The Handmaid's Tale Chapter Nine Analysis
- Created by: MissVampire
- Created on: 18-04-17 13:35
View mindmap
- The Handmaid's Tale. Chapter Nine Analysis
- 'I'm waiting, in my room, which right now is a waiting room.' The material verb, 'waiting' demonstrates how Offred has nothing else but to sit and anticipate to when she is next to be called. The noun phrase, 'waiting room' detonates to mean a place of hanging around, Offred is subjected to feeling that she is consistently always going to be in line, biding her time before she is ordered into her 'duty'.
- 'Not hastily, as one would explore a hotel room, expecting surprise, opening and shutting the desk drawers, the cupboard doors, unwrapping the tiny individually wrapped bar of soap, prodding the pillows. Will I ever be in a hotel room again?' The adverb, 'hastily' reiterates how Offred is subjected to so much time, time alone, confided to the same unchanging spot. She does not want to rush things.
- 'The asyndetic listing, 'expecting surprise(...)' insinuates and applauds how little things are not to be taken for granted. Offred is quite clearly here remembering particular details. The alliteration within, 'prodding the pillows' and rhetorical question, 'Will I ever be in a hotel room again?' confirms how Offred quires her current situation and also is still able to engage with her past showing she is not fully confident in the Gilead system.
- 'In the afternoons, when Luke was still in flight from his wife, when I was still imaginary to him.' The deixis here 'in the afternoons' illiterates that Offred discusses something far in the past. The noun and fricative, 'flight' gives connotations of freedom. The epistemic modality, 'when I was still imaginary to him.' pursues deeper meaning, Offred perhaps was unhappy and confused, not clear on whether it was just for fun or her lover had actual feelings for her. The adjective, 'imaginary' appeals to the visual sense, identifying she felt like a made up lie, not really there.
- 'I would pace, waiting for him, turn the television on and then off, dab behind my ears with perfume. Opium it was.' The verb, 'pace' and listing after, 'turn on the television on and then off (...)' illiterate how Offred was impatient and anxious. The simple sentence, 'Opium it was' links to Offred's detail of memory, Gilead hasn't supressed her enough to stop her thinking freely, a dangerous thing that wouldn't be accepted outside the barrier of her mind.
- 'Though at that time men and women tried each other on, casually like suits, rejecting whatever did not fit.' The deictic phrase, 'Though at that time.' refers towards the past, the world Offred once was a part of. The simile, 'like suits rejecting whatever did not fit' relates towards flings, affairs and how relationships back then weren't subjected to what is expected in Gilead. A man and wife cannot have affairs now and there is no choosing who you love. The Prayvagansaz (mass weddings) for example that takes place in Gilead is between daughters and guardians. No choice is allowed.
- 'I was careless in those rooms. I could lift the telephone and food would appear on a tray, food I had chosen.' Here, this entire chosen quotation highlights power. The adjective, 'careless' demonstrates how there could be no thought of consequence. The personal pronouns, 'I' illiterate how she had control. The declarative, 'I had chosen' confirms how back then, she had authority over her life which is absent in Gilead.
- 'When I saw that, that evidence left by two people, of love or something like that, desire at least, at least touch, between two people now perhaps old or dead, I covered the bed again and lay down on it.' Offred's viewpoint here is relating towards something simple as intimacy and touch. The common noun, 'evidence' refers towards body fluids left by intercourse. The patterning here, 'desire at least, at least touch' confirms how Offred misses the past, the simple contact of touch and expressing your feelings for another person. The compound sentence, 'I covered the bed again and lay down on it,' as the readers we feel sympathetic as Offred is trying to position herself from the lovers' point of view; to reconstruct that bond of intimacy a couple can have.
- 'It pleases me to know that her taboo message made it through, to at least one person, washed itself up on the wall of my cupboard, was opened and read by me.' The mental verb, 'pleases' implies how Offred feels she has this connection, something she can only hold onto. The personification, 'washed itself up on the wall' illiterates how it appeared out of the blue. The second clause of the complex sentence, was opened and read by me.' Offred is content here again that she has been left a message, some type of communication that she effectively deprived of.
Similar English Language & Literature resources:
Teacher recommended
Comments
No comments have yet been made