jezebels Flashcards
‘your time’s running out’
getting old
moving on from the commander
‘women do it frequently. all the time’
always corruption
have a a baby with nick
‘he sits on the floor beside my chair, holding my hand. his head is a little below mine, so that when he looks up at me it’s at a juvenile angle’
sat below her
as if offred is in power
‘men were turning off on sex, even. they were turning off on marriage’
pornography
oversexualisation
expectations of women
‘you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs’
have to break things to create something new
women were broken in order to create gilead
‘better never means better for everyone…it always means worse for some’
links to 1970s women’s working rights
bad for men since women were taking their jobs
‘god is a national resource’
theocracy
political religion - lost spiritual meaning
uses god to justify the handmaids position in society
‘it was a shredder after all’
something wrong with the baby
links to nazi aryan race
‘people will doing anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning’
‘my name’s janine. i’m your waitperson for this morning’
going back to before the regime
extreme psychological effects of gilead
‘i knock on his door, hear his voice, adjust my face’
adjusts facial expressions to be treated nicely
feels as if she has to please the commander
‘feathers, mauve and pink’
childlike colours
fantasy
‘it’s an archaic phrase. surely there is nowhere, anymore, where a man can take a woman out’
how puritanical society has become
how far removed gilead is from the past - attempted to destory all remnants of the past
‘both of us are functionaries’
only function in society is to tend the the commander’s desires
they are there to serve and nothing else - removes all identity and individuality from them
‘my forehead is against his shoes…black, polished’
black is a symbol of power and authority
spatial deixis - head at the feet of the commander - he is clearly in power
‘if anyone asks you’re an evening rental’
treated like property
can be disposed at will
‘a movie about the past is not the same as the past’
doesn’t capture the accurate version of the past
commander’s fantasy
‘the whole costume, antique and bizarre…how can this bedraggled costume appeal?’
things that women find attractive, men may not
different genders have different focuses
‘just show them your tag’
objectified
‘how can i expect her to go on, with my idea of her courage, live it through, act it out, when i myself do not?’
how can offred expect moira to rebel when she won’t even do it herself?
offred rebels vicariously through moira
we have to fight consistently for our rights - they can be taken away so quickly
we can’t rely on other people to fight for us
‘we ascend in the glass half egg elevator’
reminded of her purpose in gilead every day - displays level of indoctrination
all offred thinks about is her fertility
‘everything is the same, the very same as it was, once upon a time’
the past can’t be changed no matter how hard you try to erase it
uncanny
how offred and luke started - at the hotel
‘i can’t quite believe it. surely her cockiness. her optimism and energy, her pizzazz will get her out of this’
hope is diminishing
getting worse
not even the most rebellious characters are able to defeat the system
‘a bracelet, where the tattoo is, a braille he can read, a cattle brand. it means ownership’
tattooed - can’t go anywhere
dehumanised - animals are usually tattooed
in a position of subordination
‘fake it, i scream at myself inside my head…let’s get this over with or you’ll be here all night’
pretend to enjoy herself for the commander’s sake
shows the power he yields over offred
