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Quotes from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
Flashcards by Isabel Knight, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Isabel Knight
about 6 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| "We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way we exchanged names from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June." (Chapter 1) | (IDENTITY) Despite being trapped and forbidden from speaking or using their real names in this new society of Gilead, the narrator and her peers subvert these rules and convey their names so they can preserve an important part of their identities. (There is also a clue to Offred's real name) |
| "At neck level, there's another sheet, suspended from the ceiling. It intersects me so the doctor will never see my face." (Chapter 11) | (IDENTITY) The narrator's body and mind and literally separated, giving evidence to the view that the handmaids are to serve as wombs instead of intelligent beings as her head is separate |
| "I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born." (Chapter 12) | (IDENTITY) She can't behave naturally or impulsively; she has to constantly play a docile role. The narrator works to present a version of herself that is just 'a thing', emphasises that she is treated as an object whose only function is to bear children. |
| "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, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter." (Chapter 14) | (IDENTITY) Offred attempts, unsuccessfully, to convince herself that her name is separate from her identity and that it doesn't matter but she knows that when people are kept from using their real names they become lesser versions of themselves and start to lose their individuality |
| "Falling in love. [...] It was the central thing; it was the way you understood yourself; if it never happened to you, not ever, you would be like a mutant, a creature from outer space. Everyone knew that." (Chapter 35) | (IDENTITY) Offred reminisces about the time before when falling in love was a crucial part of forming one's identity but now seems like a luxury no handmaids can afford. |
| "I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now, far back behind the glib shiny surface of this photograph. A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become. You can see it in her eyes: I am not there." (Chapter 35) | (IDENTITY) The narrator was robbed of her role as a mother when Hannah was taken away but now her maternal identity has been stolen when she realises that her daughter doesn't remember her. |
| "I tell him my real name and feel that therefore I am known. I act like a dunce. I should know better. I make of him an idol, a cardboard cutout." (Chapter 41) | (IDENTITY) She links the power of her real name with being known and understood but admission of her name to Nick ultimately gives him power over her (like Rumplestiltskin) There is a reference here to Descartes' quote "I think, therefore I am" |
| " "I am Ofglen," the woman says. Word perfect. And of course she is, the new one, and Ofglen, wherever she is, is no longer Ofglen. I never did know her real name." (Chapter 44) | (IDENTITY) Linking to Descartes' saying ("I think, therefore I am"), a simple transfer of identities is presented just through the phrase "I am Ofglen". This highlights the lack of individuality as the names they are given are a symbol and women are easily replaced with others given the same name. |
| "The Commander's Wife directs, pointing with her stick. Many of the Wives have such gardens, it's something for them to order and maintain and care for. I once had a garden. I can remember the smell of the turned earth, the plump shapes of bulbs held in the hands, fullness, the dry rustle of seeds through the fingers.' (Chapter 3) | The garden is a metaphor and substitute for childbearing. Offred once had a garden as she once had a child and was able to care for them both, represented by her "fullness" and maternal nature. Also, the Commander's wife is substituting caring for a garden as she is unable to care for a child (directs the handmaid to care for it which links to how they must bear a child for them). |
| "One of them is vastly pregnant [...] She's a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her. She's a flag on a hilltop, showing us what can still be done: we too can be saved." (Chapter 5) | In this world where infertility is common and pregnancy rare, this woman represents hope not only for the future of the human race but for the handmaids whose only escape from death is bearing a child. |
| "I know why there is no glass, in front of the watercolour picture of blue irises, and why the window opens only partly and why the glass in it is shatter-proof. It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge." (Chapter 2) | Handmaids are removed from all possibility of suicide, suggesting that it is a common occurrence. This is a reminder that there are different kinds of freedom |
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