Critics Quotes Flashcards
Allan Weiss
Offred’s complicity
“while she does not belong to the upper levels of Gilead’s power hierarchy, she is no less responsible for its destruction of freedom”
he also argues that all those who ignore are equally guilty, thus making Offred a complicit participant in the regime and in her own oppression
Lee Briscoe Thompson
description of Moira
Moira is Offred’s “rebel alter ego”
this highlights the contrast between the two women and the two types of female heroism, Offred practises rebellion through covert subversion and independence of thought but does not dare to do more, whereas Moira’s escape is an active rebellion
both are courageous but in different ways, Offred seems to have finally made her escape and ironically it is Moira who is reduced to subversive behaviour in Jezebel’s
Margaret Atwood
description of dystopias
dystopias are “often more like dire warnings than satires, dark shadows cast by the present into the future…. they are what will happen to us if we don’t pull up our socks”
Susanne Becker
freedom of the press
THT is “Atwood’s strongest manifesto for freedom of the press — its abolition in the novel signifies an end to individual freedom and human rights”
Susanna Becker
the kind of writer Atwood is
“Atwood belongs to those writers of contemporary world literature who…. address pressing global issues”
Margaret Atwood
dystopias challenge us to re-examine
dystopias “challenge us to re-examine what we understand by the word human, and above all what we intend by the word freedom”
Margaret Atwood
hope at the end of THT
“A society exists in the future which is not the society of Gilead and is capable of reflecting about the society of Gilead….. Her little message in a bottle has gotten through to someone – which is about all we can hope, isn’t it?”
Heidi Macpherson
Atwood and feminism
argues that Atwood sees herself as “not a propagandist but an observer; her work merely reflects the reality of an uneven distribution of power between men and women”
Lorna Irvine
Moira’s costume in Jezebel’s
“she simultaneously parodies the demeaning nature of the female outfits in Hugh Hefner’s former bunny clubs, while she also stands for the irrepressible return of everything the Republic has attempted to obliterate”
Gina Wisker
contradictory nature of the Handmaid’s costumes
“it is ironic that the Handmaids, whose entire purpose is to reproduce, are expected to wear the white-winged headdresses of nuns in extreme orders, but also the long red dresses and red shoes which both suggest blood, and the traditional idea of a scarlet or loose woman”
Barbara Hill Rigney
Handmaids’ uniforms
“incongruously resemble religious habits; their faces are obscured by peaked hats which also function to prevent their seeing anything but what lies immediately in front of them”
they are “personifications of a religious sacrifice, temple prostitutes doomed to a kind of purdah in perpetuity”
Margaret Atwood
successful tyranny
“what is needed for a really good tyranny is an unquestionable idea or authority”
Carol Ann Howells
Offred’s storytelling
“by an irony of history, it is Offred the silenced Handmaid who becomes Gilead’s principal historian when that oral ‘herstory’ is published 200 years later”
Barbara Hill Rigney
Offred’s storytelling
Offred’s “responsibility… is to report, to chronicle her time, to warn another world… communication is imperative; she must assume a future audience”
Barbara Hill Rigney
Nick
sees Nick as a hero who “redeems all men by his act of saving Offred, although it may mean his own death”
“He is a kind of Orpheus to her Eurydice, as he brings her out of the world of the dead” and ensures her escape from Gilead at the end of the novel
Atwood
THT not being a feminist dystopia
“I wanted to try a dystopia from the female point of view – the world according to Julia, as it were. However, this does not make The Handmaid’s Tale a ‘feminist dystopia’…. giving a woman a voice and an inner life will always be considered ‘feminist’ by those who think women ought not to have these things”
Atwood
THT being more speculative fiction than science fiction
“…nothing happens that the human race has not already done at some time in the past, or that it is not doing now… We’ve done it, or we’re doing it, or we could start doing it tomorrow. Nothing inconceivable takes place”
“the projected trends on which my future society is based are already in motion”
Madonne Miner
male characters
Offred “wants to imagine these men as unique: Luke as her ‘real love’… the Commander as her Gileadean ‘sugar daddy’… Nick as her illicit love…. but the novel’s only significant male characters are in fact eerily similar”
Madonne Miner
Nick suppressing Offred’s capacity for independent resistance
“after Offred begins her affair with Nick, she loses all interest in Mayday and in the possibility of escape… whatever political commitment Offred might be capable of making vanishes in light of her commitment to romance”
Madonne Miner
Offred’s need to narrate some kind of romance or fairy story
Offred’s desire to narrate a romance or fairy story “closes off other plot options: what would happen if she were to work with Ofglen, to spy on the Commander and communicate his secrets to Mayday?”
