Sight in THMT: Flashcards
‘The red gloves are lying on the bed. I pick them up, pull them onto my hands, finger by finger. Everything except the wings around my face is red: the colour of blood, which defines us’ - Chapter 2, Page 8
The Handmaids clothing is a constant reminder of their purpose - to conceive and deliver babies for a dying world stripped of fertility. The red symbolises fertility but also the blood the handmaids spill in their endeavours to succeed in Gilead.
‘We have learned to see the world in gasps’ - Chapter 6, Page 30
Everything is limited and controlled for the Handmaids - their vision, autonomy, movement, appearance. In order not to succumb entirely to their monotonous lives, they take fleeting moments to look around them.
‘Under His Eye’ - Chapter 8, Page 44
Gilead’s reason for making this a farewell is to remind the Handmaids that God is all-powerful, all-seeing and all-knowing. To the Handmaids, it reminds them that nothing they do in Gilead goes unseen and that they must be wary of how they behave.
‘The Eyes of God run over all the earth’ - Chapter 30, Page 193
Similar to the Okhrana in Tsarist Russia and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, the Eyes in Gilead are constantly a threat for the Handmaids. The surveillance that the Handmaids are subject to keep them trapped in a monotonous cycle of life and stops them from even thinking about rebellion.
