The Handmaid's Tale - Control and Submission Flashcards
(38 cards)
A quote from Chapter One as Offred describes the sleeping arrangements in the ‘Red Centre’. The quote reflects both the thought reform into a feeling of collective responsibility as women to produce children for men, while also infantilising and patronising the women in order to reflect their inferiority. Note that verb ‘tried’ to sleep suggests emotional turmoil
“We tried to sleep in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army issue blankets”
A quote from the opening description of the ‘Red Centre’ in Chapter One, Offred describing the Aunts’ surveillance of the handmaids as they sleep. The juxtaposition between the connotations of ‘Aunt’ (closeness, familiarity, affection, a term of endearment) strikingly juxtaposes their implied violence
“Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from leather belts”
A quote from the opening of Chapter Two as Offred describes her room, which is austere and simplistic (emphasised by the asyndetic list), an emphasis placed on Puritan-style living. The eye watching over her in the ceiling reflects both her own enforced blindness, as well as her constant surveillance
“A chair, a table, a lamp. Above, on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the centre of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out”
A quote from Chapter Two as Offred describes her living circumstances as like being in a nunnery - a religious restriction is placed on the handmaids, made to feel as if they have the choice of a nun to leave if they so wish. Also emphasises the forced modesty placed on handmaids
“Time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in a nunnery too, there are few mirrors”
A quote from Chapter Two demonstrating the control of the handmaids through their clothing, emphasising a puritan way of living. Their shoes are entirely practical, while their “wings” (ironically named as this connotes freedom), prevent them from seeing, reflecting women’s lack of knowledge within the regime, as well as a puritan enforced modesty in their inability to be seen themselves
“Red shoes, flat-heeled, to save the spine and not for dancing… The white wings […] keep us from seeing, but also from being seen”
A quote from Chapter Nine as Offred explores her room, finding a stain of sexual fluid on her mattress. The quote suggests the idea that love now a “stain”, something old, a forgotten memory, but the fact that Offred suggests it to be “like dried flower petals” suggests something beautiful, a desperation to hold that love again. This desperation is emphasised by the structural longing for anything akin to love, as the gradual reduction in desire from “love” to “touch”, as well as “something like it” and “at least”, suggests the extent to which the handmaid’s have been deprived of genuine love and contact
“The stains on the mattress. Like dried flower petals… When I saw that, the evidence left by two people, of love or something like it, desire, at least, at least touch between two people… I […] lay down on it” - p. 51
A quote from Chapter Nine as Offred explores her room in the Commander’s house. It reflects boredom as a control mechanism within Gilead - Offred seeks pleasure in the most mundane activities in order to remain active
“I explored this room… I wanted to make it last… I would allow myself one section a day. This one section I would explore with the greatest minuteness” - p. 51
Quotes from Chapter Thirteen from Offred’s memory of Janine being made an example of at the Red Centre, the Aunts suggesting that it was her fault that she was gang raped at 14 years old. The animalistic chanting demonstrates the power of indoctrination in the regime, bringing a tribal sense of identity and belonging in the fact that it is done “in unison”. It is a clear example of thought reform and humiliation, as well as the enforced turning of women against other women, blaming each other for horrific acts. God is also used as a justification, suggesting a higher power beyond the regime that condones its behaviour
“But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger.
Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison
[…]
Why did God allow such a terrible thing to happen?
Teach her a lesson, teach her a lesson, teach her a lesson - p. 72
A quote from Chapter Thirteen describing Janine as she is humiliated at the Red Centre. Her description demonstrates the climate of fear exercised by the regime - the handmaids are made to fear the consequences of Janine’s actions, as well as being forced to hate her through thought reform. They fear looking as disturbingly reduced as Janine, and therefore hate her having ‘led on’ the men who raped her
“She [Janine] looked disgusting: weak, squirmy, blotchy, pink, like a newborn mouse. None of us wanted to look like that, not ever. For a moment […] we despised her” - p. 72
A quote from Chapter Fifteen as the Commander reads the Bible to the household staff, Offred knelt down in front of him. The quote reflects the regime’s use of repetition as a method of control in order to enact thought reform, as well as Biblical imagery and reference in order to suggest that the regime’s emphasis on handmaids reproducing for Commanders is justified by God.
