Quotes Flashcards
(191 cards)
1
Q
the epilogue (Rachel and Leah)
A
“give me children, or else i die”
2
Q
importance of communication
(he Handmaids are forbidden from speaking or even using their real names yet they find ways to subvert these rules and convey their names to each other, managing preserve this important part of their identities)
A
“we learned to whisper without sound”
“We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds… In this way we exchanged names from bed to bed”
3
Q
preventing the Handmaid’s being able to escape via death
A
“they’ve removed anything you can tie a rope to”
4
Q
the role of the Handmaid’s being presented as a duty
A
“think of it as being in the army”
5
Q
divides and hatred among women in Gilead
A
“it’s the red dress she disapproves of”
“the econowives do not like us”
6
Q
Offred holding some power over Serena and the Commander because they need her to procreate
A
“i am a reproach to her, and a necessity”
7
Q
justification of violence against women
A
“they can hit us, there’s scriptural precedent”
8
Q
the inability to trust anyone (Offred’s initial distrust of Nick)
A
“perhaps he is an eye”
9
Q
pairing up on women
A
“doubled, i walk the street”
10
Q
the dangers and oppression women faced in the time before and how they’ve been supposedly saved from it by Gilead
A
“women were not protected then”
“There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. 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”
11
Q
men hanging on the Wall
A
“they were doctors… in the time before, when such things were legal”
“these men, we’ve been told, are like war criminals”
“it will become ordinary”
12
Q
Offred being able to escape from reality at nighttime into her own thoughts
A
“the night is mine, my own time…”
13
Q
Offred’s mother and censorship at the pornography burning protest
A
“don’t let her see it, said my mother”
14
Q
Offred and storytelling
A
“it isn’t a story i’m telling”
15
Q
the meaning of ‘Mayday’
A
“It’s French, he said. From M’aidez. Help me”
16
Q
Offred’s possession over her room and the invasion she feels when she realises the Commander has been inside
A
“i called it mine”
17
Q
the secret message written in the wardrobe
A
“nolite te bastardes carborumdorum”
“I trace the tiny scratched writing with the ends of my fingers, as if it’s a code… it sounds in my head now less like a prayer, more like a command”
18
Q
significance and importance of Moira to Offred (a symbol of hope and comfort)
A
“i turn her [her predecessor] into Moira”
19
Q
Aunt Lydia’s teachings (blaming women)
A
“such things do not happen to nice women”
20
Q
hardships for all women, even the ones who possess some authority
A
“don’t think it’s easy for me either, said Aunt Lydia”
21
Q
denial and passivity, having to ignore the harsh realities in order to cope with daily life and deliberately having to remain silent and submissive, actively choosing to be complacent
A
“We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it”
“I would like to be ignorant. Then I would not know how ignorant I was”
22
Q
Offred’s feelings towards the Commander (not hating her oppressor, feeling sympathy for him)
A
“I ought to feel hatred for this man… 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”
“in fact, he is positively daddyish”
23
Q
the doctor saying a forbidden word
A
“I almost gasp: he’s said a forbidden word. Sterile”
24
Q
women being valued and divided based on their fertility and ability to bear children — able to have no personal identity aside from this
A
“There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren. That’s the law”
25
the commodification of women, their value comes solely from their ability to produce children for the state
“I am a national resource”
"I have viable ovaries. I have one more chance"
26
Moira offering a feeling of safety of Offred when she arrives at the Red Centre
“it makes me feel safer, that Moira is here”
27
herd mentality and indoctrination during the Testifying (also links to how Gilead turns women against eachother)
“her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison”
“we meant it, which is the bad part”
28
Offred’s real name (stripping away of individual identity and uniqueness)
“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”
29
constant state of war
“.... the war seems to be going on in many places at once”
30
the Commander being expected to ask to enter the living room but dismissing it
“he’s supposed to ask permission to enter it”
31
false seeming, mysterious nature of the Commander
“his blue eyes uncommunicative, falsely innocuous”
“is there no end to his disguises of benevolence?”
