QUOTES
CHARACTERS
Offred - "Offred" - Double entendre for verb 'offered' like how handmaid's are treated,
- My name isn't Offred, I have another name, which nobody patronymic derived from her Commander's name, Fred, denoting that she is
uses now because it's forbidden / I have viable ovaries. a possession "of" his.
- I think about Laundromats. What I wore to them: shorts, - Lacks identity, only valued for her ability to reproduce & everywoman character
jeans, jogging pants. What I put into them: my own clothes, more relatable as she's in the middle of Janine and Moira
my own soap, my own money, money I had earned myself - Simple act of laundry represents a level of freedom that would be unthinkable
- I try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought now that the Republic of Gilead has taken all autonomy and control away from
must be rationed… Thinking can hurt your chances, and I her
intend to last. - She wants to survive as long as she can even if it means giving up parts of
- “He pulls down one of my straps, slides his other hand in herself, driven by self preservation rather than the future
among the feathers, but it’s no good, I lie there like a dead - Grotesque simile. Birds are symbols of freedom, yet dead so cannot fly or escape
bird.” like Offred. Passive verb "lie" suggests lack of resistance
- closing the door with exaggerated care behind him… There’s - Wry and dark sense of humour helps her get through the day in Gilead, what she
something hilarious about this, but I don’t dare laugh. was like, she did not need to stifle her laughter
- Stupidly enough, I’m happier than I was before. It’s - Small allowances like talking with Commander and playing scrabble make her
something to do, for one thing… instead of sitting alone in my happy shows how bad her situation is
room. - Like men do she uses her power to her advantage to get things in return, finds
- It’s difficult for me to believe I have power over him, of any pleasure in small rebellious acts
sort, but I do; although it’s of an equivocal kind / "enjoy[s] the - Has difficulty processing Moira's explanation that Commanders often dress up
power… passive but there". and show off their Handmaids at Jezebel’s, suggesting she’d like to believe the
- This interpretation hasn’t occurred to me. I apply it to the Commander feels some affection for her
Commander, but it seems too simple for him, too crude. - Sums up Offred's position in society
Surely his motivations are more delicate than that. But it may - Shows the brutal nature of society, Offred doesn't care that someone else has
only be vanity that prompts me to think so. been sentenced to death because she has survived & hasn't been found out
- A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere as long as it stays - Offred believes that she is pregnant with Nick's child, or wants to believe it
inside the maze" - Recurring internal conflict, survival technique
- "What I feel is relief. It wasn't me" - Gilead's society turns sex into an obligation to survive rather than an intimate
- "It's happened. I feel it has" connection
- "If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. - Offred is aware of the value of her beauty as seen by her concerns about
Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will appearance, keeps her skin soft and feels conscious of the hair on her body
come after it. I can pick up where I left off" (which reflects the prominence of the male gaze)
- "butter" and "lotion" - Displays subtle sexual provocation by making eye contact with a Guardian to
- "I move my hips a little" almost tease them as they have no outlet for their sexual urges
,- Commander wants "Kiss", "touch" - Offred has a degree of power over the Commander as it is him who needs Offred
- Japanese tourists = "skirts that short" & "nearly naked for physical intimacy and first initiates their relationship.
[bodies]" / "diminutive", "bright-eyed", "cocking their heads", - Judgemental tone, hyperbolic language & internalised misogyny about the
"cheerfulness aggressive" + "twittering" / "lipstick, red, tourist women who are free / sees them as promiscuous, how rapidly she has
outlining the damp cavities of their mouths" been brainwashed as she too "used to dress like that" / animalistic extended
- dolls [...] would talk if you pulled a string at the back; I metaphor compare them tourists to "robins" presents them as childish, stupid,
thought I was sounding like that' / 'the men [hang on the wall] lack individuality etc as she is jealous
like dolls' - Gilead citizens manipulated by the state, women are played with for other
- 'We're supposed to look [at the wall] people's entertainment and pleasure, men too are discarded after being used
- 'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound could save a wretch - Gilead purposely publically show the murder of these people to act as a way to
like me, who once was lost, but now am found, was bound, deter others from rebellion or resisting the government, her emotionless tone
but now am free.' suggests she's become desensitised showing flaws in their system foreboding it
- Nothing takes place in the bed but sleep AND 'He deals with will be overturned
a torso only' / “We are two-legged wombs”/ [body] determines - Offred changes the last line showing her fixation on freedom at the start but also
me so completely / 'I used to think of my body as an her own conscious reminding her to suppress these desires
instrument of pleasure' / I'm a cloud, congealed around a - Women dehumanised, used now only for their body and reproduction + Offred is
central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more now centralised around her uterus, so she disconnects herself with her body as a
real than I am coping mechanism
- 'I am a national resource.' / “I resign my body freely, to the - Gilead use her to allow the nation to succeed, seen as an object, Offred has
use of others. They can do what they like with me internalised Gilead’s attitude toward women & succumbs to the state
- OR "we still had our bodies. That was our fantasy" - Bodies were used as leverage to escape
- 'Why are rabbits supposed to be sexually attractive to men?' - Rabbits are women which are the prey, animals and the men are the predators,
- Waste not want not, I am not being wasted. Why do I want? power over women & women's vulnerability.
