At the most basic level, Margaret Atwood's aim when writing Hag-Seed was to recreate the story of Shakespeare's The Tempest in an entirely new context in the form of a novel.

While it's impossible to know what Margaret Atwood's motives for deciding to take on this ambitious project were, we do know that she was asked by a company called the Hogarth Press to write it. This was part of an project in which a variety of authors were asked to write novels based on Shakespeare's plays. This project was intended to honor the playwright on the 400th anniversary of his death.

Margaret freely tells anyone who asks her that Shakespeare is her favorite writer, so it stands to reason that she would have been extremely honored to be part of this project. She also divulged that the reason she chose The Tempest as the basis of her project was due to the many questions raised by the story and the complexity of its characters. The challenge that these questions and complexities posed to her as a writer formed the basis of The Tempest's appeal.

Ultimately, Margaret's aim was to honor William Shakespeare by bringing his play to light in a new form by telling the story of Felix, an artistic director attempting to put on a production of The Tempest while grieving the loss of his daughter.