Handmaids Tale

1.) “What is it for? The flashing of a badge, look, everyone, all is in order, I belong here. Why don’t women have to prove to one another that they are women? Some form of unbuttoning, some split crotch routine, just as casual. A doglike sniffing.” (73)

In this quote from The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood compares the social aspects of men and women’s lives. By questioning the idiosyncrasy of men to prove themselves, she sparks the notion that perhaps the reason for this new “civilization” isn’t in fact for the greater good. Perhaps this snippet into Offred’s wonderments is alluding to the real reason behind the great reform; Men need to further convince themselves that they are men, and only by subordinating women from society can they do so.


2.) “He won’t look at me. He looks down at the floor, where the cat is rubbing itself against his legs, mewing and mewing plaintively. It wants food, but how can there be any food when the apartment is so empty?”  (74)

In this quote from The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood uses a dream to demonstrate where Offred’s mind is. Their apartment, more specifically their first apartment, represents the heart, where the furnishings in the apartment represent love, happiness, sadness, and all emotion. When the cat mews, asking for food, it’s similar to Offred yearning for someone to provide her with affection. But how could one have any hope for that affection, when the world around them is seemingly purged of such a thing?


3.) “The sitting room would once have been called a drawing room, perhaps; then a living room. Or maybe it’s a parlor, the kind with a spider and flies.”  (79)

Atwood draws upon this old nursery rhyme called The Spider and the Fly to show that Offred is never entirely sure what is coming next in her life. The first verse of the rhyme is as follows.
"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the Spider to the Fly, “’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy; the way into my parlor is up a winding stair, and I have many curious things to show you when you are there.”
"Oh no, no," said the Fly, "to ask me is in vain; for who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
    The rest of the rhyme is about the spider attempting to convince the fly to enter his web. Eventually, the spider succeeds, and the fly is never heard from again. Such is the tale of Offred and the Handmaids. Once they are taken into the abode of a Commander, they leave their old lives behind and become new people.

Mary, Howitt. "The Spider and the Fly". Wikipedia. Web. 8/25/10. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spider_and_the_Fly_%28poem%29>.



“It makes me feel slightly ill, as if I’m in a closed car on a hot muggy day with an older woman wearing too much face powder. This is what the sitting room is like, despite it’s elegance.”  (80)

In another life, one not too distant, perhaps Offred would have enjoyed such vanities as face powder and perfume, but not today. Today it disgusts her and creates a brutally uncomfortable atmosphere. Today, as all other days, Offred is not herself. Atwood uses this as a method of showing exactly how times have changed, where women simply cannot be women as they once were. They are tools meant for breeding, stripped of all vanity or self-image.





4.) “Household: That is what we are. The commander is the head of the household. The house is what he holds. To have and to hold, till death do us part. The hold of a ship. Hollow.”  (81)


Again it can be seen in this quote from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, how her heart and life are hollow, void of meaning. Atwood uses a special literary device and spells it out in a way that accurately represents how Offred’s wandering mind works. Atwood follows her thoughts exactly as they pop into her mind, which leads to an interesting procession of words. Stream-of-consciousness is its name, word-plays are its game.


5.) “They show us only victories, never defeats. Who wants bad news?”  (83)

Good and bad are in the eye of the beholder. In this quote from The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood describes something recognizable in two other well known Utopia novels: 1894 by George Orwell, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In Atwoods tale, the newscaster relays all the good news of the day: People being caught, hangings, etc. This is far too similar to Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 to be coincidence. Atwood utilizes the default news because it is a plausible alteration to today’s society. She wants the reader to be familiar with the concept, and if they have indeed read the other two novels, they will be.

