The Female Body - Quotes
English Lit: Edexcel A Level The Handmaid's Tale, topic 9.2.3
Quotations About The Female Body
"I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will."
"Prize pig"
- Offred says she feels like a "prize pig" after being prepared for the Ceremony.
Quotation: disassociating the body
- During the Ceremony, Offred disassociates herself with the rest of her body for survival.
- She says: "What he is fucking is the lower part of my body".
Quotation: Offred's body
- Offred avoids looking at her body when bathing. This implies she cannot face the fact that her whole identity is defined by her fertility:
- "I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it's shameful or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely."
Themes - Objectification of Women
The Handmaids are totally objectified. This reinforced by the false sisterhood of the Aunts. Their survival relies upon the successful pregnancies of the Handmaids.
Chremamorphism
- Atwood uses chremamorphism (giving humans the characteristics of objects) to symbolise the total eradication of the Handmaids' identities as they are only required for their wombs:
- "She said, think of yourselves as seeds…let's pretend we're trees”.
Treatment of Moira
- After Moira first escapes and is captured, she is tortured by having her feet beaten with metal cables by the Aunts.
- The reader is told that the punishment for a repeat offence is the hands being beaten. Aunt Lydia sadistically reminds the Handmaids that "For our purposes, your feet and your hands are not essential".
Test yourself on The Female Body - Quotes
How do the Aunts torture Moira?