32
Serena being a victim of the regime too
“Serena has begun to cry.... how she must hate me”
33
Offred having to get used to the monthly Ceremony and becoming detached, uncaring about her situation, monotonous routine
“the Ceremony goes as usual”
34
Serena’s hatred and spitefulness towards Offred during the Ceremony, needing to exert her dominance
“the rings of her left hand cut into my fingers”
35
Offred’s explanation of how she chose to be a Handmaid (although we can recognise that this was not much of a real choice, the only alternative is a slow death in the Colonies where she’ll have to pick up radioactive waste until she dies)
“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"
"There wasn't a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose”
36
the Commander during the Ceremony — sex as a duty, for procreation only
“the Commander, too, is doing his duty”
37
the power and hope Offred keeps by retaining the memory of her real name
“i repeat my former name, remind myself of what i once could do, how others saw me”
she keeps her name like a buried treasure that she hopes to “dig up, one day”
38
Nick kissing Offred when she goes downstairs to steal something
“he puts his hand on my arm, pulls me against him, his mouth on mine”
39
contradictory thoughts and beliefs
"I believe in all of them, all three versions of Luke, at one and the same time. This contradictory way of believing seems to me... the only way I can believe anything"
40
risk of giving birth to an Unbaby
"What will Ofwarren give birth to? A baby, as we all hope? Or something else, an Unbaby"
“with a pinhead or a snout like a dog’s, or two bodies, or a hole in its heart or no arms, or webbed hands and feet”
"chances are one in four"
"it was a shredder after all"
41
transitional generation, future generations will find it easier, growing up thinking Gilead is normal
"you are a transitional generation... for the ones who come after you, it will be easier"
"for the generations that come after, Aunt Lydia said, it will be so much better"
42
violent porn videos shown at the Red Centre, brainwashing, equating violence with sex and thus destroying any positive view of it
aimed to prove to women that they need to be protected against men and that the current regime is therefore in their best interests and a saving force of sorts
"breasts snipped off with garden shears, her stomach slit open and her intestines pulled out"
"that was what they thought of women, then"
43
women fighting for the rights of women today, only for those rights to be taken for granted and allowed to be easily taken away by Gilead
"you don't know what we had to go through, just to get you where you are" - Offred's mother
44
the Handmaid's being united, in a positive way, during the Birth (genuine community and solidarity among women can never be truly stamped out)
"we grip each other's hands, we are no longer single"
45
ironic that women like Offred's mother fought for a woman's culture, and now Gilead has delivered a warped version of that
"Mother... you wanted a women's culture. Well, now there is one"
"women united for a common end!" - Aunt Lydia
46
Moira's escape from the Red Centre
"Moira had power now, she'd been set loose, she'd set herself loose. She was now a loose woman"
47
Moira as a symbol of rebellion, inspiring hope in the other Handmaids
"Moira was our fantasy"
“in the light of Moira, the Aunts were less fearsome and more absurd”
48
Offred as an unreliable narrator
"this is a reconstruction"
“I made that up. It didn’t happen that way. Here is what happened”
“It didn’t happen that way either. I’m not sure how it happened; not exactly”
49
forgiveness as a power
"but remember that forgiveness too is a power"
50
the Commander desiring real affection
"I want you to kiss me, said the Commander"
51
a glimpse of freedom when Offred plays Scrabble
"this is freedom, an eyeblink of it"
52
Nazi prison guard's wife (excusing someone's violent and oppressive actions simply because they themselves are a 'nice' person, like Offred with the Commander)
"he was not a monster, she said"
53
hope from the latin phrase left by her predecessor
"I trace the tiny scratched writing with the ends of my fingers, as if it's a code"
54
the Commander and Offred reaching an arrangement
"the Commander and I have an arrangement"
"the fact is that I'm his mistress"
55
freedom in the time before
"we used to be able to walk freely there, when it was a university"
"all these women having jobs: hard to imagine, now"
"women can't hold property anymore... it's a new law"
“all wear makeup, and I realise how unaccustomed I’ve become to seeing it, on women”
56
theocracy, faithfulness to the regime, the regime demands obedience
"ordering prayers from Soul Scrolls is supposd to be a sign of piety and faithfulness to the regime"
"we're off to the Prayvaganza, to demonstrate how obedient and pious we are"
57
the existence of an underground resistance and how it gives Offred hope
"There is an us then, there's a we. I knew it"
"hope is rising in me, like sap in a tree"
58
Moira and utopia
"if Moira thought she could create Utopia by shtting herself up in a women-only enclave she was sadly mistaken"
59
how Gilead came to be, Offred's nonchalant and casual recount of the massacre that led to the regime
"it was after the catastrophe, when they shot the President and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency"
"Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control"
60
women blaming themselves
"what was it... that made us feel we deserved it?"
