Chapter 42
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 2.14.2
Chapter 42 - Summary and Key Quotations
The chapter opens with Offred stating that "the Bell is tolling".
The salvaging of Ofcharles
- Offred describes how she and the other Handmaids are lined up in front of what used to be an old library to witness the 'salvaging" (execution) of two handmaids and a wife.
- These individuals are being punished for crimes which, Aunt Lydia announces, will not be made public in case anyone else decides to follow in their footsteps.
- Offred watches as the first offender, a Handmaid called Ofcharles, is 'salvaged" (hanged) in front of everyone as a message from Gilead to obey their rules.
"Bell is tolling..."
- "The bell is tolling"
- This comes from a sermon by 17-century priest and poet John Donne. Atwood is reminding us that we're involved in deaths carried out in our name.
- "I don't want to be telling this story"
- This line is isolated. Is this Offred's disgust at watching something so grim, or is this Atwood's despair that public executions still take place in various parts of the world?
__"Same... bus... vestment"
- "The same platitudes, the same phrases, the same slogans"
- Cliches are often used to cover lacking emotion or to distance the speaker from taking responsibility.
- "As if she's being helped up the steps of a bus... the noose... like a vestment"
- A vestment is a religious robe. Atwood uses an everyday and religious image - both jarring with the situation at hand - to make the salvaging seem even more horrific.
Test yourself on Chapter 42
Why does Aunt Lydia say the crimes will NOT be publicised in Chapter 42?