The Handmaid's Tale - Quotes and Analysis

Handmaids chant what at Janine

"Crybaby Crybaby. Crybaby." - epizeuxis - victim-blaming - lack of solidarity between Handmaids

Aunt Lydia says that they only need what from the Handmaids

"For our purposes your feet and your hands are not essential."

3 things important about the secret Scrabble game

1) Power dynamics - game becomes subtle power struggle -Commander controls rules and access to knowledge

2) Allows Offred to momentarily escape from her reality and rebel against Gilead

3) Allows Offred to express herself through words, reinforcing her individuality and identity that she lacks in Gilead

Context and symbolism of Jezebel (name of 'the Club')

* Biblical figure notorious for wickedness and defying God - promoted worship of false Gods and harassed and killed God's Prophets

* Her dressing in finery and use of makeup led to association of use of cosmetics with prostitutes (in some interpretations)

* Name symbolises wickedness, manipulation and seduction

What device is used for "Offred" / "Ofglen" etc

Patronymic names (from male father/ grandfather - here, it's the name of the Commanders)

Prayer machines printing out prayers - how their voices are described

"The toneless metallic voices repeating the same thing over and over" - diacope - Wives do it to further their husband's career - performative nature

What type of novel is it?

Epistolary novel

2 quotes for the economisation of reproduction

"Arousal and orgasm are [...] a symptom of frivoloty merely, like jazz garters or beauty spots" - Simile

The Ceremony "Is serious business" for the Commander - like a business transaction

Symbolism of the "grapevine"

Symbolises resistance

Serena with garden and what it symbolises

Cut off seed pods - "To cut off the seed pods is supposed to make the bulb store energy" - symbolises how Serena's role is to be beautiful, but to also be infertile (destroying the plants' fertility causes them to be more fertile.)

Importance of the lack of speech marks in the novel

Offred recalls majority of her experiences from memory to reflect on them - only uses speech marks for current situations

Handmaids are branded via a tattoo

"Four digits and an eye, a passport in reverse" - imagery alludes to Jewish WW2 prisoners and branded like animals

Chremamorphism - definition and a quote

Give humans non-human qualities - "We are containers"

Aunty Lydia suggestion of what 'freedom' is

"In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from" - antithesis and parallelism

Offred's mum telling her about her lack of awareness of the progression of women's rights

"You don't understand, do you. You don't understand at all what I'm talking about." - Diacope - don't understand determination and suffering to get to his point - esp true for younger gen

Aunt Lydia telling the Handmaids of their specialness

"Think of yourselves as pearls" - imagery - oysters are disregarded for pearls - only wombs are valuable - objectification

Offred's loss of identity

"I too am a missing person" - metaphor - lost her sense of self - displaced identity

Offred detaching herself

"One detaches oneself. One describes" - diacope and pronoun

Bodies being hung on the Wall

Imagery:

"One is a priest, still wearing the black cassock" - selectively choose which Biblical interpretations they follow

"The two others have purple placards hung around their necks: Gender Treachery" - Atwood criticises how men must conform to Gilead's gender norms

How Offred describes Moira's escape from Red Centre

"She is our fantasy" - Moira is presented as a heroic figure and hope - Juxtaposition of Moira and Offred - Offred's passivity vs Moira's active rebellion

Handmaids as wombs

"Two-legged wombs" - metaphor - reduced to reproductive function