The second quote about Aunt Lydia reflects the use of patronisation in order to control the handmaids by making them feel lesser and subordinate.
“It’s the usual story… Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. Then comes the mouldy old Rachel and Leah stuff we had drummed into us at the Centre” - p. 89
“You’re getting the best, you know, said Aunt Lydia. There’s a war on, things are rationed. You are spoiled girls, she twinkled, as if rebuking a kitten. Naughty puss.” - p. 89
A quote from The Ceremony in Chapter Sixteen in which Offred is physically restrained and controlled during the act by Serena Joy, a reminder of Serena’s status over Offred, the power she wields, and Offred’s helplessness to protest
“My arms are raised; she holds my hands… 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. The rings of her left hand cut into my fingers.” - p. 94
A quote from the Chapter Sixteen Ceremony, in which Offred suggests that the act is not a rape because she chose to be a handmaid. The quote reflects the coercive control of the regime - she had only an appearance of choice, choosing between forces sex and being sent to her gradual death in the Colonies. Suggests an element of indoctrination
“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.” - p. 95
A quote from Chapter Nineteen as Offred is in the van on the way to Janine’s birth. She remembers being taught about the role of women being that give birth, and that women who underwent tube tying were evil and ‘Jezebels’. The quote, a reminder of the love that pervaded the necessary sex of the regime, reflects the sentimentality and genuine feeling that the controlling regime has deprived both women and men of, defining their duty to be entirely sexual
“On the top of my desk there are initials, carved into the wood… sometimes in two sets, joined by the word loves… They seem to me like inscriptions I used to read about, carved on the stone walls of caves, or drawn with a mixture of soot and animal fat. They seem to me incredibly ancient.” p. 113
A quote from Chapter Twenty as Offred waits with the other handmaids to watch Moira give birth, remembering her education in the Red Centre by Aunt Lydia and Aunt Helena through projected films. Offred notes that Aunt Helena sometimes played films of dancing and singing with ceremonial masks, but that ‘Aunt Lydia didn’t show these kinds of movies’, instead playing the women depraved sadomassochistic pronographic films. The quote demonstrates Aunt Lydia’s abuse of power, enforcing the misogynistic dogma through indoctrination, an entirely false and harrowing presentation of the time before
“Once we had to watch a women being slowly cut into pieces, her fingers and breasts snipped off with garden shears, her stomach slit open and her intestines pulled out.
Consider the alternatives, said Aunt Lydia. You see what things used to be like?” - p. 118
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Two in which Offred retells the story of Aunt Lydia divulging Moira’s escape from the Red Centre to Janine, asking her to spy on the other handmaids. Janine’s assumed thoughts reflect the pervasive strength of the Aunts’ control over the handmaids and the power of the humiliation and thought reform they have used to instill this control - Janine eagerly agrees to spy on her fellow handmaids, all as downtrodden as her, if only to prevent herself from being subjected to further pain. However, the poignant adverb “temporarily” suggests that this is far from permanent relief.
“She knew she would not have to kneel down any more, at the front of the classroom, and listen to all of us shouting at her that it was her fault. Now it would be someone else for a while. She was, temporarily, off the hook.” - p. 132
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Three as Offred stands in front of the Commander’s door, having been illegally summoned to his room. The quote highlights the significant patronising force of the regime, belittling Offred, making her feel submissive to the Commander’s power
“I stand outside it [the Commander’s door], feeling like a child who’s been summoned, at school, to the principal’s office. What have I done wrong?” - p. 136
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Three as Offred stands outside the Commander’s room, reflecting on the fact that her ‘presence here is illegal’ as no room is to be used for secret lusts, handmaid’s being purely ‘for breeding purposes’. Reflects control through objectification and indoctrination, the handmaids being women rendered sub-human in their purely reproductive goal
“We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory* chalices.” - p. 136
*Ambulatory - adapted for walking
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Three when Offred enters the Commanders room and is amazed by the reading material prevalent within. This reflects the male power over women within the regime, Offred’s amazement demonstrated by the repetition reflecting the power of the written word and the control of women in removing this from them.
