'The Handmaid's Tale' OBH's Flashcards
“Better never mean better for everyone…
… It always means worse for some”
–> Commander acknowledges that a powerful state regime brings inequalities
Offer’s description of Handmaids - breeding
“two-legged wombs”
“I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure…
…Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object”
“perhaps he was merely being friendly…
…Perhaps he is an eye”
“Under his eye”
Typical goodbye of the Handmaids, shows someone (Guardian, Commander, Handmaid, God) is always watching –> surveillance
“They can hit us…
…there’s Scriptural precedence”
- theocratic regime
“The Eyes of God…
…run over all the earth”
- connotes omnipotent and omnipresence
“I am a….
…national resource”
“Her fault, her fault…
her fault, we chant in unison”
“Each month I watch for blood…
…fearfully, for when it comes it means failure”
“Which of us…
…is it worse for, her or me?”
“They shot the President and machine-gunned congress…
…and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time”
“Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak…
…unless they asked you a direct question”
“It’s difficult for me to believe I have power over him,…
…of any sort, but I do; although it’s of an equivocal kind”
“She is looking straight at me.
…We can see into each other’s eyes”
- Shop window - showing truth and reflection
- Their in the window symbolise similarities and their role as equals - able to connect with each other in a world where connections are forbidden:
–> Empowering - they are able to find power with each other
“But find out and tell us.”…
“Find out what?”… “Anything you can”
“I didn’t go to any of the marches. Luke said it would be futile and I had to think about them,…
…my family, him and her. I did think about my family. I started doing more housework, more baking”
“Everything except the wings around my face is red: …
… the colour of blood, which defines us”
- The red of the handmaids’ uniforms symbolises menstrual blood, emphasising their fertility and their role
“I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest,…
…but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely”
“I feel as if there’s not much left of me; they will slip through my arms,…
… as if I’m made of smoke, as if I’m a mirage, fading before their eyes”
“My name isn’t Offred.
…I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden.”
“I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden,…
…some treasure I’ll come back to dig up, one day. I think of this name as buried”
“I would like to believe…
…this is a story I’m telling.”
“I repeat my former name,…
…remind myself of what I could once do, how others saw me”
“I am a reproach to her;…
…and a necessity.”
“Luke wasn’t a doctor.
Isn’t”
“Nobody dies from lack of sex…
…It’s lack of love we die from.”
“This is not recreation, even for the Commander…
…This is serious business. The Commander, too, is doing his duty”
“She was my…
…oldest friend. Is.”
“I tell him…
…my real name”
- Luke
Barriers
“which means stop”
- They must “produce [their] passes” to be “inspected and stamped”
“Hello”
Offered hasn’t heard “for a long time”
“If your dog…
dies, get another”