61
Offred not attending marches, letting her rights be taken away
"there were marches, of course"
62
reading, which is forbidden for women in Gilead, becomes a rebellious and almost sexual act when performed by Offred
"while I read, the Commander sits and watches me doing it, without speaking... a curiously sexual act"
63
Offred watching the Commander write (link to Freudian theory)
"Pen Is Envy"
64
Offred demanding the Commander to give her clarity of their situation
"I would like to know... what's going on"
65
betrayal
"The moment of betrayal is the worst. The moment when you known beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil"
66
Jewish people being arrested for not converting under Gilead
"They could convert, or emigrate to Israel. A lot of them emigrated, if you can believe the news"
67
Serena's reminder to Offred of time running out
"your time's running out"
68
Serena suggesting the Commander is sterile, which is absolutely forbidden
"maybe he can't"
69
Offred imaging her escape, burning the house down perhaps, but never actually acting
"an escape, quick and narrow"
70
Offred's doubting her power
"it's difficult for me to believe I have power over him, of any sort"
71
the Commander's justification of the regime and how casually he talks about the oppression of women under Gilead
"The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore"
"Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse for some"
"you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs"
“we’ve given them more than we’ve taken away"
"all we’ve done is return things to Nature’s norm”
72
dividing people in groups, uniforms
"the lower-ranking women, the Marthas, the Econowives in their multi-coloured stripes"
73
no hope for the future as the children are growing up believing this regime is normal
"are they old enough to remember anything of the time before…”
74
women being taught to be silent
“But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence”
75
Offred struggling to tell her story
“I don’t want to be telling this story”
“I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilised”
“Nevertheless it hurts me to tell it over, over again”
76
Offred's daughter forgetting her, destruction of the family unit
“I have been obliterated for her”
77
freedom depending on context
“Freedom, like everything else, is relative”
78
the Commander taking Offred to Jezebel's, corruption and hypocrisy in the upper echelons of society, they indulge in what they tried so desperately hard to get rid of
“So this too is something he’s done before”
“If anyone asks you, say you’re an evening rental”
“He is demonstrating, to me, his mastery of the world”
“‘It’s like walking into the past”, says the Commander”
79
the Commander about Nature when justifying Jezebel's
“It means you can’t cheat Nature… Nature demands variety, for men. It’s part of the procreational strategy. It’s Nature’s plan”
80
women trapped in Jezebel's
“… nobody gets out of here except in a black van”
81
Jezebel's as a way for the Commanders to exert power
“just another crummy power trip” - Moira
82
women in the Colonies
“In the Colonies, they spend their time cleaning up"
“I thought she {Offred's mother} was dead. She might as well be, said Moira. You should wish it for her”
83
the difference between Offred and Moira, highlighting Offred's complacency, cowardice and lack of rebellion
“I want gallantry from her… Something I lack”
"how can I expect her to go on, with my idea of her courage... act it out, when I myself do not?”
84
power of uniform (the Commander) - underneath the facade of power and authority, he is just an old man
“Without his uniform he looks smaller, older, like something being dried”
85
Offred and the Commander having sex at Jezebel's
“Fake it, I scream at myself... Let's get this over with or you'll be here all night… it’s the least you can do”
86
Offred telling her story for someone
“I tell, therefore you are”
87
the power of fear
“Fear is a powerful stimulant”
88
Offred's relationship with Nick, makes her feel safe but also dulls her rebellious spirit
“Being here with him is safety”
“The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. I want to be here, with Nick…”
89
complacency and getting 'used to' oppression
“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations”
90
the Salvaging
“… I’ve leaned forward to touch the rope in front of me, in time with the others… place my hand on my heart to show my unity with the Salvagers and my consent, and my complicity in the death of this woman”
91
state sanctioned freedom during the Particicution
“You know the rules for a Particicution… what you do is up to you”
92
brainwashing and indoctrination during the Particicution, using anger and rage to control the people, a common enemy for the people to direct their frustration and rage
“despite myself I feel my hands clench. It is too much, this violation. The baby too, after what we go through. It’s true, there is a bloodlust: I want to tear, gouge, rend.”
