The Handmaids Tale Quotes

A return to traditional values

(Ch. 2) This society is based on old traditional values- reference to Reagan's presidency in 80's

Red: the colour of blood, which defines us

(Ch. 2) Signs of prostitutes, easily visible, defined by their role, their anatomy, menstruation, ability to have children

The angels, guardians of the faith, salvaging, prayvaganzas

Religious manipulation

"I hunger to commit the act of touch"

(Ch. 2) Criminal, forbidden, restricted oppressive, she's touch starved

"They can hit us, there's scriptural precedent"

(Ch. 3) Religious reasoning for rules and decrees

"The accepted greeting among us"

(Ch. 4) Freedom of speech is restricted and dictated, religious intervention into society, mono theocratic society

Nobody's hearts is perfect

(Ch.4 )Being passive, accepting. They feel they can't act so they don't. It's how the systems in golead are upheld. Accepting defeat and passivity

I enjoy the power; power of a dog bone, passive but there.

(Ch. 4 )a small amount of sexual power , even those with little to no power may relish and abuse it

There is more than one kind of freedom, said aunt Lydia, freedom to and freedom from

(Ch. 5)Interjected speech suggests indoctrination, to and from is the key dichotomy of the novel

Where the lettering was painted out

(Ch. 5)Palimpsest, language tightly controlled in order to minimise communication

All flesh, lillies of the field, milk and honey

Religioun as a facade and coercive tool

Her belly… swells triumphantly

(Ch. 5)Fulfilling her purpose, victorious, children are highly valued

She's a flag on a hill top

(Ch. 5)Military sign of conquering and successful invasion

What else can I say?

(Ch. 5)Restricted speech, fear of surveillance- like at woods experiences in Berlin, control oppression

Like scarecrows which in a way they are since they are meant to scare

(Ch. 6)Men's salvagings, throughout history the punished have had bodies and bodily parts put on display as a warning and a threat to others

This smile of blood

(Ch. 6)Visceral description, distorting happy childish images with violent ones shows how this place has warped her mind and perception of the world around her

"There's always someone" "you can mean thousands"

(Ch. 7)Her desperation for connection and communication

It's a beautiful May Day

(Ch. 8)Communication is so restricted, offered spirals and worries over one sentence and it's true meaning

He made you different

(Ch. 8)Religion being used to justify men's behaviour and to blame women, make them responsible

This is a treacherous smell

(Ch. 8)The bread smell is taunting her of better times, giving her hope, reminding her of times long gone

I would like to have that knife

(Ch. 8)She would have power. Power to hurt herself and others. Power.

Flashes of normality… like ambushes

(Ch. 8)Painful, unexpected, she's unprepared for them

I got to tenderise this bird

(Ch. 8)Prepare the chicken for dinner or prepare offred for the commander?

Careless junk

(Ch. 9)Double meaning: trash and cum, it's careless because, children are so valued in gilead throwing away semen is sacrilege

Like dried flower petals… old love

(Ch. 9)Romanticising a cum stain: it's a sign of intimacy, sexual freedom and connection

It pleases me to think I'm communing with her, this unknown woman

(Ch. 9)Connection to other women, communing suggest something spiritual

Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it

(Ch. 10)Conscious passivity

in a gradually heating bathtub you'd be boiled to death before you knew it

(Ch. 10) Gilead developed slowly, strategically

There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that is the law

(Ch. 11)Laws oppressing women, blaming women

He calls me honey

(Ch. 11)Women are products, commodity, there is a power imbalance in play

Lazily almost lingering

(Ch. 11)Doctor is abusing his power for his own desires, fully aware of the injustices

I don't want to look at something that defines me so completely

(Ch. 12)She is diminished to her body, she is in her role because of her body

"What I must present is a made thing, not something born"

(Ch. 12)Offred has been forced into this role, gilead breeds falsity

"But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men"

(Ch. 13)It's the control the men have over these women in waiting which is erotic

The testifyings

(Ch. 13)Cult like, religious manipulation, victim blaming, using shame to enforce position and to inhibit a sense of community

Treacherous ground my own body

(Ch. 13)She has failed her duty, detachment from body

"I have failed once again to fulfil the expectations of others, which have become my own"

(Ch. 13)Indoctrinated

Close to my eyes there's a leaf, red, turned early

(Ch. 13)Red= changing seasons, Handmaids dresses. It has changed to soon. It's the last thing she sees before her life changes forever

'The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part'

(Ch. 14)Possession, hierarchy, glorification, subversion of religious ceremony

"They show us only victories, never defeats"

(Ch. 14)Censorship, control of media

"It is an incendiary device

(Ch. 15)If they got to read it they would discover how it has been warped, manipulated and subverted to abuse and oppress them- it could start a revolution, an explosion

There wasn't a lot of choice, but there was some, and this is what I chose

(Ch. 16)Justifying institutionalised rape, she rationalised it to give her some sense of control over her life

