Summary and analysis of The Handmaid's Tale Chapter 10. Used to get 100% in OCR English Literature A-Level (H472). This document includes 8 quotes sorted by theme (all analysed); context; critical interpretations; links to other moments in THT; and comparisons to 1984.
Plot Summary
The chapter starts by Offred singing ‘Amazing Grace” which introduces how most music is
forbidden in Gilead. However, Offred describes how Serena quietly hums with music quietly
as despite being the commander’s wife – Music is still forbidden. Summer is approaching
and the handmaids will be allowed to wear their summer dresses with a description of the
air being stagnant with little insulation. Offred starts to think of the time Aunt Alexandra
described the terrible things that happened to women who ‘sunbathed’ wearing next to
nothing.
Continuing these flashbacks, Offred remembers reading disrobing stories in the papers
where women were mutilated, murdered and raped. As women aren’t allowed to read,
Offred sits next to an embroidered cushion with the word “faith”. This is the only word she
has been given to read – however ‘faith’ can be taken religiously towards God or faith in
change in Gilead.
Key Quotations
Freedom
• “Such songs are not sung anymore in public, the ones that use words like free.
especially They are considered too dangerous.”
• Alluding to freedom is dangerous because it threatens the power of the
establishment
“But we weren't supposed to care about our complexions anymore, she'd
forgotten that.”
• Beauty and self-care has been reduced in importance
• Life has been stripped to necessities
Humanising Aunt Lydia
• “she began to cry, standing up there in front of us, in full view. I'm doing my best,
she said. I'm trying to give you the best chance you can have.”
• Aunt Lydia has a rare display of emotion and suggests that she does care for
‘her’ Handmaid’s and wants to protect them from harm
“Don't think it's easy for me either, said Aunt Lydia.”
• Gilead is an ordeal for all women, even those in power
Normality and freedom
• “We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to
work at it.”
• Survival requires forgetting abnormalities.
• You have to actively suppress rebellious thoughts
“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white
spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps
between the stories.”
• By refusing to rebel – to take back their freedom – handmaids can actually
gain some freedom
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