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Chapters 23 & 24

English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 9.1.12

Chapter 23 - Key Quotations

Here are four key quotations from Chapter 23:

Key quotations

Key quotations

  • “This is a reconstruction. All of this is a reconstruction.”
  • This comment no longer means that the account of Moira's escape is a reconstruction - but that the whole novel is a reconstruction.
  • "Two-legged wombs"
  • Sex is just about creating life in Gilead.
  • "Scrabble ... forbidden"
  • As Scrabble focuses on words and meanings, it's considered a dangerous activity in Gilead. Offred choosing to play the game as a secret activity highlights the power of language.
Key quotations (cont.)

Key quotations (cont.)

  • Larynx ... Valance ... Quince ... Zygote"
  • Offred is clearly very good at Scrabble as she makes many words using high scoring letters (like X, Q and V).
  • A zygote is formed when the egg and sperm cell fuse.

Chapter 24 - Key Quotations

Here are four key quotations from Chapter 24:

Secret name and context

Secret name and context

  • “I must forget about my secret name. My name is Offred now, and here is where I live.”
  • Offred acknowledges that, for survival, she must deny her former identity. She must keep her real name to herself.
  • “Context is all”
  • By repeating this phrase, Atwood stresses how changes in context influence attitudes and behaviours. Scrabble was once "the game of old men and women", but, now that it's forbidden, is "desirable".
"Invent a humanity"

"Invent a humanity"

  • “How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all"
  • Pieixoto says that Gilead society was "subject to factors from which we ourselves are happily more free. Our job is not to censure but to understand" (Historical Notes). By referencing the Nazis in this chapter, Atwood encourages us to question how much we should accept attitudes like this.
"Opening"

"Opening"

  • "The sound of my own heart, ... opening"
  • The final word of the chapter ("opening") implies potential hope of expansion for Offred's current restricted life.

Test yourself on Chapters 23 & 24

  • What kind of "wombs" are the Handmaids said to be?

  • What phrase does Atwood repeat?

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