Heidi Macpherson
ways in which the name Offred can be interpreted
“She is off-red, or not quite fully aligned with her role; she is offered up; she is off-read, as in mis-read, and she is afraid”
Heidi Macpherson
Offred as unheroic
Offred “is not heroic. She is, instead, a passive everywoman, awaiting rescue”
Atwood
we cannot blame Offred for her complacency considering how trapped she is
“You’re dealing with a character whose ability to move in the society was limited. She was boxed in… the more limited and boxed in you are, the more important details become”
AO5: Serena and Offred as sympathetic characters
we can sympathise with Offred for the systematic oppression she endures as a Handmaid, but we can also sympathise with Serena Joy in her humiliation
after the Ceremony, Serena lies like an “effigy” on her bed and this corpse-like image highlights the pain she feels
not only is she made to witness her husband having sex with another woman, but the Ceremony also serves to emphasise her advancing age and infertility
Atwood
power balance in Gilead
“Some people think that the society in The Handmaid’s Tale is one in which all men have power, and all women don’t. That is not true”
Atwood
the purpose of the Historical Notes
“I’m an optimist. I like to show that the Third Reich, the Fourth Reich, the Fifth Reich did not last forever”
AO5: the significance of the words Offred spells out in Scrabble
critics have suggested that the words Offred uses in Scrabble may be a code for her hidden protest against the regime’s sexual coercion and silencing of women
“larynx”, “valance” and “zygote”
Carol Ann Howells
female narrator
Atwood’s “choice of a female narrator turns the traditionally masculine dystopian genre upside down”
Margaret Atwood
THMT is a reflection of society, nothing features that has not already happened somewhere, frightening
“if i was to create an imaginary garden i wanted the toads in it to be real”
“one of my rules was that i would not put any events into the book that had not already happened… nor any technology not already available”
“no imaginary gizmos, no imaginary laws, no imaginary atrocities”
Margaret Atwood
puritanism, Gilead is a reflection of the past, aspects of it flow through the history of the USA
“the Republic of Gilead is built on a foundation the 17th century Puritan roots that have always lain beneath the modern day America we thought we knew”
Margaret Atwood
the power of women and why regimes must always quell this by oppressing them
women are “not secondary players in human destiny, and every society has always known that… without women capable of giving birth, human populations would die out”
“that is why the mass rape and murder of women, girls and children has long been a feature of… campaigns meant to subdue and exploit a population”
“kill their babies and replace their babies with yours, as cats do”
Margaret Atwood
control of reproduction and sex, especially female sexuality
“the control of women and babies has been a feature of every repressive regime on the planet”
Margaret Atwood
a warning, not a prediction
“it isn’t a prediction… let’s say it’s an antiprediction: if this future can be described in detail, maybe it won’t happen”
“but such wishful thinking cannot be depended on either” (action needs to be taken)
Karen Stein
the purpose of satire
“satire… addresses its exaggerated version of present evils to readers who have some power to act and, by this means, hopes to bring about social and political change”
Rebecca Stokwisz
Offred’s complacency in feeling sympathy for the Commander
“when Offred meets the Commander in frequent rendezvous in his office, we are shown that it is all too easy to create a humanity for someone… she feels sympathy for him: “he was so sad””
Rebecca Stokwisz
sexual power games throughout the novel
“the relationship with the Commander is still a game of sexual power”
“the doctor is another ambiguous figure who represents the evils of a patriarchal structure, he is prepared to abuse his position for his own sexual gain”
Rebecca Stokwisz
women are just as capable of cruelty and just as responsible for the regime as men
“there is a warning about women also… if the characters represent groups, then Serena Joy and the Aunts are the opponents of feminism”
“a women’s culture is no guarantee of sisterhood as Offred’s mother’s generation of feminists optimistically envisaged… women can be violent and vindictive and may collaborate in oppressive regimes alongside men”
“the Aunts, for example, are propagandists on behalf of the central authority, they tell distorted tales of women’s lives… show crude videos of women being attacked and are responsible for some of the gruesome cruelties in Gilead — salvagings, persecution and individual punishments at the Red Centre”
