The Handmaid's Tale

Question 1

“They seemed undressed.

Answer 1

It had taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this.” (5)

Question 2

“Though this is time…

Answer 2

nor am I out of it.” (7, Marlow’s Faustus)

Question 3

“in a gradually heating…

Answer 3

bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.” (10, metaphor)

Question 4

“Now the flesh…

Answer 4

arranges itself differently, I am a cloud, congealed around a central object.” an intangible object, easily changeable, evokes an image that she is outside of her own body.

Question 5

“Let’s stop there.

Answer 5

I intend to get out of here. It can’t last forever.” (23)

Question 6

“I wish this story were different.

Answer 6

I wish it were more civilised. I wish it showed me in a better light”

Question 7

“you ever thought what it would be like…

Answer 7

to be shat on by a truckload of chickens, all of them carsick?” (humour to cope, not metaphor)

Question 8

“the tulips are not tulips of blood…

Answer 8

the red smiles are not flowers, neither thing makes a comment on the other.” (6, no individualism)

Question 9

“nothing is going…

Answer 9

on here that I haven’t signed up for.”

Question 10

“looks down at the baby…
“it became a thing such as even…

Answer 10

as if it is a bouquet of flowers: something she’s won, a tribute.” juxtaposes Viktor’s reaction to the creature, “…Dante could not have conceived”, demonic creature rather than a flourishing sense of life- parallels religious allegories.

Question 11

‘there is nothing…

Answer 11

in the novel that has not already happened’ - summation of what Margaret Atwood says about The Handmaid’s Tale

Question 12

‘the more… boxed in you are…

Answer 12

the more important details become’ - summation of what Atwood says about the monotonous details of Offred’s narrative voice

Question 13

“In my opinion we should be cautious…

Answer 13

when passing judgement upon the Gileadeans… not to censure but to understand” - Pieixoto, educated tone shows a void of empathy/care. if there is no condemnation or judgement for the regime, society can and will never move on.

Question 14

“like a sagging…

Answer 14

cloud above us”, metaphorical disconnect from her position, yet, the imagery evokes pregnancy, evoking that she really is aware no matter her mental vices.

Question 15

‘each contains…

Answer 15

a latent view of the other’ - summation of Atwood on her ustopia

Question 16

“two-legged…

Answer 16

womb.” (23) despite the satirical tone of Offred, it shows her awareness of her stripped identity, nothing outside of their procreative abilities

Question 17

What is Offred’s name?

Answer 17

A patronym! Gives a creepy paternalistic tone to the Commander, ownership over the handmaids. Paternalistic, father, God, patriarchy.

Question 18

Lebensborn programme

Answer 18

‘racially valuable’ women were encouraged, in a breeding programme ran by Heinrich Himmler, to produce an Aryan race. This included the kidnapping of foreign children with features of that of the ‘Aryan’ race.

Question 19

“I repeat my former name…
“Why should this…

Answer 19

remind myself of what I could once do, how others saw me.” (17)
mean anything?” (46) her longing for identity is depleted, no longer desires to be “held and told my name” (17)

Question 20

“as if I’m made of…

Answer 20

smoke, as if I’m a mirage, fading before their eyes” metaphor like the “cloud congealed around a central object”, shows that Offred now views herself as a being separate from her own body/person. As she loses her family here, she loses herself.

Question 21

“We aren’t supposed to form…

Answer 21

friendships, loyalties, among one another.” parallels the creature, “I am alone”, neither self inflict their isolation, both suffer at the hands of their societies.

Question 22

“The door of the room–

Answer 22

not my room, I refuse to say my - is not locked.” Atwood utilises sentence forms with the dash to present a defiant tone, her way of rebelling, admitting the room was hers would show a level of acceptance.

Question 23

“I want to keep on living…
“I am fearless…

Answer 23

…I resign my body freely, to the use of others” (45) a level of acceptance, she has to fully give up herself in order to live, can be seen as hopeful in a way - Offred would not see any use in living without hope. Parallels the Creature, “and therefore powerful.” unlike Atwood, Shelley shows freedom as a virture, whilst Atwood shows it as a relinquishment of ones identity.

Question 24

“We have learned to see…

Answer 24

the world in gasps.” Offred describes how they see with the white wings of their costume. ‘gasp’ connotes drowning, or a complete restriction.

Question 25

“This may not seem ordinary to you now…

Answer 25

but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” Aunt Lydia indoctrinates the women, forcing them to conform.

Question 26

Significance of asynchronous discourse

Answer 26

- Non-linear novel through Offred's fragmented mind and oftentimes unreliable narration - The Historical Notes only provide more fragmentation, yet the sarcastic nature in which Atwood constructs Piexoto suggests that Offred is to be believed, and taken seriously.

Question 27

"What I must present...

Answer 27

is a made thing, not someone born." relates to the theme of creation, what Gilead seeks to birth is a new world of subservient women, like how Victor seeks to remove need for them all together.

Question 28

The garden as a symbol of female fertility

Answer 28

"red" tulips, menstrual blood, the shape reminds Offred of "hips", the sensual imagery evoked in her narrative voice, sex needed to create life, like the lively garden. Alignment between nature and femininity gives it a quiet power.

Question 29

"slithers out...

Answer 29

slick with fluid and blood." sibilance Atwood employs creates an uncomfortable, unnatural birth.

Question 30

"as if it's something... (context)

Answer 30

she's won." Atwood possibly commenting on the way in which pro-abortion arguments (1973 roe v wade ruling) the baby can always be 'adopted once born', the lack of maternal love shows a comment upon how men rule women's bodies.

Question 31

Synaesthetic description of Scrabble

Answer 31

Rebellious act of learning is described as "voluptous", and as if they are "dates". the "delicious" power of knowledge, the seductive and sexual nature of rebellion.

Question 32

"Give me children...

Answer 32

or else I die." epigraph shows the death of the identity of a woman, death is what leaves a childless/barren female.

Question 33

"my own clothes...

Answer 33

my own soap, my own money." anaphoric repetition of 'my own' with the asyndetic list of what many would consider essentials only enhances her deprivation.

Question 34

"just to see her...

Answer 34

to know she still exists", the analepsis utilised here almost makes the reader long for Moira also, only to be disappointed at her actual position.