Chapters 7 & 8
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 9.1.4
Chapter 7 - Key Quotations
Here are 4 key quotations from Chapter 7:
"Night is mine"
- "The night is mine, my own time"
"Lie vs lay"
- "The difference between lie and lay. Lay is always so passive"
"Must believe"
- "I would like to believe this is a story I am telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it"
"Control"
- "If it is a story I am telling, then I have control over the ending"
Chapter 8 - Key Quotations
Here are five key quotations from Chapter 8:
Key quotations
- "It's a beautiful Mayday"
- "She's like my own reflection in a mirror from which I am moving away"
- Duality is a common theme. But Offred still seems to be aware of her individuality by saying she's "moving away".
- "All flesh is weak"
- Aunt Lydia changes Biblical quotations for her own purpose. She's warning the Handmaids about sexual temptation.
- "She has become speechless"
- Offred's pun shows that Gilead controls language and freedom of speech.
Key quotations (cont.)
- "Was he is my room? I called it mine"
- By calling the room "mine", Offred seems to be aware that she is succumbing to the regime (she refused to call the room 'my' room in Chapter 1) and claiming her individual space at the same time.