"Below it the Commander is ****ing. What he is ****ing is the lower part of my body

(Ch. 16)Objectifying, detaching herself from what's happening, it's a coping mechanism

One detaches oneself. One describes

(Ch. 16)Coping mechanism

"We are containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important"

(Ch. 17)Gilead reduces women to their bodies- subverted version of 'it's what's inside that counts'

"Too much trust, too much risk, too much already"

(Ch. 17)Diacopic, overwhelming

In reduced circumstances the desire to live attached itself to strange objects

(Ch. 19)Keeps her mind active by overanalysing everything and making meaning out of things to prevent a sense of hopelessness

The greater the risk the greater the glory

(Ch. 19)Describing the Handmaids role- Propaganda

Birthing stool: like a throne behind the other

(Ch. 20)Gilead construct, hierarchy, same concept as sex ceremony

This is a reconstruction.

(Ch. 23)Offred is human, she admits she's telling a story which entails a sense of filling in the gaps, personal bias

Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it

(Ch.23 )There are different social expectations, standards and rules for different members of society- gilead isn't about logic it's about hierarchy

two-legged wombs

(Ch. 23)Reduced to their bodies, no more

he was not a monster, to her

(Ch. 24)Using Love as an excuse for evil, 'creating a humanity'

Like fish bait (the magazine)

(Ch. 25)It is a bribe, it could get her in trouble be dangerous, she is like a pet

From the seventies I think (the magazine)

(Ch. 25)Time of second wave feminism, sexual power, and autonomy

What's dangerous in the hands of the multitudes is safe enough for those whose motives are (beyond reproach)

(Ch. 25)The commanders can be trusted not the people, enforcing hierarchy

Who else could I show it to?

(Ch. 25)Even those at the top of the system are trapped in it, he lacks connection also

I could have slapped him

(Ch. 25)The butter represents hoping for a better future to the Handmaids but he is dismissive of it

"The sea fisheries were defunct several years ago"

(Ch. 27)Pollution or over fishing, at woods environmental concerns

Soul scrolls

Capitalising on religion, prayer is a performance, about conforming not faith, everything is a resource even god

Heave him into the back of the van like a sack of mail

'(Ch. 27)Mail'=sending a message to the rest about the threat that looms over them

I couldn't put my arms around him

(Ch. 28) Luke is representative of her oppression

For them, one and one and one and one don't make four

(Ch. 29)The commander is a market researcher, he sees collectives, data not individuals- these women do see the individual

If your dog dies get another

(Ch. 29)Dehumanising, replaceable, commodities that can be updated and replaced

There must be a night blooming flower

(Ch. 30)Metaphor, flower representative of femininity, progress happening in secret

They force you to kill, within yourself

(Ch. 30) Numb yourself to empathy or rational thought

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs

(Ch. 32) Eggs=fertility=women, women are the collateral damage as gilead is made to innately make the lives of men better

the main problem was with the men. there was nothing for them anymore

(Ch. 32) Gilead was literally built 'for men'. the situation for the women is merely collateral damage.

'GOD IS A NATIONAL RESOURCE'

(Ch. 33) Gilead capitalises on religion to control the masses and uses it strategically

(the commander: what did we overlook?) Offred: Love.

(Ch. 34) love was overlooked, neglected in the creation of gillead, but love is fundamental to humanity, love lacking is corrupting (the creature in Frankenstein)

"something powerful in the whispering of obscenities… like a flag waved on a hilltop in rebellion'

(Ch. 34) 'gossip' and relatability-connection is powerful, 'hilltop' mirrors language of when Janine got pregnant, Offred has grown and become more aware

I don't want her to be like me… I want gallantry from her, swashbuckling heroism, single handed combat.

(Ch. 38) fantasy, fairytale motif. unfair expectations, hoping someone else can inspire rebellion.

you deserve whatever I have left which is not much but includes the truth

(Ch. 41) it is a retelling, a reconstruction. she's human as well as honest

The crimes of others are a secret language among us.

(Ch. 42) communication is so restricted, acts of rebellion inspire and send a message of hope to others.

he has become an it

(Ch. 43) like the cat. Gilead incites a barbaric violence

I use the word enjoy in two distinct sense precluding of course the obsolete third.

(HN) sexism, objectification even at a conference which this woman is chairing- values haven't changed much sense Gilead.

it was a whiff of emotion recollected

(HN) whiff undermines its significance, Atwood is criticising the unemotional detached approach to history

no new system can impose itself on a new one without incorporating many of the elements to be found in the latter

(HN) GILEAD DIDN'T COME FROM NOTHING.

'its genius was synthesis'

(HN) admiring how gilead formulated its systems-'control of the indigenous by members go their own group.

goddess of history

(HN) cruel irony, he has completely misunderstood offred's story. she didn't even know if anyone would ever see these tapes and piexoto mocks her for even trying to recount her tale.