The Handmaid's Tale- C25

The Handmaid's Tale- C25

1. summary

   • Offred wakes suddenly when Cora drops the breakfast tray. She’d fallen asleep in the closet, which greatly alarms Cora. Offred lies and says she must have fainted in the closet. it’s less suspicious just to lie that Cora dropped the tray on her way out.
     • The narrative jumps forward. it’s summertime, and the tulips are gone. Returning from a grocery trip, Offred sees Serena Joy cutting off the tulips’ seed pods
       • Offred thinks more about the garden. Offred continues to enjoy tempting the checkpoint guards
         • Offred and the Commander continue to meet in secret, when Nick signals
           • Offred finds it difficult to sneak around Serena Joy, and sometimes can’t make the appointments. Sometimes Serena Joy goes out at night to visit sick Wives. For the Wives, being sick is fun, but sick Handmaids and Marthas mysteriously disappear.
             • Commander gave Offred a Vogue magazine to read. At first, Offred turned down the Vogue, but the Commander said that she was allowed to read it. The Commander explained that he and his wife didn’t communicate. Offred requested lotion. The Commander laughed at the fact that she’d been using butter, and she felt angry. He gave her the lotion four days later

2. narrator

   • When thinking about tempting guards, wishes for winter to keep her in check.
   • she likes winter because she needs 'hardness, cold, rigidity'
   • finds spelling an 'effort' after not needing to for a long time and is left incapable of language 'like trying to walk without crutches'
   • 'longing of mine was trivial'- ironic how she wants the magazine so badly because it used to be 'infinitely discardable'
   • getting used to rebelling 'but i didn't feel evil'
   • still embarrassed by the ceremony 'blushing'

3. other characters

   • Offred is pleased that Cora is willing to deal with Rita’s displeasure on her behalf. Cora is still hopeful that Offred is pregnant, but offred doesn't get Cora's hopes up
   • Cora tries to make sense of why Offred fainted 'must have been the strain'- modal auxiliary verb- rational/worried
   • Cora thought it was a possibility that Offred 'run off'
   • serena is cutting off flowers' 'genitalia', offred mocks her 'saint serena..doing penance'
   • Serena's garden represents her 'buried things', feelings she won't show but wants people to see that she's suffering 'silently'
   • 'commander understands' if offred can't make it
   • wives got 'sick a lot' because it 'adds interest to their lives' but handmaids' 'marthas' 'avoid illness'
   • offred couldn't tell what commander wanted, she thinks his 'desires weren't obvious even to him'
   • commander could be 'testing' offred with the magazine so she is very careful
   • commander 'found pleasure in seeing' offred read magazine/rebel
   • commander 'retain an appreciation for the old things'- can't let go of past
   • commander and offred are both using each other 'i asked him for hand lotion' 'his wife didn't understand him' but 'no pawing'- civil relationship
   • commander may have had a 'past experience' of cheating or 'unless he's craftier than he looks
   • offred is 'only a whim' to commander- doesn't really think about her in depth

4. plot development

   • offred visits commander 'two or three nights a week', nick is the 'signal'
   • 'don't see that many old women'
   • 'serena herself sometimes takes a few days off'- wives can do what they please
   • commander is treating offred as an equal 'we can always look it up in the dictionary'. he also gives her a 'present' of a 'magazine'
   • commander 'broken the main taboo', 'who could tell where it might stop'

5. setting

   • The flowers manage to break through the earth and make themselves known, and the whole atmosphere is romantic and luxurious.
   • after dropping tray 'eggs..broken' 'orange juice and shattered glass'
   • in the garden irises are 'like pastel water momentarily frozen in a splash'

6. themes

   • rebellion-Nick signals to Offred to meet Commander by polishing the car when Offred walks by, or wearing his hat incorrectly.
   • rebellion- nick and offred have a code for when commander wants to see her 'if his hat is on askew'
   • rebellion 'where you'd least expect to find such a thing'- commander kept a magazine

7. literary devices

   • personification- trees have 'insinuating whispers'- hinting at something bad
   • simile 'like a fetish for lace up shoes'- offred thinks commander's wishes are stupid
   • anadiplosis- 'after another', magazines showed endless possibilities

8. dystopian features

   • 'so female in shape it was a surprise they'd not long since been rooted out'- regime kidnapping females
   • even walking through serena's normal garden makes offred's head 'swim'- the ordinary reminders of past is too much
   • 'who knows where they go'- ambiguous regime
   • 'any real illness..weakening ..fall of hair' 'would be terminal'
   • wives have an alliance, a 'list, invisible' for when they take sick days
   • 'magazines had all been destroyed'
   • handmaids are 'dispensable'
   • commander was unaware of the 'real conditions' in which handmaids lived in

9. context