Lee Briscoe
Moira and Offred
“Moira is Offred’s rebel alter ego”
Linda Myrsiades
loss of autonomy
“she has lost the ability to act as a proper landlord to her own property”
Carol Beran
language
“Offred’s power is in language”
Earl Ingersoll
Atwood and Orwell, having to make a choice between freedom and security
“Atwood shares Orwell’s liberal-humanist anxieties about a future in which totalitarian states offer individuals the grim option of either freedom and anarchy or repression and security”
Earl Ingersoll
last man/woman
“We are encouraged to identify ourselves with focal characters who seem the ‘last man’ or ‘last woman’ in their desperate struggles to preserve their humanness”
Earl Ingersoll
erased and eradicated
“[Offred’s] former being has been eradicated - more than once in fact, since she has changed Commanders - just as Winston’s was erased when he entered the Ministry of Love and became a number”
Earl Ingersoll
Julia and Winston + Nick and Offred
“Offred’s affair with Nick … parallels Winston’s relationship with Julia”
Earl Ingersoll
Serena’s subversion
“Serena Joy seems to be subverting the patriarchy even by intimating that infertility could be a man’s fault”
Earl Ingersoll
death
“As we approach the end of Offred’s narrative, we begin to feel anxiety [for the] death that we both dread - because after it is nothingness - and long for, because it is the only end which can affirm meaning”
David Ketterer
survival
The central theme of The Handmaid’s Tale is “How long will we survive?”, the Handmaid’s Tale is more about survival than rebellion
David Ketterer
Offred’s patronymic name
The name Offred is “suggestive of ‘offered’ or ‘afraid’ or ‘off-red’ … or ‘off-read’”
Margaret Atwood
love affairs and rebellion
“If the regime forbids love affairs then one of the most rebellious things to do is have one”
Sam Wollaston
relevance of THT today
“It’s as relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it”
Barbara Ehrenriech
Gilead and Oceania
“Gilead seems at times to be only a colouring book of Oceania”
Margaret Atwood
context of the book
“I would not put anything into it that human societies have not done already”
“One of my rules was that I would not put any events into the book that had not already happened”
Mario Klarer
oppression of women
“Women from all classes of society are excluded from any kind of written discourse”
Fredrik Pettersson
Offred’s weakness
“Offred is, in some respect, a rather weak person”
Rebecca Stokwisz
language as a tool of control
“Language is highlighted as the main instrument of ideological and social control”
Grace O’ Duffy
narration
“Atwood’s choice of first-person narrator means Offred is less estranged from us”
Rebecca Stokwist
the doctor
The doctor represents “the evils of a patriarchal structure” while the Aunts represent “the opponents of feminism”
Jill Swale
a warning against apathy
The Handmaid’s Tale is a “warning to all women against political apathy”
Joyce Johnson
narration
She is “utterly convincing. It is the voice of a woman we might know, of someone very close to us”
Alanna Callaway
the role of women in the establishment of Gilead
“The Gilead takeover can be read as stemming, in part, from women’s lack of solidarity in pre-Gilead culture and society”
Alanna Callaway
internalised misogyny
There is “the evolution of a new form of misogyny, not as we usually think of it, as men’s hatred of women, but as women’s hatred of women”
Lucy Freibert
Offred and Nick
“Nick serves to release Offred. Through her friendship with Nick she even discovers satisfaction with her life”
Erik Gottlieb
no real chance of success
comment on how Offred has no real chance of success: “The central characters cannot be made responsible for his or her ultimate failure”
Tim Clist
Offred’s wit and wordplay
“Offred interrogates, wilfully misunderstands and plays with Gilead’s trite messages in a way that shows up their inadequacy”
Amin Malak
abuse of ideology
“A state that… claims to be founded on Christian principles. Yet in practice miserably lacks spirituality and benevolence”
K. Reshmi
women denied control over their bodies
“In the Gileadean patriarchy, a woman is denied the right to possess or to have control over her own body. Her body is segmented and her value is determined on the basis of her reproductive capability”
Ildney Cavalcanti
institutionalised oppression
“The monthly rape ‘Ceremony’…. grotesquely requires the presence of Wife, Handmaid, and Commander. It synthesises the institutionalised humiliation, objectification, and ownership of women in Gilead”
Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor
Offred’s complacency
“Offred is politically complacent before the takeover”
Margaret Daniels
surveillance
