MODULE A: Quotes Flashcards
“It was like an enormous black cloud boiling up over the horizon.”
Felix attempts to describe his feelings through weather motifs, echoing Shakespeare’s use.
The descriptions of a harsh storm symbolises his sorrow and profound grief.
“The rest of his life. How long that time had once felt to him…How soon it will be over.”
The anaphora of ‘how’ depicts Felix’s reflection on his mortality. The vagueness of ‘how’ illustrates how death is uncertain and uncontrollable, however as Felix ages he becomes more aware of his own mortality.
“Instead he found himself gravitating to children’s stories…Anne of Green, Sleeping Beauty…”
The listing of children’s fairytales implies Felix’s longing for a happy ending which simultaneously highlights his inability to accept Miranda’s death. Her use of intertextual references reflects her postmodern literature style and depicts a hybridity between low and high culture.
“Quite simply, his Miranda must be released from her glass coffin; she must be given a life.”
Atwood highlights the power of art and theatre which aids to Felix’s grief, however ironically becomes the key distraction from attaining peace within himself.
There is a clear reference to the storyline of Snow White.
“You can become a clean slate. Then you draw on a new face.”
Atwood highlights the power of art and theatre to transform and rehabilitate. She criticises the negative stereotypes of prisoners in a modern-day context while suggesting that the disadvantaged have chances of renewal and redemption.
“She remains simple, she remains innocent. She is such a comfort.”
This tricolon within Felix’s imagination reveals his ideal daughter. Atwood connects this archetype of women to Miranda in The Tempest who is docile, innocent and compassionate. However, Atwood’s secular humanist and feminist perspective enabled her to revision female characters and their role in texts.
“Even a hard-shelled little nut like you.”
Anne-Marie’s characterisation is contrasted to Miranda’s in the Tempest. It is evident that she is not bound by gender stereotypes; opposed to the renaissance ideal that bound Miranda in the Jacobean Era.
“Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.”
This intertextual reference of Lovelace conveys the idea that the physical restrictions of building walls and cell bars does not equate to an environment of confinement. Instead, one may be imprisoned in their own thoughts and feelings of guilt.
“‘It’s not my play,’ says Felix. ‘It’s our play.’”
The juxtaposed statements highlights a transformation within Felix as he begins to free himself from control, an aspect that had consumed him in the past.
“What cares these roarers for the name of king.”
Shakespeare establishes a setting of chaos; one with an overturn in social class and hierarchy. This alludes to the destruction of the Chain of Being with the usurpation of Prospero.
“O, I have suffered with those that I saw suffer.”
Shakespeare exacerbates Miranda’s innocence, empathy and compassion. This reflects the ideal views on renaissance femininity during the Jacobean Era.
“And to my state grew stranger, being transported and rapt in my secret studies.”
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“The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, and sucked my verdure out.”
Antonio being metaphorically compared to a parasitic plant characterises his Machiavellian nature. Prospero’s foul description of his brother emphasises his anger and desire to enact revenge.
“The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy was grown into a hoop.”
Comparatively, while Prospero’s magic is associated with greatness and of good fortune, Sycorax’s magic is associated with evil and wrongdoing.
“A freckled whelp, hag-born - not honoured with human shape.”
Shakespeare’s characterisation of Caliban is animalistic, thus creating a sub-human image. This mirrors his minimal power on the island where he is enslaved by Prospero to complete labour tasks.
