Chapters 2-10 Flashcards
‘my room’
Offred refuses to claim the room she is staying in as hers, as here she is virtually kept prisoner.
“Blessed be the fruit”…
“May the Lord open”
greeting and response in Gilead
‘Doubled, I walk the street…’
The theme of doubling is introduced. Offred has many doubles, such as:
- her predecessor who hanged herself in the very wardrobe in her room
- Serena Joy: her blue cloak is used as part of Offred’s disguise when she goes to Jezebel’s. SJ and Offred share the sexual attentions of the Commander.
- Janine/Ofwarren: a dark double, or perhaps foil, who represents what Offred might become if she sllows herself to become brainwashed by Gilead.
The common thematic element that unites these women is that they are all oppressed by the same patriarchal regime.
Euphemisms used in Gilead that mask darker and more sinister truths
‘Ceremony’, ‘Salvaging’
‘Gilead is within you.’
Aunt Lydia’s statement. This is the ultimate goal of the brainwashing programme - for all citizens to internalise Gilead and its demands.
Blasphemous appropriation of the Biblical promise: ‘The Kingdom of God is within you.’
‘shining name’
Offred preserves her secret identity underneath her imprisoning Handmaid’s costume
‘Tell rather than write’
This story was originally an oral narrative. This may cause readers to question how this story has survived and taken on a written form as she had nothing to write with, and writing was banned.
Unreliable narrator/narrative - have bits been left out? Who has transcribed this story?
‘If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending’
Example of this work being Postmodern as Atwood makes use of metafiction. Offred may not have control over her life but she can control how it is presented (to a certain extent) - how she chooses to tell her story.
‘Dishtowels… the same as they always were’
Offred is always alert to detail, even those that are small and mundane like ‘Dishtowels’. She is constantly searching for ‘flashes of normality’ so that she does not forget the past and does not submit to the regime.