93
desensitisation to violence and dehumanisation during the Particicution
“He has become an it”
94
Offred feeling part of the resistance
"She [the new Ofglen] isn't one of us, but she knows"
95
the only escape from the regime being death (Offred's predecessor)
“She saw the van coming for her. It was better”
96
the Commander and Serena's real power over Offred
| after Serena confronts Offred with the cape she wore to Jezebel’s, she knows about the affair
“I feel, for the first time, their true power”
97
the power in a name - Offred trusts Nick when he uses her real name in the last chapter
“He calls me by my real name”
98
last line of the book
“And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light”
99
Professor Pieixoto's term for the Underground Femaleroad (dimissal of female resistance)
“The Underground Frailroad”
100
Offred's narrative being interpreted and constructed by male scholars
“Thus it was up to Professor Wade and myself to arrange the blocks of speech in the order in which they appeared to go…”
101
Historical Notes: danger of not learning from history and not condemning people who have done wrong
“…we must be cautious about passing moral judgements upon the Gileadeans”
102
Historical Notes: how Gilead came to be
“…racist fears provided some of the emotional fuel that allowed the Gilead takeover to succeed as well as it did”
103
Historical Notes: how Gilead stayed in power
“As the Architects of Gilead knew, to institute an effective totalitarian system or indeed any system at all you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privileged few, in return for those you remove”
104
Historical Notes: how the notes end
“Are there any questions?”
105
Historical Notes: Gilead being unoriginal, drawing from past regimes and oppressive ideologies
“There was little that was truly original with or indigenous to Gilead”
106
women defined purely by their capacity to reproduce
“two legged wombs”
107
Moira’s description of Gilead
“a loony bin”
108
the invisibility and silencing of women within Gilead, unable to tell their stories, excluded and made invisible by those in power
“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces on the edges of the print”
109
forced and unnatural identity women must adopt, they have been taught to act a certain way and cannot freely express themselves, restricted lives and identities of women
“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”
links to Simone de Beauvoir’s contention that “one is not born, but becomes, a woman”, which is a key line in her book The Second Sex (1949) in which she analysed the treatment of women throughout history
110
chanting during the Testifying
“her fault, her fault, her fault”
“we meant it, which was the bad part”
111
sex stripped of its meaning, made impersonal and for procreation only
“what he’s fucking is the lower half of my body”
112
both Serena and Offred being victims of the Ceremony
“which of us is it worse for, her or me?”
“She'd like me pregnant... out of the way, no more humiliating sweaty tangles, no more flesh triangles under her starry canopy of silver flowers”
113
sex as a duty, to be endured rather than enjoyed, reference to Queen Victoria’s advice to her daughter about enduring marital sex, zoning out and retreating into passivity as a coping mechanism
“lie back and think of England”
114
Offred retaining psychological freedom through wordplay and humour, refuses to allow her spirit to be broken
she steals some butter to moisturise her skin and humorously describes buttering herself “like a piece of toast”
115
Moira having more freedom in Jezebel’s (not defeated, successful to some extent)
“it doesn’t matter what sort of vice we get up to, and the Commanders don’t give a piss what we do in our off time”
116
Offred telling her story for a future generation, a hope that one day the future will be different and able to listen to her story openly
(similar to Winston’s diary for the “unborn”)
“I believe you into being. Because I’m telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are”
117
silencing of opposition (a man accused of raping a Handmaid is brutally beat in the Particicution, but he is really killed for being a member of Mayday)
the man “wasn’t a rapist at all, he was a political”
“he was one of ours”
118
Ofglen during the Particicution
“kicks his head viciously” in order to “put him out of his misery” and save him further agony being punished for a crime he did not commit
119
dehumanisation of the women being hanged at the Salvaging
they are likened to “chickens strung up by their necks in a meatshop window; like birds with their wings clipped, like flightless birds”
120
state sanctioned freedom during the Particicution
“You will wait until I blow the whistle. After that, what you do is up to you, until I blow the whistle again”
121
Offred feeling slightly relieved at Ofglen’s death
“So she’s dead, and I am safe after all. She did it before they came. I feel a great relief. I feel thankful to her. She has died so that I may live”
122
Offred swearing to do anything to stay alive after hearing of Ofglen’s death, even become fully submissive
“I’ll sacrifice. I’ll repent. I’ll abdicate. I’ll renounce”
(links to Winston shouting “Do it to Julia!” in order to escape his own pain, shows the ability of the regime to destroy rebellious tendencies and illustrates the futility of resistance, it can be easily quashed with the threat of consequences)
123
sympathy for Serena, who feels betrayed by both her husband and Offred
“Behind my back..... You could’ve left me something”
124
irony at the end (Offred seems to have gained the upper hand)
the Commander wonders “what have I been saying, and to whom, and which one of his enemies has found out?”
