Chapters 19 & 20
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 9.1.10
Chapter 19 - Key Quotations
Here are six quotations from Chapter 19:
Birth Day
- Atwood separates the two words in 'birthday' to highlight the significance of this day for the Handmaids, who live to give birth.
Egg quotations
- “Under the skirt is the second egg, being kept warm … I think that this is what God must look like: an egg.”
- “Pleasure is an egg.”
- “If I have an egg, what more can I want?”
- Eggs are a recurrent theme. We're constantly reminded that they're a key component of a women's reproductive cycle. The narrator's feelings toward eggs hints at the significance of eggs in Christianity: birth and rebirth.
Egg (cont.)
- At one moment, Offred wonders if she needs to desire anything else if eggs can contain pleasure and God.
- But Offred also worries that Gilead has given her the egg and such feelings so that she doesn't desire anything. Gilead has even managed to undermine philosophical thoughts.
"Can't have them taken out"
- Abortion is illegal in Gilead.
- Atwood is referencing pro-abortion / pro-life debates that divide countries like America.
"Toxic molecules"
- “The air got too full, once, of chemicals, rays, radiation, the water swamped with toxic molecules.”
- Atwood is a keen environmentalist. Her other novels - including Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood - examine how human technology could affect humans and nature.
Chapter 20 - Key Quotations
Here are three key quotations from Chapter 20:
Key quotations
- "Sacrifices … men revile you"
- Adapted from the Bible: the original quotation (Matthew 5:11) says Jesus' followers should be thankful when persecuted for their beliefs as they'll get their reward in Heaven.
- "That was what they thought of women, then.”
- Aunt Lydia suggests the only alternative to life in Gilead is the kind of abuse shown in the films they watch.
- "A man is just a woman’s strategy for making other women"
- Offred's mother doesn't believe in romantic love.
Test yourself on Chapters 19 & 20
What does this quotation indicate?
"Can't have them taken out"Who says this quotation?
"A man is just a woman’s strategy for making other women"Where does the original form of this quotation come from?
"Sacrifices … men revile you"