chapter 14

Question 1

neat red shoes

Answer 1

• neat red shoes - Again we are reminded (see chapter 2) about the story of the red
  shoes and their symbolism as part of the repression of female ambition.

Question 2

parlour … spider and flies

Answer 2

parlour … spider and flies - Atwood is referring to the poem for children, The Spider
and the Fly, written by Mary Howitt in the early nineteenth century. It is a cautionary tale
warning against being deceived by those who intend to harm you, and begins, ‘ “Will
you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly.’

Question 3

a sitting room… standing room only

Answer 3

• A sitting room … standing room only - Offred frequently plays with language, with
  satirical intent, as she does here. Only the Commander and his wife will sit in the ‘sitting
  room’; for others there is, as if on a crowded bus, ‘standing room only’.

Question 4

• the shapes money takes when it freezes

Answer 4

• the shapes money takes when it freezes - Although those in power in Gilead profess
  Christianity, they value material possessions and the ability to display them

Question 5

• Two paintings, both of women … their faces pinched, their caps starched -

Answer 5

• Two paintings, both of women … their faces pinched, their caps starched - These
  appear to be paintings of earlier, possibly seventeenth century Puritan women, whose
  narrow views are reflected in their ‘pinched’ faces. Atwood said in an interview in 1986
  that her ancestors were ‘nagging Puritans’ and that ‘the mind-set of Gilead’ is like theirs.

Question 6

Lily of the Valley

Answer 6

Lily of the valley - A strong, often rather sickly perfume, which Atwood may have
chosen for Serena Joy because of its association with the biblical Song of Songs 2:1 - ‘I
am a rose of Sharon, and a lily of the valleys.

Question 7

• The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part. The hold of
  a ship

Answer 7

• The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part. The hold of
  a ship - A good example of Offred’s sensitivity to language, and her interest in
  language-play, as she examines in her head the different meanings and resonances of
  the word ‘hold’. ‘To have and to hold’ comes from the wedding vows in the Anglican
  Book of Common Prayer

Question 8

A preacher… business men

Answer 8

A preacher … businessmen - Popular American television evangelists, also known as
televangelists, have sometimes been criticised for seeking power and money rather
than having purely religious motives. (c.f. also the 1927 satirical novel Elmer Gantry by
Sinclair Lewis and Philip Larkin’s poem Faith Healing, published 1964.)

Question 9

news… who knows if any of it is true

Answer 9

news … who knows if any of it is true - Atwood explores, through the cynicism of
Offred, the view that all media organisations select what they wish to disseminate and
that governments constantly use propaganda. In Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, a huge
government department is organised to manipulate and alter ‘news’ material

Question 10

Angels of the Apocalypse, Fourth Division … the Battalion of the Angels of Light -

Answer 10

Angels of the Apocalypse, Fourth Division … the Battalion of the Angels of Light -
Again we see Gilead using (and mis-using) biblical names for their soldiers. The
Apocalypse is another name for the end times described in the book of Revelation, the
last book in the Bible, in which the angels carry out the judgement of God.

Question 11

Over the border into Canada

Answer 11

• Over the border into Canada - Atwood herself is a Canadian writer and is also well
  aware that Canada has often been the first place of refuge for Americans wanting to
  escape. This was the case with black slaves in the nineteenth century and those
  wishing to avoid being drafted to the Vietnam War in the twentieth century.

Question 12

Heretical set of Quakers

Answer 12

Heretical sect of Quakers – Quakers, a nonconformist Christian group which broke
away from the Puritan movement, were seen as heretical in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. However, they are today noted for their role campaigning against
the slave trade, their pacifism and for their support of minority groups - including
women, which would make them unacceptable in the eyes of Gilead

Question 13

• My name isn’t Offred, I have another name … it does matter

Answer 13

• My name isn’t Offred, I have another name … it does matter - Identity
  does matter, and Offred guards her real identity carefully. Gilead has
  attempted to remove it, giving her a generic, male-oriented name, but Offred’s
  fight for survival is not merely physical - it also concerns her innate being