6.) “Arousal and orgasm are no longer thought necessary; They would be a symptom of frivolity merely, like jazz garters or beauty spots: Superfluous distractions for the light minded.” (94)

Again, 1984 by George Orwell already had the claim to fame on this little idea as well. As the character O’brian says, “Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm.” Such was one of the ideals of the Party that governed Oceana in the a differing “Utopian” universe. Atwood uses this as an ideal in The Handmaid’s Tale because it is but a single movement in the campaign to remove any personal, defining experiences from citizens’ lives.


7.) “Its and old one, he said, a curio of sorts. From the seventies, I think. A Vogue” (157)
By using this magazine in particular, Atwood demonstrates the extent to which the Commander is rebelling against society. Vogue was and still is a very popular fashion magazine, which epitomizes the appearances and vanities that were, in The Handmaids Tale, removed from everyday life. By using this magazine as the first that the Commander procures, it demonstrates that there will always be those who go against the grain, sometimes positioned in the most unlikely places.

Anthony, Shine. "Vogue: The Illustrated History". Culture Kiosque. Web. 8/25/10. <http://www.culturekiosque.com/nouveau/style/vogue.html>.


8.) “And sometimes from the sitting room there will be the thin sound of Serena’s voice, from a disc made long ago and played now with the volume low, so she won’t be caught listening as she sits there knitting, remembering her own former and amputated glory: Hallelujah.” (55)

This line, Hallelujah, is the title of a song by Leonard Cohen. It involves a man who see’s, mistakenly, a woman bathing on the roof of her house. He then feels he has sinned and spends the rest of his life repenting for this. In The Handmaids Tale, Atwood creates a world that similarly has a system which doesn’t involve lust. In “school” the aunts attempt to teach the girls that lust, vanity, and self-appearance have no value, and the true believers should be ashamed should they take part in such actions.

Cohen, Leonard. "Leonard Cohen Lyrics". AZ Lyrics. Web. 8/25/10. <http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/hallelujah.html>.


9.) “In God we trust, all others pay cash” (173)
Here Atwood references a book written by Jean Shepherd. The book uses this same phrase for its title, and is partly about a country-boy-turned-city-slicker who reconnects with his childhood friend and reminisces about the past. On his way to said meet-up, in the opening scene, while having a conversation with his taxi driver, he’s told that “a guy can get used to anything, if he’s gotta.” These two events - reminiscing and being forced to change - correlate precisely two of the basic themes of The Handmaids Tale.

Shepherd, Jean. "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash". Barnes & Noble. Web. 8/26/10. <http://search.barnesandnoble.com/In-God-We-Trust/Jean-Shepherd/e/9780385021746#TABS>.

10.) “At the corner we turn to one another in the usual way. ‘Under His Eye,’ says the new, treacherous Ofglen. ‘Under His Eye,’ I say, trying to sound fervent.” (285)

This standard farewell greeting, used between those who wish to appear as believers, is outstandingly similar to the catch phrase of George Orwell’s 1984 : Big Brother is watching you. It also depicts the smooth transitions between wives. The previous Ofglen hung herself, thus, a new woman appears to take her place. She is now Ofglen, and always has been Ofglen. Atwood drew upon Orwell’s 1984 here and created her own eradication system akin to the method of removing an unlucky someone from Oceanic past, present, and future.


“He was not a monster, to her. Probably had some endearing train: he whistled, offkey, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles, he called his dog Leibchen and made it sit up for little pieces of raw steak. How easy it is for us to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation.” (146)

Atwood gives us this snippet of Offred’s memory to show us that even the most horrible people can seem soft-hearted and compassionate. Offred struggles with this concept as she spends more and more time with the commander, often forcing herself to put on a facade, because despite his calm presence, she does not feel completely comfortable around him. One night, while sitting with the commander in his office, Offred “wanted to turn [her] back on him - it was as if he were in the bathroom with [her] - but [she] didn’t dare. For him, [she] must remember, [she is] only a whim.”




