Moira Flashcards
Chapter 7
context - retrospective narration back to university where Offred and Moira were best friends and how Moira embodies female resistance to Gilead. She is a lesbian, which means that she rejects male-female sexual interactions, the only kind that Gilead values. Offred has just arrived at her new placement.
‘gold fingernail she wore to be eccentric, a cigarette between her stubby yellow-ended fingers’ - ‘gold’ abstract noun - shows her individuality - she’s able to express it through her dress - contrasts the red dresses the women wore to strip them of this, smoking - can only get them off the black market in gilead - serena joy was a smoker - smoking in gilead time can be linked to status - only people in positions of power are able to smoke (black market) - shows hypocrisy of gilead - also shows aren’t big differences between parallels
‘there were books, open face down’ - ‘face down’ - preposition - shows casual nature of being able to read - Offred being specific on the placements of the books shows her reminiscing on their rights
‘Let’s go for a beer.’ - ‘beer’ - show’s gender was more fluid she was allowed to not only drink alcohol but also drink a drink commonly associated with men
Chapter 10
Context :She’s sitting the room given to her reminiscing on music and singing it I her head which reminds her of the freedom her and Moira had at university
“Moira, breezing into my room, dropping her denim jacket on the floor. Got any cigs, she said.’ - ‘breezing’ -Moira was a free spirit dynamic, ‘dropping’ - carefree - shows the nature Offred admired that she was strong - ‘cigs’ low frequency lexis
‘underwhore’ ‘Tarts’ stuff. Lace crotches, snap garters.’ - she strong advocate for doing whatever you want - pushing against expectations of women - carries that trait over into Gilead - links to when she tries to escape (chapter 22) - ironic she ends up in jezebels after embracing women promiscuity as a way to defy men but in gilead it’s twisted into a way they are pleasured - broken her down - 38
chapter 13
context - offred thinking back to when Moira was first brought to the red centre
‘her hair was short’
‘she still had her other clothes on, jeans and a blue sweatshirt’ - sets her up as this defiant character
chapter 15
context - moira is being punished for rebelling - tried to escape by pretending to be ill but she’s caught and is brought back and tortured
‘science lab’ - place of learning turned into a place of brutality
They used steel cables, frayed at the ends.
‘Remember, said Aunt Lydia. For our purposes your feet and your hands are not essential.’ - treated like lab rats, exploded for their contribution for the regime - no thought for their quality of life
They looked like drowned feet, swollen and bone-less, except for the color. They looked like lungs.” - mutilation - unrecognisable
Moira lay on her bed, an example - regime defeats even then most defiant
chapter 28
context - Offred is thinking out ways she could rebel against the regime after she finds out Ofglen is a part of Mayday
in the passage there is repetition of ‘if I were Moira’
‘Moira could do it without a screwdriver. I’m not Moira.’ - offred looks up to moira - moira creates hope for her because she resists and shows offred that gilead might not be a parent fate they have to endure
‘screwdriver’ - gender fluidity
‘Moira was always more logical than i am’ - ‘more’ - put Moira on a pedestal logical - strength of character and she feels weak in comparison
She said I was poaching, on another woman’s ground. - ‘ground’ - ownership of land - shows she thinks the gender roles are reversed - men cannot defy their nature, Moira believes that it’s a woman’s role to be morally just when men are trying to pursue them - headstrong powerful - she was an activist too - female solidarity and togetherness she thinks they don’t think - offred believes alternatively that they can
chapter 38
context - Offred has seen Moira at Jezebels after the commander has taken her there.
‘You’d have three or four good years before your snatch wears out and they send you to the bone-yard.’
‘boneyard’ - acceptance of death, she’s been defeated
I want gallantry from her, swashbuckling, heroism, single-handed combat. - gallantry - typical mens trait -she sees her as someone who defies everything expected of her
her name throughout
because she is well respected by offred but also because she signifies to offred hope and the time before
Pregilead state - to defy them and go back
She keeps her individuality
Offred is called Offred as she feels weak in comparison to Moira
