HMT Flashcards
(37 cards)
rat maze
“A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere so long as it stays inside the maze”
walking womb
“We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices.”
one flesh, control
“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. If any.”
unreliable narration, not sure how it happened
“it didn’t happen that way either. I’m not sure how it happened; not exactly”
unreliable narration, Moira’s story
“I’ve filled it out for her as much as I can: we didn’t have much time so she just gave me the outlines. It’s a way of keeping her alive.”
Offred name
“My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter…but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter.”
blank spaces, gaps between stories
“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print…We lived in the gaps between the stories.” (chapter 10)
her body, cloud, pear shaped etc
“I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will… Now I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping.”
change in relationship with Luke once unemployed
“We are not each other’s anymore. Instead, I am his” (chapter 28)
Commander, better/worse
“Better never means better for everyone…it always means worse, for some” the commander, chapter 32
Offred looking at her body
“I avoid looking down at my body…I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely” (chapter 12)
Aunt Lydia, temptation
“Knowing was a temptation, what you don’t know won’t tempt you.” Aunt Lydia, chapter 30
Offred, ignoring/ignorance
“We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”
fairytale, blood
“some fairytale figure in a red cloak… A sister, dipped in blood” p15
types of freedom
“There is more than one kind of freedom. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.” Aunt Lydia, chapter 3
hell to be a man
“Still it must be hell, to be a man like that. It must be fine. It must be hell. It must be very silent.”
not hatred, not love
“I ought to feel hatred for this man. I know I ought to feel it, but it isn’t what I do feel. What I feel is more complicated than that. I don’t know what to call it. It isn’t love.”
Janine, the testifying
“Her fault. Her fault. Her fault”
Handmaids’ feelings towards Janine
“Even though we knew what was being done to her, we despised her.”
Offred’s voice, dolls
“they used to have dolls, for little girls, that would talk if you pulled a string at the back; I thought I was sounding like that, voice of a monotone, voice of a doll.”
daffodils vs tulips
“The daffodils are now fading and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out colour.” p18
first tulips reference (cut, heal)
“The tulips are red, a darker red towards the stem, as if they had been cut and are beginning to heal there.”
tulips, redder than ever
“redder than ever… like chalices, thrusting themselves up.”
attacking the flowers imagery
“Some kamikaze, committed on the swelling genitalia of the flowers? The fruiting body.” p157
