Quotes - The Handmaids Tale

Question 1

We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other’s mouths

Answer 1

Identity- forbidden speech

Chapter 1

Question 2

At neck level there’s another sheet, suspended from the ceiling. It intersects me so the doctor will never see my face. He deals with a torso only.

Answer 2

Identity- separate body and mind

Chapter 11

Question 3

My self is a thing I must now compose

Answer 3

Identity - creation of an identity

Chapter 12

Question 4

Everything expect the white wings around my face is red: the colour of blood, which defines us.

Answer 4

Identity - colour of her clothes/purpose

Chapter 2

Question 5

I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there.

Answer 5

Women- sexual power

Chapter 4

Question 6

We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices

Answer 6

Body- a womb

Question 7

A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.

Answer 7

Dystopia- rat

Chapter 27

Question 8

Give me children, or else I die.

Answer 8

Religion - genesis reference

Chapter 11

Question 9

Fragmentation/Memory loss

Answer 9

‘It’s impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances’.
- Chapter 23