“Possibly he will be a security risk… I am above him, looking down; he is shrinking. There have already been purges among them, there will be more. Serena Joy goes white”
125
the Commander commenting about the desperate lengths some women had to go to in order to fit in with the unrealistic norms of beauty imposed by mass culture
“they starved themselves thin or pumped their breasts full of silicone.... think of the human misery"
"this way they’re protected, they can fulfil their biological destinies in peace, with full support and encouragement”
126
Aunt Lydia expressing her disgust at the behaviour of women before Gilead (blame culture)
“The spectacles women used to make of themselves. Oiling themselves like roast meat on a spit, and bare backs and shoulders.... no wonder those things used to happen… Such things do not happen to nice women”
127
the language of violence against women extending to Offred’s narrative, which she describes as a dismembered corpse
“I’m sorry that there is so much pain in this story. I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in the crossfire or pulled apart by force"
"this sad and hungry and sordid, this limping and mutilated story”
128
people not realising or caring about the slow erosion of their rights, sitting idly by until it is far too late to take action and prevent it
“Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it”
129
Offred lacking identity in her uniform
she sees herself as a “distorted shadow, a parody of something, some fairy tale figure in a red cloak… a Sister dipped in blood”
130
Offred's uniform
“the colour of blood, which defines us” and turns them into a faceless mass of “two-legged wombs”
the white wings “keep us from seeing, but also from being seen”
131
Offred's description of herself as a dead bird while the Commander and her have sex at Jezebel's
“I lie there like a dead bird”
highly significant as she previously described the women hanged at the Salvaging as “chickens strung up by their necks in a meatshop window"
birds symbolise freedom, the fact that she sees herself as a dead bird symbolises her complete lack of such freedom and autonomy, she feels just like the women who were publicly executed
132
dictatorships tend to have emerged in bad times when frightened people will turn to any apparently ‘strong leader’ who looks likely to be able to fix things
the bad times that have enabled the rise of Gilead has been “a period of widespread environmental catastrophe”
which led to “a higher infertility and sterility rate due to chemical and radiation damage… and a higher birth-defect rate”
133
everyday, trivial pastimes acquiring rebellious and outrageous new meanings (Scrabble acquires an illicit and sexualised thrill)
Offred would have once seen playing Scrabble as an old-fashioned board game that bears no real meaning
but when played in secret with her Commander, in a world where women are forbidden from reading, it takes on a whole new significance and becomes a political symbol of resistance
it is now “something different… desirable… it’s as if he’s offered me drugs”
134
Moira describing Aunt Lydia beating her with a steel cable following her first escape attempt from the Red Centre (shows that women are capable of violence and responsible for the regime too)
“She enjoyed that, you know. She pretended to do all that love-the-sinner, hate-the-sin stuff, but she enjoyed it”
135
Luke's reaction to Offred being fired from her job after the Gileadean takeover
"it's only a job"
136
Offred tries to represent her existence as a narrative rather than as a lived experience in order to cope with the suffering she has endured and desensitise herself to the horrors of her situation
“I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it… Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance”
"If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off”
137
the power that lies in a name
“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"
"I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come back to dig up"
"this name has an aura around it, like an amulet, like some charm that’s survived from an unimaginably different past”
138
the purpose of women in Gilead
“We are for breeding purposes: we aren’t concubines, geisha girls, courtesans…. no room is to be permitted for the flowering of secret lusts... there are to be no toeholds for love"
"We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices”
139
trivial, everyday things gaining new meanings, everything being relative
“Context is all”
140
Offred and Ofglen communicating through eye contact
"she holds my stare in the glass, level, unwavering”
demonstrates that even in a society which is ruled by fear and violence, groups may find ways to communicate and build a network of solidarity in secret
141
Offred and Ofglen communicating through eye contact
"she holds my stare in the glass, level, unwavering”
demonstrates that even in a society which is ruled by fear and violence, groups may find ways to communicate and build a network of solidarity in secret
142
the Aunts indoctrinating women into becoming used to their oppression under the regime and therefore passively accepting of it, transforming horror into normalcy, desensitisation
“Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary”
143
