. Specifically the power of not just his own play, but of texts as a whole in holding up a mirror up to us, a mirror which reflects our values, virtues, image, and ultimately the very age and body of our time. If we compare texts across time and observe the conversation that arises between the two, we come to see that the mirror reflects worlds that are not so different, showing the collision of the past and future within the present, providing both texts with new meaning. Lets take Shakespeares final play, The Tempest which reflects his Christocentric Jacobean world and contrast it with Margaret Atwoods reimagining of the play, Hag-seed, which reflects our own postmodern humanistic world. The Tempest follows a wizard named Prospero and his daughter Miranda as they attempt to escape the island they were stranded on and enact revenge on the people who sent them there. Hag-seed however reimagines the play in our world, where Felix, an ousted theatre director, seeks retribution against the people who betrayed him. Through their protagonists, both texts explore the ideas of freedom and imprisonment, questioning the essence of what it means to be free. Shakespeare uses this questioning to explore the ancient Christian values of redemption through forgiveness, within his own world, commingling ancient attitudes, with the values in his present. Atwood however reimagines the same question through a modern lens, providing new meaning towards the cyclical nature of freedom and imprisonment, and forgiveness and redemption through Felix, Miranda, and the prison.
Hamlets metaphoric mirror resonates in his own examination of his world within The Tempest. Created in the midst of the cultural revolution that
was the Renaissance, the play reflects upon the ancient Christocentric beliefs in forgiveness and redemption, and their place in Jacobean England. As we are aware, the play revolves around Prosperos revenge against Antonio and Caliban. Antonio has originally taken over Prosperos dukedom duties when Prospero was preoccupied with his studies: The government I cast upon my brother, And to my state grew stranger, being transported and rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle. The metaphor of his estrangement from his governance, coupled with the distaste captured in the description of the false uncle, reveals to us Prosperos driving force throughout the entire play: his guilt and desire for revenge. In an odd twist of events, however, for a prominently didactic and moralistic Christian audience, Prospero succeeds in his goal of revenge. But we begin to see the cracks in Prosperos desires, when he reaches an epiphany stating: the rarer action In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, The sole drift of my purpose doth extend Not a frown further. The personification paints an image that reveals Prosperos change in heart, ultimately affirming the values of Christian Jacobean England by mirroring the Christian commandment, love thine enemies. Prospero realizes his mistake, stating his revenge shall continue no longer, as seen in his last words: Mercy itself and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free. This rhyming couplet, which had come to be expected in the final lines of Shakespeares plays, furthers Shakespeares main point: that the only escape one can find from revenge is forgiveness and mercy. The lyricism of his language carries his point through time, reflecting a world that once was, upon a modern worlds examination of the human condition.