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Summary Handmaid's Tale Ch.27-29 Analysis
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Handmaid's Tale Ch.27-29 Analysis
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IEB HANDMAID'S TALE NOTES
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The Handmaid's Tale (IOC)
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Chapter 27Brief Summary - This is the chapter where, while shopping, Offred and Ofglen reveal to
each other that they’re both not true believers in the Gileadean regime
- They visit the “Wall” and the Souls Scrolls building (introduces to the
audience as a prayers store symbolic of piety and faithfulness to the
regime); Offred makes comments on what the buildings were before
reform, (lingerie stores, universities, jewellery shops); she also
ruminates on where Luke could be
- There’s a brief commotion where a man is killed, and Offred’s last line
in the chapter is “What I feel is relief. It wasn’t me.”
Main Ideas/ - Communication and human connections
Themes - Religion and faith as both means of totalitarian oppression and hope
- Surveillance, passivity and complicity (& being a bystander) vs
rebellion
- Death as an ironic means of survival (salvation from oppression and
the loss of agency)
Examples - (p.173) “I’ve heard that rumour, passed on to me in
soundless words… Sign language.” → Oxymoron. Enhances the
atmosphere of surveillance and hidden resistance but also
emphasises the innate human need of connection and the resilience
of communication
- (p.175) “Death is a beautiful woman, with wings and one
breast almost bare; or is that Victory? I can’t remember. /
They won’t have destroyed that.” → Intertextuality (reference) to
Eugene Delacroix’s 1830 “Liberty Leading the People” painting in
commemoration of the French July Revolution. The idea that
death and victory are now integrated into the image of
freedom shows how the oppressive indoctrination of faith
(ironically) leads to death as a means of salvation rather than
life (which was the entire aim of Gilead) → depicts perversion
of faith (“They’re going to Heaven”) and thus perversion of
morals and humanity through the removal of autonomy
- (p.176) “We can see into each other’s eyes. This is the first
time I’ve ever seen Ofglen’s eyes, directly, steadily, not
aslant. Her face is oval, pink, plump but not fat, her eyes
roundish.” → Eyes motif. Usually symbolises paranoia,
surveillance, and Gileadean authority (“Each machine has an
eye painted in gold on the side, flanked by two small golden
wings”) → highlights the power of human connection and the
potential for resistance and solidarity in a world where
personal relationships are heavily regulated and monitored
- (p.179) “Then they are inside also and the doors are closed
and the van moves on.” … “What I feel is relief. It wasn’t
me.” → Polysyndeton, stream of consciousness, shift in tone from
potential danger to avoidance → a fast-paced and separate
, event. Portrays passivity as a type of complicity in others
deaths; conditioning of lesser morals; emotional detachment
and self-preservation as a means of survival
Contextual Ultra-conservative Christian movement 1970-80s
Links - The new Christian Right
- Women who challenged traditional gender roles or sought
greater autonomy faced backlash, condemnation, and social
ostracism → constant social surveillance and pressure to
conform
- Draws from the era of the Cold War, the rise of Religious
Fundamentalism, and historical totalitarianism regimes
Chapter 28
Brief ● As Offred sits in her room, she relives society shortly before the Republic
Summary of Gilead is established
○ Following the assassination of the President and Congress, women
were no longer allowed to work, nor hold property (e.g. bank accs.).
○ This caused Offred to feel powerless and ‘patronised’ as Luke now
had all the power.
○ The atmosphere changed as well (more tension and silence)
● She also remembered her mother & the various feminist riots she took
part in.
● There is a mention of things that have changed:
○ Money is no longer used
○ Newspapers have been censored
○ Roadblocks appeared with Identipasses
○ Porn and access to prostitutes disappeared (e.g. Feels on Wheels
and Bun-Dle Buggies)
Main Ideas/ ● How suddenly agency can be lost through oppressive powers
Themes ○ The power of religious theocracies
● Reversion to traditional gender roles
● Oppressive love (Luke)?
● Complicity
Examples 1. (p. 191) “... Something had shifted, some balance. I felt shrunken, so that
when he put his arms around me, gathering me up, I was small as a doll. I
felt love going forward without me.”
a. Describes a change in Offred’s and Luke’s power dynamics; as
Gilead forced women to be reliant on their husbands
i. Emphasised by the simile “small as a doll” → likens
Offred as a property of Luke’s which he can control
2. (p.182) “My mother said people used to have signs beside their cash
registers, for a joke: In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. That would be
blasphemy now.”
a. Demonstrates how much society has changed following the
establishment of the Republic of Gilead.
i. “Blasphemy” → shows how restrictive topics around
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