Chapter 7
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 2.3.1
Chapter 7 - Summary and Key Quotations
The focus moves to Offred. She is on her own in bed, staring at the ceiling. She is reflecting on the connotations of the verbs "lie" and "lay".
Offred's flashbacks
- Offred has flashbacks to her and Moira as University students.
- Offred remembers her mother taking her to a protest when she was a child. Men and women burnt piles of pornography in public at this protest.
- She then remembers the painful moment when she was told that her daughter had been given to another family because she had been branded an "unfit" mother.
Storytelling as survival
- In the last paragraph of the chapter, Offred convinces herself (and the reader) that she is telling a story and hopes that, if this is true, she should have power over the ending.
- It is here that the idea of storytelling as a form of survival is introduced.
Key quotations
- "The night is mine, my own time"
- "The difference between lie and lay. Lay is always so passive"
- "I would like to believe this is a story I am telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it"
- "If it is a story I am telling, then I have control over the ending"
Test yourself on Chapter 7
What does Offred remember being branded as in Chapter 7?