Quotes Flashcards
“Felt skirted as I knew from pictures, later in mini skirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green streaked hair” - 13
The narrator knows about all the different fashions. She is interested in her history. Offred is inteligent and may have a plan. Everything in this quote is the opposite of what Gilead stands for, these women are rebellious. This starts with liberal ideas from exposure to something that cannot be covered by clothes (face, hair etc.) This indicates the themes of oppression, lack of individuality and change for the worse.
“Gilead is within you” - 33
Gilead is manipulating the women’s sense of identity, they are trying to make them believe that Gilead was always a thing. They are trying to manipulate the handmaids into thinking that they have a duty to Gilead. They are replacing family and blood with an idea. They are being told that Gilead is both a physical place as well as a state of mind.
“I called it mine” - 59
This implies possession over the room. At the beginning of the book she refused to call anything her own but now it is her room. It is the only thing available to her that she can call her own. Offred is trying to regain some agency.
The brevity of the shortness mirrors the shortness of the freedoms she enjoys. Offred asks a question which emphasises how desperate she is for a answer in order. To confirm her own sense of security. Short sentence “I hope” emphasises the importance of hoping that no one else saw her.
“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” - 62
Translation: “Do not let the bastards grind you down”
Offred comes across this phrase originally while searching her room in the corner of the wardrobe it was scraped into it with a nail or a pin.
This gives Offred hope that she isn’t the only one who sees through the lies of Gillead.
This is relevant to the novel as a whole because it shows that there are some women who rebel against what is being done to them. She is not the only one.Finding this text makes her question what has happened in the society up to this time.
“One detaches oneself. One describes” - 106
This is symbolic as she refers to herself in the third person which shows detachment from the first person. This shows that she is indeed detaching herself from the experience. This tells the reader that Offred is not enjoying it and she finds it easier to just remove herself from it.
“Having broken the main taboo” - 165
This shows that men enjoy privileges that women can’t in this oppressive society. The men are able to break some rules in front of the women because they know that the women are unable to make a report by themselves.
This shows that by giving Offred a book the world for the commander is not too different from our world today. This also shows the commander to be slightly rebellious because it shows that he is willing to break the rules
“The fact is that I’m his mistress” - 172
Offred is now referring to herself as the commanders mistress, she has crafted a new identity for herself. She is no longer just a handmaid but now the commanders mistress. The difference being that with just being a handmaid everything is meant to be strictly professional and there are not allowed to be any emotions. But now she is his mistress and Offred thinks that things are different.
"”I thought this sort of thing was strictly forbidden”, I say “well, officially”, he says “But everyone’s human, after all””
The commanders rebel from the strict totalitarian society. Even thought the commanders have the most freedom in the society they still feel restricted. This shows the theme of rebellion because everyone in Gilead is rebelling against it. Jezebels is when the entire facade of Gilead is removed and the reader realises that the strict totalitarian society at the start of the novel is now all just surface level and underneath there are entire networks of different people rebelling.
