chapter summary and analysis Flashcards
Epigraph-Jonathan swift,A modern proposal satirical essay
Swift uses real research and twists it so that it is far from the truth even though it is an unthinkable solution.Atwood does the same-she acknowledges her novel is satirical
Epigraph-Genesis 30:1-3
-provides the biblical precedent for sexual practices in Gilead.
-feminist critique of a patriarchal society in which women are regarded as nothing but sexual commodities.
Epigraph-sufi proverb
-suggests that in the natural world,the human instinct for survival can be trusted.It is a comment on the polluted world of Gilead where the balance of nature has been destroyed
Dedication-Mary Webster and Perry Miller
Mary webster-atwood’s puritan ancestor-A03-puritan is associated with strict moral codes.
Perry Miller-director of american studies at harvard university
(contrast between traditional values and normal life-contrast between the seen and the unseen).
Chapter 1 summary
The narrator describes a former gymnasisum that appears now to be like a women’s prison,patrolled by ‘Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth’ and guarded by ‘Angels’.
Chapter 1 Analysis-confusion and fear
This dislocated opening emphasises the confusion and fear that characterises any totalitarian state.The sheets ‘still said US’’ suggesting that while the location is familiar,’U.S’ is no longer it’s name.This was Harvard which has undergone a transformation.
Chapter 1 Analysis-Regime and resistance
evokes regimental discipline with aunts on patrol.
narrator’s ability to find ways of resisting the system of control
despite the strict living conditions,the women still have mental freedom to reminisce about the past and yearn for a different future.
Chapters 2-3 summary
offred describes her red costume,her position and the layout of the house that belongs to the commander and his wife.
offred is assigned to do shopping.
2-3-life as a handmaid
Offred describes a room.she refuses to think of it as ‘my room’.Offred’s actions follow a prescribed pattern,with time ‘measured by bells,as once in nunneries’’.
2-3-the commander’s wife
Atwood draws a clear contrast between the two women-one young dressed in red and the other elderly dressed in blue.The rigid colour coding indicated that in this society their individual identities are lost to prescribed roles.
Summary-C4-6
Offred sees Nick,the chauffuer.He winks at her and she wonders why.Offred meets Ofglen her shopping companion.
Offred makes a small gesture of defiance by teasing the guards.
Summary-C4-6
offred recognises the university town they go to the shops in as she lived there with luke-her former husband and her child she yearns for them
Summary-C4-6-significant encounters
1-preganant handmaid ofwarren
2-japanese tourists
in ch6 the handmaids pass the old landmarks and pause to stare at the hooded dead bodies of dissidents that are hanging from the wall.
C4-6-analysis-slaves or dissidents
Offres,Ofglen and Ofwarren’s names symbolise their status as slaves to masters whose names they bear.
C4-6-analysis-a repressive atmosphere
The handmaid’s walk to the shops presents the odd mixture of familiar and unfamiliar which characterizes Gileadean society,where ordinary domesticity and military regimentation exist side by side.Gilead’s double image of Christianity is confirmed in the visit to the churchyard and the wall.Offred determines to try and stay sane under this tyranny by refusing to believe in the distorted versions of reality which Gilead is trying to impose.
chapter 7 summary
Offred remembers her college friend moira and her mother and her lost child.She comments on her relationship to the story she is telling and her uncertainty about who she is addressing,or whether her story will ever be heard.
C7 analysis-private memories
Offred relives memories of the three most influential female figures in her life-her mother,moira and her daughter-Offred explains that storytelling is a survival tool.Atwood makes it clear that Offred’s private memories are a source of strength.Atwood gives her protagonist an imaginative outlet from the system of rigid behavioural controls.
C8-10-small suprises
offred is alert to minor deviations from conformitydaily life-‘dishtowels’-these items are ‘the same as they always were’ and in a world where so much has changed.
C8-10 summary
-serena joy’s history
-new commander looks in offred’s room and attempts to look in her face
-offred recalls ‘nolite te bastardes carborundorum’.
C7 Analysis-Storytelling
Offred says at the end of this chapter that this is a oral narrative which might make us question how this story has survived and taken on a written form.
In the context of her loneliness and the loss of her daughter,her insistance that ‘you don’t tell a story only to yourself.there’s always someone else’ speaks of a desire to connect and communicate and of a hunger for friendship and love.
C8-10 A03-faith
faith is one of the three primary christian graces-‘faith’ is embroidered on a ‘hard little cushion’ in offred’s room
C8-10 A03-amazing grace
In chapter 10,Offred sings snatches of hymns like ‘amazing grace’-to relieve her boredom,such songs are outlawed.
C11-12 summary
offred describes her visit to the doctor for her monthly check-up to assess her reproductive fitness.The doctor offers to give her a baby but offred refuses.
C11-12-offred’s body
at her medical check up,offred feels like a dismembered body with only her torso on display and her face hidden.when the doctor offers to give her a baby she rejects because ‘the penalty is death’ she also fears that he may be a sexual exploiter trying to coerce her into a power game in
