THT - Identity

thesis of identity

• Removing someone's identity is one of the key ways Gilead maintains control. In other words, Gileadean society is designed to strip everyone of their identity, but even more so for women, and for Handmaids in particular.

• This loss of identity represents women's loss of power on a very fundamental level.

• Without identity, there is no basis for individuality; without individuality, it becomes easier to dehumanise someone.

• Can be examined in the context of physical appearance, body and relationships (memories and current relations)

How does Offred attempt to preserve her identity?

• Through self-care (e.g. butter) and through her relationships (memories and current relationships).

• "when Offred looks inside herself, she does find a set of memories that allow her to recall a sense of self...Throughout the book she tries to hold on to these, but they fade away" (critic)

• Chapter 6: "Luke wasn't a doctor. Isn't"

• Chapter 28: "She was still my oldest friend. Is"

• Our relationships with others, especially our loved ones, are a big part of our individual identities.

• This slip into the past tense suggests that Offred is forgetting her closest relationships.

• As she forgets her loved ones, she also loses her identity.

• "red shoes...red gloves...the colour of blood, which defines us"

• "I refuse to say my"

• "myself in it like a distorted shadow, a parody of something, some fairytale figure in a red cloak"

• "The Marthas know things, they talk among themselves, passing the unofficial news from house to house"

• "The Marthas are now allowed to fraternise with us"

• "from being seen"

• "white wings"

ch 2

• Offred is defined by the colour red, symbolic of blood, fertility, reproduction. Note the subtle resistance; in refusing to apply the word "my", Offred refuses to submit herself to the reductive world of Gilead.

• "from being seen"; if the Handmaids aren't able to be seen, then they aren't able to have an identity; they become more like faceless objects and less like people. Note that the white in their wings is also meant to symbolise sexual purity. The Handmaids' uniforms, then, are specifically designed to eradicate any sense of their individuality and identity, and instead further tie them to their societal role and social group. Offred, then, is defined by the role which Gilead assigned to her. Unlike the Marthas and Wives, the Handmaids are deprived of their names; Offred can be replaced: patronymic label.

• Note whilst other women in Gilead are subjected to oppression (Wives, Econowives, Marthas, etc.), they do not face the same loss of identity as the Handmaids. Serena Joy is allowed to have a hobby (knitting), watch TV/access information, have friends, and leave the city limits; the Marthas are able to have a job (housekeeping) and socialise with each other.

• Handmaids, on the other hand, are not allowed to engage in anything which deviates from procreative purposes.

• "I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely"

• "you get too attached to this material world and forget about spiritual values"

ch 12

• The re-purposing of her body for reproductive functions has weakened her sense of individuality and identity.

• Offred begins to internalise Gilead values and starts only to see her body as a way to procreate.

• Instead of being something of self-expression and autonomy, Offred's body is confined to procreative function.

• The reduction of women to their bodies conforms with the longstanding Western tradition of women being over identified with their bodies, while men are associated with the mind, with rational and abstract thought.

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

• "I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, of means of transportation"

• "I'm a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am..."

ch 13

• A "cloud" is a changing, intangible shape. Similar to when she described herself to smoke or a mirage (ch 15), a cloud is also shapeless. By making this comparison, Offred implies that she is shapeless too.

• The phrase "central object" is alluding to her reproductive organs. So, by saying she's "congealed around a central object" Offred is saying her entire identity is centred around her ability to reproduce.

• She also describes the "central object" as "hard" which contrasts with the shapeless image of the cloud. This shows that the "central object" (i.e. her womb) is "more real" than she is.

• In this case, "more real" is meant to show that Offred as a person doesn't exist. Only her womb and fertility exist.

• By having her identity centred around one part of her body (i.e. her womb), all other aspects of her identity are erased; they fade like clouds.