- We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned - Removed her own sexual desire. Pun style, alludes to the common phrase used
sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way we in 1930s during the Great Depression said by women trying to conserve
exchanged names from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. household supplies, handmaids are considered like objects solely to increase
Moira. June. / "What's your real name?' / "We grip each population & links to the title 'Shopping' of C2, she is being used (so not wasted)
other's hands. We are no longer single" / "the story passed yet this is still negative as she is not being appreciated
among us that night, in the semi-darkness, under our breath - Subverts rules to preserve their identities / psychological oppression. Even
from bed to bed" though conditions are physically restrictive, the women still have the mental
- To him I'm no longer merely a usable body. To him I'm not freedom to reminisce about the past and yearn for the future
just a boat with no cargo, a chalice with no wine in it, an - Low self-respect, since everyone views her as "merely empty," when a man sees
oven—to be crude—minus the bun. To him I am not merely her as anything more she can't help feeling something for him
empty - Things like molestation or rape do not happen publically in a strictly controlled
- “women were not protected then” / Now we walk along the regime (but private, like doctor + sexualisation at jezebels).
same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at - Metaphorical/symbolic language, desperate for touch and love to nourish her
us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles - Outer bodies do not matter, only values for inside womb
- “I hunger to commit the act of touch.” - Suggest desire to expose who she really is & early desire to rebel
, - “there’s no longer any hand lotion or face cream, not for us. - Denies that it is rape even thought it is, fricative forceful violent act
Such things are considered vanities.” / it’s only the insides of - loss of voice as the only form of communication permitted through biblical
our bodies that are important. The outside can become hard language, establishing restraint upon the freedom of speech.
and wrinkled for all they care ➔ Flashbacks = Whilst Atwood often employs flashbacks to Offred's previous life,
- What if I were to peel off my red shroud and show myself to Gilead society does not care for the past anymore and only values them for their
him, to them roles as Handmaids, Martha's or Wives.
- "I do not say making love, because this is not what he's
doing… Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that
I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice but there
was some, and this is what I chose" & "fucking"
- “during these walks, she had never said anything that was
not strictly orthodox”, but rather “blessed be this, blessed be
that”
- "We're being fired? I said. I stood up. But why?" = contrasts
Gilead when survival instincts kicks in and she doesn't stand
up ever again, used to be more assertive
Nick ● "Low status [Guardian]: he hasn't been issued a woman - She likes transgressive sex, like with Nick & Commander illegal, or Luke he was
- He has a French face… creases around the mouth where he cheating, is she a femme fatal?
smiles / tanned skin, moist in the sun, filmed with smoke / - Attracted to Nick from the start & repeated detailed descriptions of his body
bare arms sticking shamelessly out / ripple of muscles / I - Visually a non conformer
want to take him in, memorize him.. the lines of his body, the - First acts of rebellion performed by Nick leaves Offred confused about if its a test,
texture of his flesh, the glisten of sweat on his pelt "how have I come to trust him like this" & who he really is which continues
- Cap is tilted at a jaunty angle / cigarette stuck in the corner of through the story
his mouth / too casual ... not servile enough - Offred is bothered about what Nick thinks about her especially in terms of her
- Then he winks + He isn't supposed to speak to me + so close relationship with the Commander
that the tip of his boot is touching my foot / Perhaps he was - Contrasting versions of the encounter, one presents their relationship as being
merely being friendly + Perhaps he is an eye only of desire the other suggests they have an emotional connection
- Is this contempt I read, or indifference + His posture - Relationship distorts her survival instincts, he doesn't say much in return
disapproves of me, or am I imagining it? - Offred has no choice but to put her fate entirely in a man, Nick's, hands at the
- "It's an assignment" "Don't risk yourself for me" "Being… with end. Likely telling the truth as historical notes imply Offred got away yet
him is safety" VS "Puts his arms around me" "Kisses beside ambiguous we never know if he was an eye or not
my ear" - Pathetic fallacy as this begins the chapter where Offred starts her affair with Nick,
- "I became reckless I took stupid chances" "I talk too much. I can be seen to imply he offers her hope
tell him things I shouldn't" - Gives him power over Offred as she only tells him this, too trusting?
- Impossible to think that anyone for whom I feel such gratitude - He makes the narrator complacent
could betray me / ‘It's all right. It's Mayday, "Trust me", "But I
snatch at it, this offer"