11.) “I see it as I go down the stairs, round, convex, a pier glass, like the eye of a fish, and myself in it like a distorted shadow, a parody of something, some fairy-tale figure in a red cloak.” (9)


Little Red Riding Hood. It is a story we all grew up hearing, and one that the endings have been changed to better suit the audience at hand. Atwood uses this comparison to perhaps show that Offred’s end is not set in stone, no matter how bleak her future looks. She may get eaten up by society, or perhaps her own hunter will come along and take her from harm’s way.

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html




12.) “Not a Dandelion in sight here, the lawns are picked clean. I long for one, just one, rubbishy and insolently random and hard to rid of and perennially yellow under the sun. Cheerful and plebian, shining for all alike. Rings, we would make from them and crowns and necklaces, stains from the bitter milk on our fingers. Or I’d hold one under her chin: Do you like butter? Smelling them, she’d get pollen on her nose. Or was that buttercups” (212)

Many flowers are associated with different traits, such as strength, courage, tenderness, or hope. While the dandelion is associated with love, affection and desire, the buttercup is associated with humility and neatness. The lack of dandelions symbolizes the lack of love in Gilead. When Offred confuses these two flowers, she is in turn confusing their meanings and this relates directly with her life. Once upon a time, she had been full of lust, going so far as to steal another woman’s wife. Now, forced to live a life of humility as a buttercup, it is no wonder she craves the sight of an affectionate dandelion.

Karlsen, Kathleen. "Find Your Flower: Flower Symbols and Meanings ". Living Arts Originals. Web. 8/26/10.  <http://www.livingartsoriginals.com/infoflowersymbolism.htm#buttercup>.

13.) “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived but the woman, being deceived was in the transgression.” (221)

In Other words, Man came first, then woman, and it was woman who first sinned. Atwood uses this ancient bible passage as a basis for shoving women beneath the feet of men and using them only for the breeding purpose. For according to the legal interpretation of the bible, they had their chance, and they blew it. Now let them fulfill their duty, and their duty alone.



14.) “And sometimes it happened, for a time. That kind of love comes and goes and is hard to remember afterwards, like pain. You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and the tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder, because it was such an amazing and precarious and dumb thing to have done; and you would know too why your friends had been evasive about it, at the time.” (226)

Offred has been through a lot at this point, yet throughout everything, she has continued to hold a single thought in her head. She thinks about love, or rather, the pain she endures from the lack of love. Here Atwood compares love to pain. This pain, caused by love, makes Offred question love’s worth, for she does not know where one draws the line between the two. Is her love from her past life with Luke worth the pain that resulted? There was Luke’s wife’s pain, Offred’s pain when they were separated, and then the pain of losing their daughter? Atwood words certainly make one wonder how large of a grasp we should let other take upon our hearts.


15.) “Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some.” (211)

Government operates in funny ways. There are constant reforms that move in and out, each of which attempt to satisfy a certain group. There is always a group targeting the Upper class, often the Republicans hold this position, then there is also a group targeting the lower/middle class. Neither group can be satisfied while the other is also fighting for satisfaction. The idea of creating a world where men are the theoretical “upper class,” women are the “lower class,“ and all the minority races and religions are wiped away, is Atwood’s way of creating a more believable society. If she had created a world where everything was equal, it would simply be unfathomable. Human nature would not allow it; There always needs to be someone at the top of the food chain.



16.) “If you didn’t work it out it was because you had the wrong attitude. Everything that went on in your life was thought to be due to some positive or negative power emanating from inside your head.” (227)

There is a theory called The Law of Attraction. It states that thoughts directly influence reality, meaning that good things come from positive thoughts, and doubleplusungood things come from negative thoughts. The principles of The Law of Attraction infringe upon every known law of nature, so it is sometimes described as “an illusion created by the connection between self confidence and success or ones own perception.” This being said, it only make sense that Offred would apply these concepts to life, as she has issues in both self confidence and success.

Karlsen, Kathleen. "Law of Attraction". Wikipedia. Web. 8/27/10. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Attraction>.