“But all around the walls there are bookcases. They’re filled with books. Books and books and books, right out in plain view, no locks, no boxes… It’s an oasis of the forbidden.” - p. 137
A quote from when Offred enters the Commander’s office in Chapter Twenty-Three reflecting the fact that the Commander’s ‘rebellion’ is not subversive in nature, but simply an attempt to display his own power for his own gratification
“The Commander is standing in front of the fireless fireplace, back to it, one elbow on the carved wooden overmantel, other hand in his pocket. It’s such a studied pose, something of the country squire, some old come-on from a glossy men’s mag. He probably decided ahead of time that he’d be standing like that when I came in.” - p. 137
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Three as Offred plays Scrabble with the Commander. Offred has a sensual, almost sexual reaction to the tiles, a feeling of freedom and liberation. The quote reflects the power of words and of writing, and therefore the extent to which the removal of this power from Offred (and from Gileadian women in general) has rendered her submissive
“The feeling [of the tiles] is voluptuous*. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it… The counters are like candies, made of peppermint, cool like that… I would like to put them in my mouth… Crisp, slightly acid on the tongue, delicious.” - p. 139
*Voluptuous - curvaceous and sexually attractive
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Five describing Serena Joy’s cutting off of seed pods in her garden. The event takes place in ‘spring’, a time of fertility and new life, and yet Serena Joy attacks this fertility, which is juxtaposed (“swelling genitalia”) with the imagery of war (“blitzkrieg”, “kamikaze”). The quote reflects Serena Joy’s powerlessness, even as a higher-class woman, under the regime as she takes out her internalised anger at her inability to do her ‘duty’ as a woman on natural fertility, doing so to nature in the same fascist manner by which the regime exercises its control. The quote also suggests that she must ask for forgiveness
“Was it arthritis, creeping up? Or some blitzkrieg, some kamikaze, committed on the swelling genitalia of the flowers? The fruiting body… Saint Serena, on her knees, doing penance.” - p. 151
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Five when the Commander gifts Offred a magazine by request. The quote reflects the endless possibilities of self in the ‘time before’ (mirrors) and reflects the extent to which self-expression, individuality, and hope have been restricted (Atwood’s 1980s)
“They dealt in transformations; they suggested an endless series of possibilities, extending like the reflections in two mirrors set facing each other, stretching on, replica after replica… They suggested rejuvenation, pain overcome and transcended, endless love.” p. 155
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Five (Offred in the Commander’s office again) after Offred asks the Commander why he has the magazine, suggesting that such magazines expressing the freedom repressed by the regime represent a threat to Gilead by propagating personal freedom, while the Commander (who may legitimately believe himself virtuous and beyond judgement) may keep them for his own purpose
“What’s dangerous in the hands of the multitudes, he said, with what may or may not have been irony, is safe enough for those whose motives are…
Beyond reproach, I said.” p. 156
A quote from Chapter Twenty-Six in her memory of Aunt Lydia speaking of ‘women united for a common end’. The memory comes after Offred exerts sexual power over Serena Joy after the ‘Ceremony’ feels to her more personal than usual. The suggested aim of the regime is therefore bogus - it does not unite women, but divides them, stands them against each other, patronises and degrades them
“Women united for a common end!… We are working towards the goal of a little garden for each one, each one of you… The raised finger wagging at us. But we can’t be greedy pigs and demand too much before it’s ready, now can we?” - p. 161-162
