handmaid's v. frankenstein

rebellion

• “I will be with you on your wedding night” - when v denies creature of female creature, he gets mad and says

• “nolite te bastardes caborundorum” - she finds this phrase, meaning ‘don’t let the bastards grind you down’ in her room by a previous handmaid

choice

• “such were the professor’s words - rather let me say such the words of fate” - his path down the scientific route in uni

• “I bend over do to up my red shoes; light weight these days” - now she is in kahoots w C

• “if w don’t like the man we would change

guilt

• “every night I was oppressed by a slow fever […] the fall of a lead startled me and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime” - reflecting upon the creation of the creature and his self isolation

• “I feel guilty for being here, for breathing”

• “it was like being in an elevator cut loose at the top. falling, falling, and not knowing when you will hit”

nature v artificial

• “nothing moves in the searchlight moonlight” - at night watching, she cant differenciate between nature/ artificial, comfortable in the system after rs w C

• “i do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite”

emotional isolation

• “in my nightgown, long-sleeved even in summer to keep us from the temptations of our own flesh, to keep us from hugging ourselves bare-armed.”

• “It’s not lack of sex we die of, it’s lack of love”

• “but am i not alone, miserably alone? […] the deserve mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge”

social isolation due to differences

• “i found that the sparrow uttered none but harsh notes, whilst those of the blackbird and thursh were sweet and enticing”

role of women in birth

• “it was the wretch, the filthy demon to whom I had given life”

• “The Handmaids are for breeding purposes. There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us”

men and overambition

“I shall do nothing rashly: you know me sufficiently to confide in my prudence and considerateness whenever the safety of other is permitted to my care […] I shall kill no albatross” - Walton to his sister before depature

“it was the secrets of hevean and earth that I desired to learn” - franks. intro talking about why he wanted to learn science

“better never means better for everyone […] it always means worse for some” - commander speaking about gilead: improved life for him but not everyone else

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attitude towards creation

• “cursed be the day, abhorred devil, in which you first saw light! Cursed (although I curse myself) be the hands that formed you!” - victor encounters creature for first time

• “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged.” - realises the conseuqences of creating another creating which he does not anticipate until he consents to create one

• "Give me children, or else I die. There's more than one meaning to it.“ - talking ab aunt lydia

• “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” - prayer the handmaids need to recite

role of women

• “she has become speechless. [...] how furious she must be, now that she is taken at her word.

• “you will perhaps find some means to justify my poor guiltless justine!” - elizabeth to victor

knowledge

• "But when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased, and I turned away with disgust and loathing.”

• “Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. "

• "Sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had for ever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!

• “The Bible is kept locked up, the way people once kept tea locked up, so the servants wouldn’t steal it”

• “The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains."