Summary and analysis of The Handmaid's Tale Chapter 24. Used to get 100% in OCR English Literature A-Level (H472). This document includes 12 quotes with page numbers, all analysed; context; critical interpretations and comparisons to 1984.
IX - Night
Summary
Offred goes back to her room in the hope of gaining some perspective. She realises
that “time’s a trap”. As she reflects on herself, we find out that “I am thirty-three
years old. I have brown hair. I stand five seven without shoes. I have trouble
remembering what I used to look like. I have viable ovaries. I have one more chance”
She realizes she now has some degree of power over the commander
“Circumstances have altered. I can ask for something. Possibly not much; but
something.”
She remembers Aunt Lydia implying that “men are sex machines” and the
Handmaids should learn to ”manipulate them, for your own good.”
Offred struggles to take her situation with the commander seriously: “This is one of
the most bizarre things that’s happened to me, ever. Context is all.”
Offred remembers a WWII documentary she saw as a child, containing an interview
of a Nazi concentration-camp supervisor who said she didn’t know about the
“ovens” and mass exterminations near her house. The “mistress”, dying of
emphysema, wore a lot of makeup and said that her lover was not a monster.
Offred imagines in detail how sweet and normal the Nazi’s behaviours might have
seemed. Right after the interview for the documentary, the mistress killed herself.
Offred remembers the makeup and her mother’s admiration of the woman.
All of a sudden, Offred starts laughing uncontrollably. She desperately tries to be
quiet, hiding herself in the closet, her laughter erupting violently like red lava. In the
closet she thinks about “Nolite te bastardes carborandorum” and listens to her own
heartbeat.
Chapter 24 Key quotes and analysis – p. 149
“What I need is perspective. … Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only
two dimensions”
o Offred requires perspective in order to make sense of the events of her life
and distance herself from the torture she finds herself in.
“Time’s a trap, I’m caught in it. I must forget about my secret name and all ways
back. My name is Offred now, and here is where I live.”
o Offred wants to distance herself from the past in an effort to survive
o She can’t think for herself anymore, so thinking of the past will only put her in
danger
“I am thirty-three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five seven without shoes. I
have trouble remembering what I used to look like. I have viable ovaries. I have
one more chance”
o Offred analyses herself in an effort to regain ownership of herself. Recounting
these basic traits personifies her.
o However, she reduces herself to her ovaries (giving her “one more chance”) –
just like Gilead would want her to.
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