"Trust Me": Reading the Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
1991; Duke University Press; Volume: 37; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/441844
ISSN2325-8101
Autores Tópico(s)Gothic Literature and Media Analysis
ResumoMidway through Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, the Commander sends a message to his wife's handmaid, Offred, that she is to meet him that evening in his study. Imagining that the Commander may ask her to engage in some kind of forbidden sexual activity, Offred is surprised when he expresses his desire: 'I'd you to play a game of Scrabble with me' (179). As the Commander takes the Scrabble box from his desk drawer and dumps out the counters, Offred realizes that this game is forbidden sexual activity. Under the Commander's watchful eye, Offred, no longer allowed to read or write, takes up the wooden counters, delicious, like candies, made of peppermint, cool that, and shapes them into luxurious words: Larynx, I spell. Valance. Quince. Zygote (180). On subsequent evenings, Offred and the Commander repeat their game. Initially, she moves slowly: My tongue felt thick with the effort of spelling. It was using a language I'd once known but had nearly forgotten, a language having to do with customs that had long before passed out of the world (199). During early meetings, Offred and the Commander obey the rules of the game, of the language. When Offred, for example, spells Zilch (A convenient one-vowel word with an expensive Z [238]) the Commander challenges her, and she suggests 'We could look it up .... It's archaic' (238). But as time passes, these
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