The Handmaid's Tale Loaded Lines

Daniel Arcega

Mrs. Emerick

IB English HL II

The Handmaid's Tale Loaded Lines

"To put her out of her misery, and myself as well. To put her out of our misery"(292).

    The wording that I think is important here is "our misery". This wording suggests that despite Offred's and Serena's different roles in society, they both share the same misery. I believe this connects to the theme of gender explored by Gilead's society. Even though Serena has much more privileges than Offred, she is still a woman. Their gender leads them both to be oppressed, in different ways, under the patriarcal society of Gilead.

"I'll sacrifice. I'll repent. I'll abdicate. I'll renounce"(286). 

    The use of asyndeton makes this line sound like a pledge, like how Offred is promising all these things to God. Additionally, the specific word choices all have subtly different meanings which affect the overall message of the line. "Sacrifice", and "abdicate" imply Offred feels as if she needs to give up her own desires to atone. The loss of individuality is one of the drawbacks of the handmaid system, meaning this moment shows Offred giving in to the power she struggled against.

"This is what I feel like: this sound of glass. I feel like the word shatter. I want to be with someone"(103).

    Glass imagery suggests fragility. In her current mental state, Offred is not very stable. The shattering noise that occurs when  glass breaks is loud and sharp, occurring for only a fraction of a second. Offred's perpetuating experience of "shattering" means she is stuck within that moment of falling apart and wishes for someone to help put her together.

"Do you know what it came from? said Luke. Mayday?... It's French, he said. From m'aidez. Help me"(44).

    The French word for mayday, m'aidez, is similar to the word maiden. It suggests a link between femininity and helplessness, relating to how powerless the women are in the novel.

"In Hope. Why did they put that above a dead person? Was it the corpse hoping, or those still alive?"(106).

    By connecting the act of hoping with the dead, the author implies that those who hang on to hope in Gilead eventually end up dead. Offred's confusion of the meaning behind the imagery relates to her own struggles as she tries to hang on to her own hope. She struggles between conforming and surviving or wishing for a better life at the cost of her safety.

"I think that this is what God must look like: an egg."(110).

    An egg is a vessel that carries a newborn, just like how the handmaids are seen. After living as a handmaid for sometime, Offred has somewhat adopted the importance of her role in society. Since the handmaids are the ones who ensure humanity's survival, they hold the same role, but not status, as gods.

"Is that how we lived, then? But we lived as usual. Everyone does, most of the time. Whatever is going on is as usual. Even this is as usual, now"(56).

    This line connects to the struggle that Offred and most of the people in Gilead face. They struggle to maintain the things that their new lives have taken away from them. However, the longer they struggle, the more accept the usual. The line suggests that if Gilead persists, than no one will be willing to go against it because it is just as usual.

" All I can hear now is the sound of my own heart, opening and closing, opening and closing, opening"(147).

    The imagery of sound and the repetition, illustrate a clear picture of Offred's mental state. Additionally, the specific wording of "opening and closing" represents how she is struggling with whether or not to allow attachment towards the commander. The opening and closing is deciding if she should let those feelings into her heart.

"The woman said she didn't notice much that she found unusual. She denied knowing about the ovens (145).

    The ovens are an allusion to Nazi Germany where Jews were killed en mass using devices called ovens. The women not knowing about the ovens, representing the ultimate evil of Nazis, reflects of how those in authoritarian societies like Gilead act. They are scared into complacency and then deny the bad because it was just how things were. Connecting Nazi Germany with Gilead represents the latter's condition as a country.

   

Falling in love, we said; I fell for him. We were falling women. We believed in it, this downward motion: so lovely, like flying, and yet at the same time so dire, so extreme, so unlikely"(225).

    Here, falling in love is compared to both flying and falling. Flying entails freedom and ecstasy, which is the ideal love Offred longs for. However, falling is often connected to feelings of fear and dread, which is what loving in Gilead will cause.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Anchor Books, 1998.