“Every step, every mouthful of food, every move is observed, reported, circumvented or approved”
Erika Gottlieb
Offred cannot be made responsible for her failures and weaknesses
“Since the dystopian regime denies its subjects’ free will, the central character cannot be made responsible for his or her ultimate failure or defeat in the repressive system that overpowers individuals”
Sherill Grace
finding a voice within a regime that demands silence
“What Offred sets before us in this autobiography is her desperate struggle to reconstruct her being before and after the imposition of Gilead. To do this she must insist upon her own script in a world where her voice has been erased”
Gina Whisker
the Historical Notes
“The historical notes form a sharply satirical attack on the methodology and manners of male academic historians”
“The notes alter our perspective on Offred. She is no longer a living, suffering human being but an elusive, anonymous voice whose story is nothing more than an anecdote in ancient history”
“Herstory becomes History”
Dominick M. Grace
Offred’s storytelling as resistance
“Offred liberates herself from her oppressive reality by transforming it into a fiction”
Stephanie Barbe Hammer
survival
“Significantly, the rebellious females of Offred’s world are all defeated: Ofglen commits suicide in order to protect the May Day underground; Moira’s escape attempt is thwarted and she is imprisoned in the city’s brothel; Offred’s own mother is glimpsed in a film-documentary about the dreaded toxic-waste colonies”
“To survive, Offred seems to suggest, one must surrender”
Margaret Atwood
a reflection on modern society
“1984 was written not as science fiction but as an extrapolation of life in 1948, THT is a slight twist on the society we have now”
Margaret Atwood
a warning
“in the US, where these motifs were close to home, they didn’t even use the word ‘could’… instead it was ‘how long have we got? how can we prevent it?’”
Globe and Mail
a warning
“she attempts to frighten us into awareness of our destiny before it’s too late”
Sherrill Grace
Offred’s narrative
“[Offred] must insist upon her own script in a world where her voice has been erased”
Sherrill Grace
the historical notes
“the Historical Notes are the Professor’s attempt to erase Offred’s voice again”
“Gilead and Professor Pieixoto…. have silenced Offred, but her voice, transcribed from cassette tapes onto the page…. deliver a message of defiance and hope”
Alan Weiss
Offred’s ineffectual resistance
“if this is resistance, it is a very silent and ineffectual kind”
“she takes no overt action, she appears to be more of a victim than a hero”
Alan Weiss
Offred cannot be made responsible for her complacency
“the limited resistance that Offred does take part in is the most she can do considering the nature of the regime… therefore Offred cannot be made responsible for her ultimate failure”
Alan Weiss
trope of the dystopian genre
“the inevitable defeat of the dystopian protagonist is a trope of the genre”
Alan Weiss
Moira
“Moira is Offred’s revolutionary alter ego, engaging in the sorts of rebellious acts that Offred herself is afraid to”
“Moira’s main role in the novel may well be exposing Offred’s cowardice”
Alan Weiss
dangers of ignorance
“all who ignore are equally guilty of the results of that complacency, Offred has played a role in her own oppression”
Alan Weiss
Nick and Offred’s relationship
“her relationship with Nick drains her of any rebelliousness she might have”
Margaret Atwood
description of Offred
described Offred as “an ordinary, more or less cowardly woman”
Alan Weiss
unfair to single out Offred, we all share her complicity and complacency
“it would be unfair to single out Offred for blame since so few of us would likely do any better”
“but that is precisely Atwood’s point: totalitarian regimes arise because people are too complacent or afraid to resist them or actually welcome them”
“our own cowardice or selfishness does not excuse Offred’s; instead, her cowardice and complicity convict us all, because we share it”
Alan Weiss
Offred’s responsibility in the creation and perpetuation of Gilead
“while Offred does not belong to the upper levels of Gilead’s power hierarchy, she is no less responsible for its destruction of freedom, for its atrocities, and indeed for its very existence”
Alan Weiss
surrendering freedom in a crisis
”in a crisis, it is common for people to surrender their freedom willingly to a government or other authority offering them security and freedom from uncertainty, danger, fear and hunger”
“dystopian regimes are not so much imposed from above as sought from below”
Alan Weiss
recognition of the dangers faced by women
“when Aunt Lydia and the Commander recount the dangers women faced in our time, we cannot help but nod in uncomfortable recognition”
