Characters - The Handmaid's Tale Flashcards
“I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day.”
- Offred
IDENTITY
Gilead can try to strip her of her identity, but at the end of the day Offred knows who she is.
As Offred remembers the day she, her husband and daughter tried to escape across the border, she recalls the name she had then.
Now the Handmaid’s have easily changeable anonymous names.
In taking away her name Gilead stripped her of her identity, now buried treasure in Offred’s consciousness.
“The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders, on the street, in public, and legs, not even stockings on them, no wonder these things used to happen.”
- Aunt Lydia
ROLE OF WOMEN
Aunt Lydia postulates that when women dressed provocatively, they invited men to take advantage of them.
She places all the blame on the women, who are the victims, not the men who are the perpetrators.
“There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law.”
- Offred
ROLE OF WOMEN
CENSORSHIP
When Offred goes to the doctor for her monthly checkup, the doctor offers to try to impregnate her, explaining that most men like the Commander are sterile.
Responsibility for failure of a couple to conceive officially falls on the woman regardless of the man’s state of health.
The law represents another example of society’s use of women as scapegoats.
But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison. Who led them on? Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us. She did. She did. She did. Why did God allow such a terrible thing to happen? Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson. Teach her a lesson.
ROLE OF WOMEN
INDOCTRINATION
who does this happen to and why?
Offred recalls a Handmaid teaching session in the Red Center.
Janine had shared that she was raped as a teenager and had an abortion. The Aunts make the rest of the Handmaids tell Janine that it was her fault. Not only do the Aunts want Janine to internalise the idea that she led her rapists on, but they also want to indoctrinate in the others that women are to blame in these situations.
The group chant demonstrates the behaviour the Aunts want to instill: women should take pleasure in shaming each other.
What does Offred think when speaking to the commander about what she thinks of their new society
ROLE OF WOMEN
“There’s hardly any point in my thinking, is there? I say. What I think doesn’t matter. Which is the only reason he can tell me things.”
Offred tells the command what she thinks of their new society; after he presses her to tell him what she thinks, she plays dumb by telling him she doesn’t think much.
Sharing her opinions may prove risky, while deflection may keep herself safe and keep him talking.
Like the rest of Gilead, the Commander believes women aren’t a danger because they have no original thoughts of their own.
