Download THE HANDMAID`S TALE

Jelinek
THE
HANDMAID'S
TALE
Points of Discussion
Read the first sentence on page 3.
What can you tell about the period just
from the sentence?
What is suggested by the fact that the
girls have to read lips to learn each
other's names? (4)
What is suggested by the fact that the
narrator observes, "they've removed
anything you could tie a rope to" (7)?
What is implied by the sentence,
"Nothing takes place in the bed, but
sleep; or no sleep"? (8)
How do the names of the
Handmaids seem to be
formed? (Offred; Ofglen)
What does the reference to "the sect
wars" (43) tell us?
What is "Gender Treachery" (43)?
"Serena Joy was never her real name, not even
then. With everything to choose from in the way
of names, why did she pick that one?" (45). Why
is the choice of name ironic?
Reflect back on page 49. Why is she
startled when she realises she has
called the room "mine"? Why has she
done so?
Looking back at the passage,"It's warm for the time of
year...Soon we'll be allowed to change into summer
dresses...such things do not happen to nice
women"(55) whom did Aunt Lydia blame for the "things"
that used to happen to women?
"The dormitory had once been coeducational… but by the time I'd got there,
they'd put the men and women back the way
they were" (58). What does this tell us?
What do we learn about the system
from the episode at the doctor's
office? (59-61)
"I avoid looking down at my body, not so much
because it's shameful or immodest but because I
don't want to see it. I don't want to look at
something that determines me so completely"?
(63). Explain.
" I cannot avoid seeing, now, the small tattoo on my
ankle. Four digits and an eye, a passport in reverse. It's
supposed to guarantee that I will never be able to fade,
finally, into another landscape" (65). Of what does the
tattoo on Offred's ankle remind us?
"But maybe boredom is erotic, when
women do it, for men" (Atwood 69)why does Offred suggest that boredom
can be erotic?
Offred states, "Now the flesh arranges itself differently.
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" (Atwood
73-4). How does she view her body now?
Suffering is common for the female
characters in Atwood’s poems, although
they are never passive victims. Atwood’s
poems, concern “modern woman’s
anguish at finding herself isolated and
exploited (although also exploiting) by
the imposition of a sex role power
structure.” Atwood explained to Judy
Klemesrud in the New York Times that
her suffering characters come from real
life: “My women suffer because most of
the women I talk to seem to have
suffered.”
Ch. 14 Vocab:
Heretical- maintaining beliefs, particularly religious, contrary to official ones
Guerillas- irregular armed forces
Quakers - a Christian denomination
Look back at the passage, "Now a
close shot of a prisoner...possibly he's
an actor"(Atwood 83). Explain.
" Now he's telling us that an underground espionage ring has been
cracked by a team of Eyes, working with an inside informant. The
ring has been smuggling precious national resources over the
border into Canada" (Atwood 83).
What are the "precious national resources" the Quakers will hav
been smuggling in?
"Cheer up, says Luke. He's driving a little too fast now. The
adrenaline's gone to his head. Now he's singing. Oh what a
beautiful morning, he sings. Even his singing worries me.
We've been warned not to look too happy "(Atwood 85). Why
would they be warned not to "look too happy"?
In chapter 15, look back at the passage: "He nods
in the general direction of Serena Joy...We can be
read from it, by him, but we cannot read"(Atwood
87). Why is the Bible locked up?
Offred suggests the woman's situation is parallel to her
own. The Commander seems to be a good person - kind,
friendly, and even courtly to her. Yet, he is also the agent
of her oppression - both directly, as her Commander, and
indirectly, through his role in constructing the oppressive
system of the Gilead society. Like the concentration
camp commander, he is "not a monster". It is a
"temptation," she says, meaning that no one wants to
believe that someone they know is a monster. But in the
case of the Commander, that temptation must be
resisted. He may be kind and gentle towards her, but he
still shares responsibility for the evil of Gilead.
In Ch. 19 when Offred wakes, she sees
her "curtains hanging like drowned white
hair"(109). Why is this an appropriate, yet
disturbing simile?
What is th doctor's van
called? Why is it called this?
Look back at the passage on page 114 that starts with,
" it used to be different, they used to be in charge. A
shame it was , said Aunt Lydia. Shameful... I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
sorrow thou shalt bring forth children"(114).
Why are anesthetics no longer
used?
( two reasons)
Re-read page 115; comment on
the way the Wives talk about the
Handmaids.
In Ch. 20, why did the Aunts show
old porno movies to the trainee
Handmaids?
Re-read pages 120- 122
Why did Offred rebel against her mother?
Her mother was unusual, a non-conformist, extreme in her
attitudes to men; she chose to have children on her own. Offred
"rebelled" by following traditional behavior patterns: fall in love,
marry, have children. This is ironic- why?
Offred felt she was expected to be an ideal child to live up to her
mother's expectations. Now, she would give anything to have her
back.
At the end of ch.21, reflect back on the
ending passage....comment on "You
wanted a women's culture"(127).
Playing scrabble hardly seems to be a
"dangerous" or "indecent" activity, yet
it is. Why?
When the Commander asks Offred to kiss
him, she tells us she thought of murdering
him- and then says that she did not at all.
Why did she make this up?
Reconstruction- what does this imply to
us, the readers, about Offred's story.
