"Lavinia, Juliet, Cordelia, Perdita, Marina. All the lost daughters. But some of them had been found again. Why not his Miranda?"
This quote comes early in the novel, when readers are told that Felix had, years ago, lost his daughter Miranda to cancer. As he reflects on his own grief, he immediately filters it through a Shakespearean lens, thinking about all the daughters in Shakespearean plays who had been "lost" by their fathers. This quote is significant because it highlights both Felix's grief and his tendency to turn to literature and drama as a means to cope with it. As such, this quote foreshadows his engagement with The Tempest at Fletcher, which he uses as a way to overcome his grief for the loss of Miranda.
"He would create a fit setting for this reborn Miranda he was willing into being. He would outdo himself as an actor-director. He would push every envelope, he would twist reality until it twangled. There was a feverish desperation in those long-ago efforts of his, but didn't the best art have desperation at its core? Wasn't it always a challenge to Death? A defiant middle finger on the edge of the abyss?"
This quote represents Felix's motivation for staging his version of The Tempest to begin with. Here, the narrator uses free indirect discourse to allow the reader to see into Felix's mind, where he reflects on the nature of art and what makes it "good." This quote is therefore as much an evaluation of creativity as it is an illumination of Felix's deep-seated desire to bring his daughter back to life.
"In the gray light of day it looked stupid. But onstage, finished, interwoven with foliage, spray-painted with gold accents, highlighted with sequins, it would have been splendid."
This quote emphasizes the importance of theater that will become one of the major themes of the play. Here, Felix looks at the costume he had planned to use for his version of Prospero before he was fired as Assistant Director at Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. Noticing that the garment is less than impressive, he thinks about the power of theater and its ability to transform the ordinary into something magical. This theme continues throughout the novel, as the mundane costume choices at Fletcher become real experiences for those watching.
"Watching the many faces watching their own faces as they pretended to be someone else -- Felix found that strangely moving. For once in their lives, they loved themselves."
This quote reflects on the efficacy of the Literacy Through Literature program and describes the actors' reactions to the final screening of their performance at the end of each class. It emphasizes the importance of creativity, performance, and imagination as elements of enriching one's life and feeling proud of oneself. Here, the narrator suggests that the inmates at Fletcher Correctional Facility are offered the opportunity to inhabit different lives for a brief period of time.
"There are the pelts of the plush animals, a little dusty now, striped and tawny, grizzled and black, blue and pink and green. Rich and strange. The many pearly eyes twinkle at him from the underwater darkness."
This quote marks Felix's decision to perform The Tempest at Fletcher Correctional Facility. Here, he admires the old mantle he had planned to use for his Prospero costume years ago and notes how it has aged yet still retains its majesty. Such admiration is reminiscent of Ariel's famous song in The Tempest when he says, "those are pearls that were his eyes," language that is adopted in the novel's own narration as Felix contemplates the possibilities of his new performance.
"Playing Miranda would have done wonders for her: he could have brought out her talent, he could have taught her so much. It would have made her career."
This quote reveals Felix's opinions of Anne-Marie Greenland, the young woman who ends up playing Miranda in his production of The Tempest. Here, readers are able to draw further parallels between Felix and Prospero, as Felix thinks of himself as the "creator" of Anne-Marie's career much like Prospero retains control over his daughter Miranda throughout the play. This quote is significant because it highlights one of Felix's more problematic qualities, namely his desire to control the female figures in his life -- a desire that, throughout the rest of the novel, will be challenged and ultimately squelched.
"He has captured his Miranda, and Ariel has been transformed and accepted. He can sense the rest of his cast emerging as if from a fog, their faces indistinct but present. So far, his charms hold good."
Here, Felix celebrates his small victories of convincing Anne-Marie to play Miranda and convincing the inmates that Ariel is a character worthy of their attention. In so doing, the novel once again places him in dialogue with Prospero from The Tempest, who uses magic and "charms" to control those around him. This quote further emphasizes Felix's impulse for control and order, which he will have to abandon by the novel's end.
"Next he goes to a nearby Staples and scores a large pack of construction paper in various colors, a roll of brown wrapping paper, and some felt markers: cactuses, palm trees, those kinds of things, for the island sets. All you need is a few items: the brain completes the illusion."
This quote serves as a commentary on the nature of theater and performance, which is all about suspending one's disbelief in order to remain entertained and convinced by a play. Here, the narrator suggests that the power of the theater derives not from the physical elements present on the stage but instead from the audience's willingness to be complicit in the fantasy set before them.
"That's what you do while you hold their feverish hands and stroke their foreheads in the hospital room, but despite everything they slip gently away from you, into the dark backward and abysm of time."
This quote represents the moment when Felix begins to realize that he cannot contain the memory of his daughter forever and he finally begins to face the reality that she is gone. Once again, the language of this passage is rife with mystery and majesty, and as such uses Shakespeare's own language -- "the dark backward and abysm of time" -- to convey the emotions Felix feels when he thinks about the passing of Miranda and his desire to keep her alive.
"What has he been thinking -- keeping her tethered to him all this time? Forcing her to do his bidding? How selfish he has been! Yes, he loves her: his dear one, his only child. But he knows what she truly wants, and what he owes her."
This quote, which appears at the conclusion of the novel, represents Felix's realization that he himself has imprisoned the memory of his daughter deep with him, and that it is finally time to let go of the desire for control and allow that memory to be "free." As such, the novel suggests that it was through the process of performance that Felix came to know his late daughter and to accept that she is gone, rather than trying to preserve her forever.