Offred's changing view of her body (the central object refers to her womb, she has been reduced to her ability to bear children, it is the only value she has)
“I used to think of my body as an instrument... or an implement for the accomplishment of my will... Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object"
144
quote about the Nazi officer's mistress and Offred's temptation to create a humanity for the Commander, separating him from her oppression (he may be kind and gentle, but he still bears responsibility for the evil of Gilead)
“He was not a monster, to her. Probably he had some endearing trait... How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation”
145
the Commander’s attempt to explain to Offred the reasons behind the foundation of Gilead, changing sexual mores meant that sex became so easy to obtain that it lost meaning, by making themselves soldiers, providers, and caretakers of society again, men have meaning restored to their lives, but to gain such purpose they have had to take away the freedom of women
“The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore... the sex was too easy... You know what they were complaining about the most? Inability to feel”
146
interchangeability of women (one Ofglen is replaced by another, repeats later in the book when a new Ofglen arrives to replace the Ofglen who was part of Mayday)
“This woman has been my partner for two weeks. I don't know what happened to the one before... she simply wasn't there anymore, and this one was there in her place"
147
Offred's encounter with the doctor, she is reduced to just her physical body
"the sheet... intersects me so the doctor will never see my face. He deals with a torso only”
148
the importance of love, it used to be a crucial part of forming one's identity
“Falling in love... It was the central thing; it was the way you understood yourself”
149
destruction of family love and connection, Offred's daughter is taken from her, she has been robbed of her identity as a mother, making her feel as if she doesn't even exist
“I have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now... You can see it in her eyes: I am not there”
150
the link between the power of her "real name" and being known and understood
“I tell him my real name, and feel that therefore I am known"
151
a problem built into this new society, which is the lack of respect between Marthas and Handmaids, and the idea that the Handmaids have it easy
"If I hadn't of got my tubes tied, it could have been me, say I was ten years younger. It's not that bad. It's not what you'd call hard work”
152
the Commander's Wives being given gardens to care for to give them some illusion of control and power over something, it is also a substitute for childrearing as they cannot have their own children
“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"
153
pregnancy has become so rare and celebrated, becoming pregnant is the one thing they can do to rescue themselves from death
"One of them is vastly pregnant... our fingers itch to touch her. She's a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire... She's a flag on a hilltop, showing us what can still be done: we too can be saved”
154
putting all the blame for sterility on women and if a Handmaid doesn't get pregnant and provide the Republic with at least one child, she will die
“There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore... There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that's the law"
"Give me children, or else I die. There's more than one meaning to it”
155
collective identity during the Birth
“We smile too, we are one smile, tears run down our cheeks, we are so happy”
156
Serena asserting what power she has by emphasising her status as the Commander's Wife
“As for my husband, she said, he's just that. My husband. I want that to be perfectly clear. Till death do us part. It's final”
157
hierarchy within the male gender too, not just a power imbalance between men and women
“Low status: he hasn't been issued a woman, not even one”
158
hatred between women
(significantly, "Wives" is capitalised while "husbands" is not, husbands have other jobs, but a Wife is a wife and a wife only, marriage grants her a certain honorific status, even the most powerful women in Gilead are under severe restraints and their only purpose and value is to be a wife to a man)
“It's not the husbands you have to watch out for, said Aunt Lydia, it's the Wives"
"Of course they will resent you. It is only natural. Try to feel for them”
159
the Commander's request to play Scrabble with her
“To be asked to play Scrabble, instead, as if we were an old married couple... seemed kinky in the extreme, a violation in its own way”
160
Aunt Lydia teaching the Handmaids to be passive and silent, even to feel for the Wives and feel pity towards those oppressing them
“Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question. Try to think of it from their point of view she said... It isn't easy for them”
161
Moira's defeat, the rebelliousness and bravery being diminished, she is now a passive former shell of herself and it scares Offred
“She is frightening me now, because what I hear in her voice is indifference, a lack of volition"
"Have they really done it to her then, taken away something... that used to be so central to her?"