Jezebel's – Jezebel is the name of an immoral queen of Israel,
described in the Bible. In THE HANDMAID'S TALE it is the name
of a nightclub/brothel, where the women who offer sexual
pleasure are seen as corrupt ‘Jezebels'. This is ironic, as they are
actually prisoners and sex-slaves who are used by the
supposedly "pure men of Gilead" and also by foreign tourists.
What's the pun when Offred tells the readers that,
"September first will be Labor Day, they still have
that. Though it didn't used to have anything to do
with mothers" (Atwood 199)?
" 'Maybe he can't,' she says" (Atwood
204).
What's the importance in Serena Joy
making this comment ?
"...and for this moment at least we are cronies, " (Atwood 205).
Serena Joy wants a child in the household so that she no longer
has to endure the presence of a Handmaid. Offred needs to
produce a child if she is to escape being sent to the Colonies as an
‘Unwoman'. In this way, both Offred and Serena Joy are, if only
temporarily, "the same".
In Ch. 33 we are introduced to the "Prayvaganza" This word derives from prayer and ‘extravaganza',
suggesting that there will be an elaborate ceremony
based on prayer. In the next chapter we discover
that it is in fact a mass wedding.
"Are they old enough to remember anything of the time before,
playing baseball, in jeans and sneakers, riding their bicycles?
Reading books, all by themselves? Even though some of them
are no more than fourteen...still they'll remember. And the ones
after them will, for three o four or five years; but after that they
won't"(Atwood 219). Explain what Offred means.
What does the Commander imply when he
says, "we've given them more than we've
taken away"(Atwood 219); he's making the
same point Aunt Lydia once made.
"What did we overlook? Love, I said. Love? Said the Commander.
What kind of love? Falling in love, I said"(Atwood 220)this is one of the most important messages of Atwood's novel - that
love between humans is essential to our well-being. She is here
reinforcing the comment made by Offred in chapter 18: ‘It's lack of
love we die from'(Atwood 103).
Reflect back to the bottom of 221 and top of 222...."just don't
move"(222).
women in Gilead are not supposed to enjoy sexual intercourse.
What does Ofglen's comment
suggest when she says "find out and
tell us" on page 223?
"Is, I say. Is, is, only two letters" (Atwood 227)- As in
chapter 6, Offred reminds herself that she must
keep hoping that Luke is alive, and not refer to him
in the past tense as if he were dead.
"He's holding a handful, it seems, of feathers, mauve and pink. Now he
shakes this out. It's a garment, apparently, and for a woman: there are
the cups for the breasts, covered in purple sequins"- this kind of
costume is a concern for Atwood; however, she also makes us aware of
the mixed feelings of the situation. Not all the women feel exploited:
some really enjoy their sexual activities as we saw later in the chapters
.
"He slips around my wrist a tag … ‘an evening
rental'"(Atwood 233). Women are supposedly "deeply
respected" in Gilead, according to the Aunts, but
ironically they are being treated as objects to be
bought and sold for sexual pleasure by men.
In chapter 37 when Offred arrives, she states, "I know where I
am. I've been here before: with Luke" (Atwood 234). This is the
same hotel where she and Luke used to meet for sexual
encounters before his divorce and their marriage. This is ironic
that she's back at this same hotel, why?
Re-read the bottom of page 236,
" 'What do you think of our little club'" to "...'you merely
have different women'"(Atwood 237). What is the
Commander trying to justify?
"'Well, we have quite a collection. That one there, the one in green, she's a
sociologist. Or was. That one was a lawyer...'"(Atwood 237-8). The women
forced into prostitution are like a "collection" in the zoo. The fact these were
highly educated, professional women, makes their situation more
demeaning. The commander seems to have accepted the way Gilead
makes all women subservient and denies them education and careers.
"She's an older woman, wearing purple caftan and gold eye shadow,
but I can tell she is nevertheless an Aunt. The cattle prod's on the
table, it's thong around her wrist"(Atwood 241). This is a reminder of
the brutality and hypocrisy of the regime. The Aunts tell the women
at the Red Center of the evils of promiscuous sex, yet they use
force to keep the women at Jezebel's as sex workers.
"This is what she says, whispers, more or less. I
can't remember exactly, because I had no way of
writing it down"(Atwood 243)- Offred reminds us
that she may or may not be an unreliable narrator.
Quakers- they are a peaceful, Christian group.
They believe in nonviolence, so it's ironic that a
Christian group is being singled out for
persecution by the regime.
"The other Colonies are worse, though, the toxic dumps and the radiation
spills"(Atwood 248).
Atwood is depicting a world in which man-made environmental disasters
have destroyed the natural world and led to fertility problems. Those who
at seen as useless by the regime (elderly and infertile) are sent to the
Colonies as a punishment and to die.
"'All of them wear long dresses, like the one at the Center,
only gray. Women and the men too...it's supposed to
demoralize the men, having to wear a dress"(Atwood 249).
Gilead deals not only in torture and death, but in deliberate
humiliation.
"I don't know how she ended, or even if she did,
because I never saw her again"(Atwood 250);
Moira's story is unfinished- we are left to
imagine what happens to her.
"Everything is the same, the very same
as it was, once upon a time"(Atwood
251)....how is this statement untrue?
Re-read the ending of chapter 39;
Analyze.