Commander Flashcards
chapter 15
context: the ceremony is occurring where Offred is subject to systematic rape
The Commander has on his black uniform like a museum guard./like a midwestern bank president
he so ordinary -not special shows the patriarchy as just because they are men they have the power
chapter 25
context: in one of the commander and Offred’s meetings, he gets her a magazine so she asks to get her lotion
“On the nights when Serena is due to be out, I’m sure to be summoned.”
Summoned - service - mistress - prostition - he also has the power - chooses when she comes and goes
‘Magazine’ -makes him want him -they are both gaining satisfaction - not based on genuine affection- makes him feel good because she’s defenceless and he’s helping her
‘I knew I was dispensable’’
chapter 23
context: this is the first time the commander has asked her to see him in his study where he asks her to play scrabble, which breaks or the gilead rules - women being able to have freedom - him being the one to give her that liberty makes him feel in power
Now it’s something he can’t do with his Wife. Now it’s desirable. - parallel phrasing
It’s as if he’s offered me drugs.”
‘kiss him’ to drive the sharp end into him suddenly’ - Oxymoron describing something so passionate to thinking about killing him - he’s throwing his power back in her face - he chose to enforce the strict rules but he choosing to break them makes it feel like their pointless
Reconstruction - abstract noun - homodiegetic narration that it’s what she wants to do in real life she wouldn’t dare
chapter 34
context: Offred is attending the arranged marriages of a dozen angels and daughters where the commander is speaking
The meat market. Don’t you remember the terrible gap between the ones who could get a man easily and the ones who couldn’t?
meat market - metaphor for dating scene - how he sees women - men like meat so women are just for men’s pleasure
All we’ve done is return things to Nature’s norm. Despite the fact he’s breaking the rules he’s advocating it - making it feel useless if the leaders don’t believe in it
chapter 37
context: Offred is visiting Jezebels with the commander where she recognises it from somewhere her and Luke used to sleep together before they married
He slips around my wrist a tag, purple, on an elastic band, like the tags for airport luggage. “If anyone asks you, say you’re an evening rental,” ‘rental’ metaphor - cars are rentals
simile - shows how unromantic their relationship is
“But everyone’s human, after all.” - scapegoat - hypocrisy ‘human’ qualitative adjective
“Nature demands variety, - scapegoat - religion god creates nature demands personification
chapter 46
context:At the end of the novel, Offred is taken away from the Commander’s house. It is unclear whether the people who are taking her away will take her to be punished or will help her escape.
‘His hair is very gray. He looks worried and helpless, but already withdrawing from me, distancing himself’- he’s emotionally invested and feels guilt that using her for his own pleasure has resulted in her potential death - but she’s still replaceable and just a state asset that he wouldn’t risk himself over her - ‘hair is very gray’ - ‘very grey’ - adverb - suggests his stress - frail and worrying - the system he advocates for is switching on him
“I need to see your authorization,” says the Commander. “You have a warrant?” ‘i need’ stative verb is that he wants to make sure there’s nothing he can do to save Offred within the law - shows he doesn’t overly care about her because inviting her to the study and making her risk her life for his pleasure do not balance out - her replacebality and shows he does still view her as a mistress or an asset to gilead - both can be replaced
I am above him, looking down; he is shrinking. - ‘above’ preposition she’s gained some power over him being able to out him for breaking the law - shift in power dynamic - she’s made him scared instead of the other way around
