2.7.1

Chapter 18

Test yourself

Chapter 18 - Summary and Key Quotations

Offred thinks about kissing Nick. She remembers being in bed with Luke when she was pregnant. She remembers feeling the baby kicking in her stomach and she longs to be touched by another human.

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Reality about Luke

  • Offred thinks about what could have happened to Luke. She knows three things could have happened to Luke: he escaped, he is in prison or he is dead.
  • She starts to fantasise that he has escaped and will eventually contact her and that she will be able to escape too.
  • But Offred says she knows that all of these options can't be true. She almost wants all of them to be true so she can keep hope alive.
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Key quotations

  • “But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from.”
  • “One of the gravestones in the cemetery near the earliest church has an anchor on it and an hourglass and the words: In Hope.”
    • This reminds us of the cushions removed from Offred's room; Gilead wants to remove love and hope, which are all things that individuals feel.

Jump to other topics

1Author Background

1.1Margaret Atwood

2Chapter Summaries

3Dedications & Epigraph

3.1Dedications & Epigraph

4Context

5Narrative Structure & Literary Techniques

6Themes & Imagery

7Characters

8Readings

8.1Readings of The Handmaid's Tale

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