• "My name isn't Offred, I have another name which nobody uses now because it's forbidden. I tell myself it doesn't matter, your name is like your telephone number, only useful to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter"

• "This name has an aura around it, like an amulet"

ch 14

• Extended simile; Offred explains how she tries to liken her birth name to a telephone number, an inconsequential tool she once gave to others to reach her, but she cannot maintain that dismissive comparison.

• Offred concludes that her given name is more like a buried treasure, precious and powerful; she has control over the loss of her own identity.

• "it would imply two people and only one is involved"

• "it has nothing to do with sexual desire, at least for me"

• "I wish he would hurry up"

ch 16

• The hideousness and graphic imagery of the Ceremony exemplifies Offred's reduction into procreative function.

• However, her sharp and humorous recount of the event ironically preserves her identity

• "I rub the butter over my face"

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

• "I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued in ways I am not; I want to be more than valuable"

• "I repeat my former name"

ch 17

• Offred preserves her identity through rubbing butter into her skin; she defies the notion that they are merely "containers".

• Offred connects her real name with being "valued"; Gilead only values the Handmaids for their reproductive abilities, so by saying this, Offred implies she wants more value than merely her fertility: she desires individuality with her own sense of identity.

• Through repeating her former name to herself, Offred reminds herself that she did have an identity before she was a Handmaid. This connection to her former self helps give her a sense of identity.

• By remembering her old life and repeating her old name, Offred is privately resisting Gilead's control and reminding herself of her individuality.

"I want you to kiss me"

ch 23

• Even if Offred is able to temporarily find an identity beyond her role as Handmaid (i.e. breaking the rules and playing Scrabble), she is still powerless.

• Thus, even when she is able to do things that Handmaids aren't allowed to do, she is still subjected to the same dehumanisation.

• "I must forget about my secret name”

• "My name is Offred now"

• "I have trouble remembering what I used to look like"

• "I have viable ovaries"

• "I have one more chance”

ch 24

• Offred chooses to forget her former identity but, on a rational level, this is a survival tactic ("I intend to get out of here" C23).

• Note how Offred quickly connects the topic of identity to her 'ovaries', the only part of her that is valuable in Gilead: Offred resigns to Gilead expectations.

• Offred focuses centrally on her fertility: crucial to her survival.

• "I went back to Nick. Time after time, on my own, without Serena knowing"

• "I tell him my real name, and I feel that therefore I am known"

ch 41

• In a society where choice and freedom to act is forbidden, Offred's active decision to visit Nick shows her discovering and claiming an identity against Gilead's dehumanising policies.

• Note the contrast in her relationship with Nick and the Commander: when she meets Nick, she wants to assert her real name and claim her identity; when she met the Commander, she endeavoured to forget her name.

• Therefore, while her relationship with the Commander is coercive and dehumanising, Offred's relationship with Nick is autonomous and intimate.

We aren't supposed to form friendships, loyalties, among one another" (echoes ch 13: "friendships are suspicious").

ch 44

• In the same way that Handmaids' past relationships are severed, Handmaids are also prohibited from establishing new friendships.

• Tajfal's theory of social identity: Without a social group, social support and identity are taken away.

• The quick replacement of Ofglen emphasises the meaninglessness of identities. By erasing her, this shows that Handmaids are not defined by their identities as people, but by their social role. In other words, as long as they can perform their duty (i.e. have a child) then they don't need to be recognised as individual people. Their identity is irrelevant.

• Ultimately, Offred mourns the loss of her friend, and therefore experiences a further loss of her identity, as she realises that their identities truly don't matter in Gilead.

"I want to keep on living, in any form. I resign my body freely, to the uses of others"

ch 45

• Having regained part of her identity through her relationship with Nick, Offred is now renouncing her identity.

• This sentence is important because it shows that, in Gilead, you can either have an identity or "keep on living" but not both.

• In this last chapter, Offred "resign[s]" to have others use her body "freely". In other words, she has given up her body, and her identity, so that she can live.

• Atwood emphasises the difficulties in retaining an identity in a regime as authoritarian as Gilead.