gender dynamics/roles/status

  • “think of yourselves as seeds” (ch4, pg24)

  • “one of them is vastly present…she’s a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her…we too can be saved” (ch5, pg32)

  • “now that she’s the carrier of life, she is closer to death, and needs special security” (ch5, pg 32)

  • “should she be so lucky as to conceive (ch6, pg39)

  • “every month there is a moon, gigantic, round, heavy, an omen. it transits, pauses, continues on and passes out of sight, and I see despair coming towards me like famine” (ch 13, pg80)

  • “the innocence of female flesh not yet given over to hairiness and blood” (ch14, pg 86)

  • “the house is what he holds. to have and to hold, till death do us part” (ch14, pg87)

  • “propelled forward by a swollen belly” (ch16, pg100)

  • “my arms are raised…this is supposed to signify that we are one flesh, one being. what it really means is that she is in control, of the process and thus of the product” (ch16, pg100)

  • “I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing, copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for” (ch16, pg101)

  • “we are containers, it’s only the insides of our bodies that are important” (ch17, pg103)

  • “if i have an egg, what more can I want?” (ch19, pg116)

  • “the greater the risk the greater the glory” (ch19, pg 119)

  • “play cards, most likely, or read; some masculine pursuit” (ch19, pg120)

  • “aunty elizabeth kneels, with an outspread towel to catch the baby, here’s the crowning, the glory…it slithers out….oh praise” (ch21, pg132)

  • “aunt elizabeth inspects it: a girl, poor thing” (ch21, pg 132)

  • “[cora] hopes, and i am the vehicle for her hope…i am to provide these joys for her” (ch23, pg 141)

  • “we are for breeding purposes” (ch23, pg142)

  • “we are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices” (ch23, pg142)

  • “to refuse to see him could be worse. there’s no doubt about who holds the real power” (ch23, pg142)

  • “then we had the irises…so female in shape it was a surprise they’d not long since been rooted out” (ch25, pg157)

  • “he wouldn’t be able to intervene, to save me; the transgressions of women in the household, whether Martha or Handmaid, are supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the Wives alone” (ch26, pg166)

  • “you don’t know what it’s like, I said” (ch28. pg184)

  • “that night, after I’d lost my job, Luke wanted me to make love” (ch28, pg187)

  • “I was small as a doll…. Instead, I am his” (ch28, pg 187)

    • lifeless, an insubordinate w/o freedoms, compared to him, full of life in his freedoms

  • “what we prayed for was emptiness, so we would be worthy to be filled…with self-denial, semen and babies. Oh God, King of the universe, thank you for not creating me a man” (ch30, pg200)

  • “the ecstasy of abasement” (ch30, pg200)

  • “throwbacks to domesticity” (ch31, pg210)

  • “we both know what my body is for” (ch32, pg216)

  • “he gazes over the room, and our soft voices die. he doesn’t even have to raise his hands” (ch34, pg226)

  • “his voice is metal-coloured, horn-shaped” (ch34, pg226)

  • “start them soon is the policy, there’s not a moment to be lost” (ch34, pg227)

  • “Women’s Prayvaganzas are for group weddings like this, usually. The men’s are for military victories” (ch34, pg228)

  • “she shall be saved by childbearing” (ch34, pg229)

  • “if you worked out enough, maybe the man would too” (ch35, pg234)

    • PRE-GILEAD: the man putting effort into his appearance (and attraction) is dependent on the woman doing so first

  • “one of you, most likely the man, would go wandering off on a trajectory of his own, taking his addictive body with him and leaving you with bad withdrawal” (ch35, pg234)

  • “he wishes to diminish things, myself included” (ch36, pg237)

  • “clean-cut stony-faced young men tossing things onto the flames” (ch36, pg238)

  • “ ‘gain ten pounds and they put you in Solitary’ “ (ch37, pg246)

  • “…why are rabbits supposed to be sexually attractive to men? How can this bedraggled costume appeal?” (ch37, pg247)

  • “ ‘…you hear a lot in here, you’d be surprised. The Commanders tell us themselves, I guess they figure why not, there’s no one we can pass it on t, except each other, and that doesn’t count” (ch38, pg255)

    • Handmaids + prostitutes, WOMEN = nothing

  • “i guess it’s supposed to demoralise the men, having to wear a dress” (ch38, pg257)

  • “ ‘women on women sort of turns them on’ ” (ch38, pg258)

  • “I am to understand that I am on display” (ch39, 259)

  • “he stops at the foot…where the tattoo is, a Braille he can read, a cattle-brand. it means ownership” (ch39, pg262)

  • “Women’s Salvagings are not frequent. there is less need for them. these days we are so well behaved” (ch42, pg281)

  • “from among us, incredibly, there is laughter. it’s hard not to laugh, it’s the tension, and the look of irritation on Aunt Lydia’s face as she adjusts the sound. this is supposed to be dignified” (ch42, pg282)

    • “he gazes over the room, and our soft voices die. he doesn’t even have to raise his hands” (ch34, pg226)

    • contrast in the instant control the Commander has during the Prayvaganza, even without speaking

  • “cora has begun to cry. I was her hope, I’ve failed her. now she will always be childless” (ch46, pg303)

  • “ ‘the regime created an instant pool of such women by the simple tactic of declaring all second marriages and non-marital liaisons adulterous, arresting the female partners, and, on the grounds that they were morally unfit, confiscating the children they already had” (historical notes, pg312)

  • “Judd…was of the opinion…that the best and most cost-effective way to control women for reproductive and other purposes was through women themselves” (HN, pg316)