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Dystopia (Scrabble game - power (Playing with language (trope), Forbidden…
Dystopia
Scrabble game - power
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Commander allows Offred to feel in control and powerful when she wins against him, in actuality he is manipulating her so she is more likely to act irresponsibly as she trusts him. "The first time i realised he let me win"
Distorted courtship, Father/Daughter.
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Ceremony - power
Commander has most power. Masculine active agency / role - suffers equally to Offed in his "role" he is forced into the action also - is dehumanised and he tries to make it more human - tries to kiss Offred - this is rebellion.
"There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, thats the law."
Offred has next power. "Nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice, but there was some and this is what I chose." - Offred has detatched herself from the event "fucking the lower half of my body". She instead feels empathy for the other characters.
Serena Joy has the least power as she is passive. could be seen as voyeurism digs nails into Offred. Her place in the hierarchy of society is contradicted here, as she is placed under Offred in physically being the lowest. Emotional suffering as she watches her husband have sex with Offred on top of her, almost a punishment for being infertile.
context
infertility rates had been growing higher and Atwood interpreted this into a theocracy. The Handmaid is based of the Handmaid in the Bible who gives children to Rachel.
Stalin' Soviet Union = Family unit strengthened to raise children to "love" Stalin and be obedient to the state, Families given rewards for having lots of children
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1984 connection
Kathrine and Winston's sex. "our duty to the party" Sex is regulated and makes it a duty and clinical. Distortion of human relationships Humiliates Winston, "Kathrine white body, frozen for ever by the hypnotic power of the party." Kathrine has more power.
"She would lie there with shut-eyes, neither co-operating but submitting."
Literary context - Brave New World = sex regulated and removed from family structure to make it a "release" and not an intimate experience thus more concentration can be placed with the state
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