the handmaid's tale Flashcards
What is theonomy?
a government founded in religious beliefs
What is totalitarianism?
a complete dictatorship
What is fundamentalism?
strict extremism
What is puritanism?
A group of people whose lives are central to the church
What is the Lebensborn?
an SS initated association in Nazi Germany that aimed to increase birth rate of Aryan (racially pure) children
How is misogyny presented in Gilead?
- it has a status system defining standards
-domestic politics
-prevented women from being flexible around men’s desires
What did critic Amin Malak say about Gilead?
The state in Gilead prescribes a pattern of life based on frugality, conformity, censorship, corruption, fear, life and terror…
What did critic Ehreinreich say about patriarchy?
Gilead is a fortress of patriarchy.
What did critic Givner say about lack of identity?
‘Just as the rulers of Gilead try to eliminate mirrors, the reflections of faces, so they attempt to erase names.’
What did critic Linda Martin say about the gileadean society?
“The novel is a prediction of the horrors of cultures frightened by normal sexuality and prescribed to procreation, It is a brutal horrifying culture.”
What did critic Reshmi say about choice?
‘Atwood suggests that the society of today where there are too many choices may lead to a totalitarian future that prohibits choice.”
What did critic Ehreinreich say about choice of narrator?
‘Atwood’s choice of narrator turns the traditionally masculine dystopian genre upsiude down’
What does the Bible passage symbolise/mean?
Women’s desires for a child as it is what makes them relevant in Gilead. The Handmaid’s fertility is utilised to the Wives’ advantage
Margaret Attwood quotes
‘the charcater of the story was brought up in our time, our language’
‘the novel is a vehicle for looking at society’
Control and resistance theme
What is Rabinowitz’s notion of priveleged position?
the beginnings set the atmosphere and the information of the text and the ends conclude and leave a message
What is the symbolism of the Gymnasium in chapter 1?
What is the significance of the Red Centre?
What is analepsis?
the flashbacks or memories of a character
What is the significance of Moira?
‘i just did one on date rapé’
form of rebellion in the red centre
feminist
represents strength in regime
reminder of the freedom of the past
What is the significance of Aunt Lydia?
‘The Republic of Gilead knows no bounds…Gilead is within you’
tells distorted tales of women in the past
responsible for most gruesome cruelties
main propagandists of Gilead
Women in power of Red Centre - women against women
Aunt Lydia quotes
‘The Republic of Gilead knows no bounds…Gilead is within you’
‘yours is a position of honour’
‘in days of anarchy it was freedom to, Now you are given freedom from. DOnt underrate it’
What is the significance of Offred’s mother?
‘looked ruddy and cheerful’ when burning magazines
rebellion against society fueled her
seen as an unwoman due to marching in protests
introduction to waves of feminism
What is the significance of Luke?
‘how were we to know we were happy?’
mentioned by Offred in moments of vulnerability or confusion
acts a safe space for her
often visited during ‘night’ chapters
What is the significance of Offred’s child?
‘dead girl’
she remains nameless shpwing loss of life and identity
the only child Offred ever got to call her own
resentment to past
comes back to Offred in ‘night’ chapters
What is a feminist criticism of women in literature?
difference in representation of men/women
sumissive entity of women
influence of the patriachy
biblical difference
languge in relation to women
psychoanalysis of men/women
Flower imagery linked to Serena Joy
having her own garden but chopping off the heads - lack of fertility, gives her something to care for
her lily scented perfume - symbol of purity and joy - ironic
Who are the Children of Ham?
children of African Americans
euphenism for the segregation and slavery of these children
What did critic Givner say about Gilead?
“The desire of the gilead regime to remove name is as strong as the desire to remove faces”
