The Handmaid's Tale Flashcards
Quotes
“They seemed undressed.
It had taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this.” (5)
“Though this is time…
nor am I out of it.” (7, Marlow’s Faustus)
“in a gradually heating…
bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.” (10, metaphor)
“Now the flesh…
arranges itself differently, I am a cloud, congealed around a central object.” an intangible object, easily changeable, evokes an image that she is outside of her own body.
“Let’s stop there.
I intend to get out of here. It can’t last forever.” (23)
“I wish this story were different.
I wish it were more civilised. I wish it showed me in a better light”
“you ever thought what it would be like…
to be shat on by a truckload of chickens, all of them carsick?” (humour to cope, not metaphor)
“the tulips are not tulips of blood…
the red smiles are not flowers, neither thing makes a comment on the other.” (6, no individualism)
“nothing is going…
on here that I haven’t signed up for.”
“looks down at the baby…
“it became a thing such as even…
as if it is a bouquet of flowers: something she’s won, a tribute.” juxtaposes Viktor’s reaction to the creature, “…Dante could not have conceived”, demonic creature rather than a flourishing sense of life- parallels religious allegories.
‘there is nothing…
in the novel that has not already happened’ - summation of what Margaret Atwood says about The Handmaid’s Tale
‘the more… boxed in you are…
the more important details become’ - summation of what Atwood says about the monotonous details of Offred’s narrative voice
“In my opinion we should be cautious…
when passing judgement upon the Gileadeans… not to censure but to understand” - Pieixoto, educated tone shows a void of empathy/care. if there is no condemnation or judgement for the regime, society can and will never move on.
“like a sagging…
cloud above us”, metaphorical disconnect from her position, yet, the imagery evokes pregnancy, evoking that she really is aware no matter her mental vices.
‘each contains…
a latent view of the other’ - summation of Atwood on her ustopia
“two-legged…
womb.” (23) despite the satirical tone of Offred, it shows her awareness of her stripped identity, nothing outside of their procreative abilities
What is Offred’s name?
A patronym! Gives a creepy paternalistic tone to the Commander, ownership over the handmaids. Paternalistic, father, God, patriarchy.
Lebensborn programme
‘racially valuable’ women were encouraged, in a breeding programme ran by Heinrich Himmler, to produce an Aryan race. This included the kidnapping of foreign children with features of that of the ‘Aryan’ race.
“I repeat my former name…
“Why should this…
remind myself of what I could once do, how others saw me.” (17)
mean anything?” (46) her longing for identity is depleted, no longer desires to be “held and told my name” (17)
“as if I’m made of…
smoke, as if I’m a mirage, fading before their eyes” metaphor like the “cloud congealed around a central object”, shows that Offred now views herself as a being separate from her own body/person. As she loses her family here, she loses herself.
“We aren’t supposed to form…
friendships, loyalties, among one another.” parallels the creature, “I am alone”, neither self inflict their isolation, both suffer at the hands of their societies.
“The door of the room–
not my room, I refuse to say my - is not locked.” Atwood utilises sentence forms with the dash to present a defiant tone, her way of rebelling, admitting the room was hers would show a level of acceptance.
“I want to keep on living…
“I am fearless…
…I resign my body freely, to the use of others” (45) a level of acceptance, she has to fully give up herself in order to live, can be seen as hopeful in a way - Offred would not see any use in living without hope. Parallels the Creature, “and therefore powerful.” unlike Atwood, Shelley shows freedom in a relinquishment of ones identity.