162
Offred's desire for human contact
“I hunger to touch something, other than cloth or wood. I hunger to commit the act of touch”
“I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I once could do”
163
Offred's hope for a message from her husband, gives her strength but she also knows it's wishful thinking
“The message will say that I must have patience: sooner or later he will get me out… It's this message, which may never arrive, that keeps me alive. I believe in the message”
164
even in the final moments of the book, before the Eyes come for her, Offred does what she always does: retreats into a passive space and zones out, making no effort to resist being taken away
“I walk to the back door, into the kitchen, set down my basket, go upstairs. I am orderly and calm”
165
people sitting by while their rights are taken away, satirical of the tendency to need a powerful figure to guide us, as long as we are secure we don’t care about our rights being taken away, especially in times of emergency we may even willingly let them be suspended
“They suspended the Constitution... There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction”
166
Offred finally gets to touch and feel emotion with a person she loves from her past, a reminder of the love that exists between friends and the different ways love experienced, this kind of love has all but disappeared from her life now, seeing Moira again overwhelms her
“I still can't believe it's her. I touch her arm again. Then I begin to cry”
167
the women are essentially color-coded, their individuality is completely stripped away and they are defined by how they can serve the state, hierarchy
“some in red, some in the dull green of the Marthas, some in the striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimp, that mark the women of the poorer men. Econowives, they're called”
168
Offred's conditioning and indoctrination, she has begun to view her old life and how women used to dress in a strange way, her own body is alien to her
“My nakedness is strange to me already... Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen”
169
in an ironic moment of anti-feminism, a "women's culture" does exist, but it isn't one any reasonable feminist (male or female) would have wanted, it's a terrible realization of a different kind of society surrounding women
“Mother... You wanted a women's culture. Well, now there is one. It isn't what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies”
170
Gilead is a way of controlling women who had too many choices, men took them all away but then got bored because the women didn't seem individually interesting any more, now they treat women like they're interchangeable, now only men have the choice
"So now that we don't have different clothes, I say, you merely have different women"
171
Offred uses language to retain a small amount of control over her situation, she may not be able to decide much else about her life, but she can control her possessive pronouns, here she refuses to think of the room she has been assigned as hers
“The door of the room—not my room, I refuse to say my—is not locked”
172
hypocritically, Serena Joy advocated for women to "stay home" while having a career herself, Offred later comments on how ironic it is that Serena Joy is now forced to stay home all day during the Gileadean regime
“Her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about how women should stay home. Serena Joy didn't do this herself, she made speeches instead, but she presented this failure of hers as a sacrifice she was making for the good of all”
173
the contents of the Commander's study
"all around the walls there are bookcases. They're filled with books…. No wonder we can't come in here. It's an oasis of the forbidden”
174
Offred reminds us that there are different kinds of freedom, which the people in the Commander's house know about, she's not just forbidden from jumping out of the window or running out the door, they have actually removed all possibility of suicide, the only escape from the regime being death but even this is prevented
“I know why there is no glass, in front of the watercolor 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”
175
despite all that the women have lost, Aunt Lydia and Gilead argue that they are free now, they have "freedom from" things like sexist catcalls and potential abuse from strangers, they would argue that the women of Gilead should be grateful for such freedoms rather than mourning the other freedoms they've lost
“Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles"
"There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. 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”
176
Offred is continually reminded of the freedoms she has lost, confronted with a group of Japanese tourists, she remembers that the way she "used to dress" wasn't just about personal style; it also represented freedom, being forced to wear the Handmaid uniform represents all the autonomy she's lost, it also shows her indoctrination as she feels repelled and has a slut-shaming attitude towards them
