Handmaid's Tale Flashcards
Key Quotes from Epigraphs
‘Bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her’
‘In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones’
Key quotes on violence
‘Electric cattle prods’
‘Bludgeoned to death or mutilated, interfered with as they used to say’
Key quotes on sex
‘Men and women tried each other on, casually, like suits’
‘His tentacle, his delicate slugs eye’
‘What he is fucking is the lower half of my body’
‘I do not say making love, because that is not what he is doing’
‘They are so obviously recreational’
‘The juice of the commander runs down my legs’
Key quotes on objectification of women
‘We still had our bodies’
‘Voice of a monotone, voice of a doll’
‘I am a national resource’
Key quotes on identity
‘In this way we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June’
‘My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden’
Key quotes on control
‘Thought must be rationed’
‘A chair, a table, a lamp’
‘They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds’
‘Freedom to and freedom from’
Key quotes on control
‘Thought must be rationed’
‘A chair, a table, a lamp’
‘They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds’
‘Freedom to and freedom from’
‘Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison’
Key quotes on role of a Handmaid
‘It’s the red dress she disapproves of and what it stands for. She thinks I may be catching, like a disease or any form of bad luck’
‘For our purposes your feet and hands were not essential’
‘We are containers’
Key quotes on Serena Joy
‘It’s good to have small goals which can be easily attained’
‘If I get trouble I’ll give trouble back’
‘She doesn’t make speeches any more. She has becomes speechless
Key quotes on resistance
‘A small defiance of rule…such moments are the rewards I hold out for, like the candy I hoarded, as a child’
‘They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little’
‘I’m ravenous for news’
‘Oh God, I pray. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Is this what you had in mind?’
Key quotes on religion
‘Some of you will fall on the dry ground or thorns. Some of you are shallow-rooted’
‘Blessed be the fruit’ ‘May the Lord open’
Key quotes on language
‘A large wooden pork chop hanging from two chains’
‘Colonies’ ‘unwomen’
Key quotes on language
‘A large wooden pork chop hanging from two chains’
‘Colonies’ ‘unwomen’
‘Gender treachery’
‘It pleases me to think I’m communing with her, this unknown woman’
Key quotes on children/pregnancy
‘An object of envy and desire, we covet her’
‘Who beside her looks spindly, shrunken as we all do’
‘Give me children or else I die. There’s more than one meaning to it’
Key quotes on power
‘The knowledge of his power hangs nevertheless in the air as he pats my thigh’
