Summary
The next character up for discussion is Prospero, whom the players do not necessarily respect. They see Prospero primarily as one of the "jailers," especially of Ariel. Felix challenges their assumptions and encourages them to absolve Prospero of his mistakes given how the play ends. Felix releases the roles to the players and notes that those playing goblins are crucial for the play. In reality, the goblins are indispensable for Felix's revenge plan for Tony and Sal, which will take place as a play-within-the-play, a classic device for enacting revenge on the Elizabethan stage.
Felix meets up again with Anne-Marie to prepare for her first visit to the prison. He provides the backgrounds of a number of inmates and cautions her about Wonderboy, who is playing Ferdinand, Miranda's love interest. Anne-Marie is wary but also intrigued by the opportunity, and she agrees to abide by the same rules as the inmates (e.g., no cursing). When she comes to class, the men are initially excited but maintain a professional demeanor around her. Felix distributes the final cast list and, in private, asks an inmate named 8Handz to help him hack the security system and video surveillance at the facility.
In class, a number of players ask Felix if they can show him their interpretation of Antonio, Prospero's usurping brother, and his opening speech. Felix agrees, and the men perform a musical number that has been choreographed by Anne-Marie. Felix is impressed and allows the players to include the rendition in the final production of the play. He is pleased to see the players taking initiative and connecting with their own performances. Later, Felix goes shopping for costumes for the play. One of the stores he has to enter is a toy store. Here, he is reminded of Miranda and how young she was when she died. When he gets home, Felix imagines an interaction with Miranda in which she says she wants to play Miranda in the play. Felix refuses to let it happen.
The men rehearse the play for the first time, and Felix is pleased by how well it is coming along. In particular, the inmate playing Caliban, Leggs, has done good work interpreting the multiple dimensions of the character; Felix is excited to see the rest of the performance unfold. When it is his time to rehearse, Felix is underwhelmed by his own performance as Prospero. He imagines Miranda present with him during the rehearsal, and he fantasizes that she will be serving as the understudy for Ariel. From this point on, the imagined Miranda is "present" at rehearsals, which both comforts and confuses Felix.
Analysis
Part Three of the novel represents a shift in the education process at Fletcher Correctional Facility. Rather than having Felix facilitate the class discussions -- which he does with Ariel, Caliban, and Prospero -- the players begin taking their own initiative to analyze the various characters in Shakespeare's play. The best example of this work is the musical number performed by a group of students and choreographed by Anne-Marie, a representation of "evil bro Antonio" that shows how the students are engaging with the material and learning how to interpret literature from a hands-on perspective. Here, Atwood dramatizes the very goals of the Literacy Through Literature program, which emphasizes developing analytical and creative skills from engagement with older and seemingly irrelevant literary work. As the novel continues, the reader is able to witness the inmates at Fletcher develop into more independent learners, a phenomenon which once again parallels the character trajectories of "imprisoned" characters in The Tempest like Ariel and Caliban.
Despite the inmates becoming more intellectually independent, Felix is still plagued by the same personality flaws he has retained since the beginning of the novel. Still obsessed with revenge, he finds it impossible to think about anything else, a character trait that suggests he, like Prospero, is acting out of self-interest rather than pure altruism. Further, this section of the book delves deeper into his grief over Miranda, as he starts imagining her not just at home but also at work, involved in the play herself. The novel thus contrasts the progress of the inmates to the stagnancy of Felix, who has still not found a way to cope with his grief and who struggles to see beyond his constant desire for revenge on Tony and Sal. As the players come to embrace their theatrical roles with more and more enthusiasm and competency, Felix continues to sink deeper into himself and remain isolated even in the face of a number of eager students and actors who share his common interests.