“We are fascinated, but also repelled. They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this. Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom”
177
another kind of freedom or potential to escape exists by stealing butter and using it as a pathetic sort of lotion, Offred and the other Handmaids can retain hope of one day escaping, the potential of freedom lies within an ordinary household staple
“As long as we do this, butter our skin to keep it soft, we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire. We have ceremonies of our own, private ones”
178
this shows how successful the Centre is at brainwashing women and teaching them to believe in this new regime, it hasn't taken long for the women there to lose their desire for freedom and fall into a comfortable routine, the women in the Centre are already retreating from their old notions of freedom and rights
“Moira had power now, she'd been set loose, she'd set herself loose. She was now a loose woman…. I think we found this frightening…. Moira was like an elevator with open sides. She made us dizzy. Already we were losing the taste for freedom, already we were finding these walls secure”
179
Offred's desire for freedom and escape is so profound that it makes her careless, the narrator can't keep herself from confiding in Ofglen, who has reminded her of her capacity for hope
“It occurs to me that she may be a spy, a plant, set to trap me; such is the soil in which we grow. But I can't believe it; hope is rising in me, like sap in a tree. Blood in a wound. We have made an opening”
180
given her limits, the narrator has to find freedom where she can, she dresses up to temporarily reject her status as Handmaid, it is a false freedom, though, it can't last, and ultimately it doesn't get her anywhere
“Yet there's an enticement in this thing, it carries with it the childish allure of dressing up. And it would be so flaunting, such a sneer at the Aunts, so sinful, so free. Freedom, like everything else, is relative”
181
the worst thing about Nick is the way he makes Offred complacent, lessening her desire to escape, being with him, although it's dangerous and can't last, makes her life palatable, although their relationship is rebellion and resistance in itself, it also curbs Offred’s desire to resist further and the relationship no longer becomes a form of rebellion
“The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. I want to be here, with Nick, where I can get at him”
182
storytelling as a means of survival and hope, the idea of telling her story to someone so she feels heard, rejects her invisibility
“Tell, rather than write, because I have nothing to write with and writing is in any case forbidden. But if it's a story... I must be telling it to someone. You don't tell a story only to yourself. There's always someone else”
183
reconstruction
“As I said, this is a reconstruction”
184
Offred explains why she tells this part of Moira's story in Moira's voice, rather than in the third person, as she told others' stories earlier in the book, it is a way of helping her imagine Moira is with her again
“I've tried to make it sound as much like her as I can. It's a way of keeping her alive”
185
Offred is using imagination as wish fulfilment here, she invents one last daring and outrageous show of resistance for her best friend, but she then has to return to the more prosaic reality: she doesn't know what happened to Moira
“I'd like to tell a story about how Moira escaped, for good this time. Or if I couldn't tell that, I'd like to say she blew up Jezebel's, with fifty Commanders inside it. I'd like her to end with something daring and spectacular, some outrage, something that would befit her"
"But as far as I know that didn't happen. I don't know how she ended, or even if she did, because I never saw her again”
186
Offred's wishes for her narrative
“I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilized. I wish it showed me in a better light... I wish it had more shape. I wish it were about love”
187
widespread female complacency and submission
“Women's Salvagings are not frequent. There is less need for them. These days we are so well behaved”
188
Offred's small acts of rebellion
“It's an event, a small defiance of rule, so small as to be undetectable, but such moments are the rewards I hold out for myself, like the candy I hoarded, as a child, at the back of a drawer”
189
Offred taking something from Serena, in this sense she has some form of hidden power
“I felt I was an intruder, in a territory that ought to have been hers... I was taking something away from her, although she didn't know it”
190
Offred's anger at Janine
“Her eyes have come loose… she's in free fall, she's in withdrawal… Easy out, is what I think. I don't even feel sorry for her, although I should. I feel angry"
191
Offred's isolation within the household, she is disaprroved of by the Marthas
“the frown isn't personal: it's the red dress she disapproves of, and what it stands for. She thinks I may be catching, like a disease or any form of bad luck”
