Summary Prose - The Handmaid's Tale & Frankenstein comparison

Comparative notes

Symbolism

Use of symbols to present character’s roles in society
- Colour and clothing symbolism in HMT
- The creature as ‘mob-like’ mixture of body parts – victor as romantic promethean scientist
 Relation to French revolution
Use of symbolic events – linked to relevant contexts
- Atwood’s ‘particicutions’ to explore public complicity in the actions of totalitarian regimes
- Hanging of Justine – explores attitudes towards working class women
Use of symbolic characters
- Creature as a symbol of Frankenstein’s repressed desires

Dreams

- Method of exploring subconscious and conscious desires of protagonists
- Offred’s consciousness – attempts to retain elements of her past
- Victor’s position of alienation – dark elements of his psyche
 Manifests in the monster
- A new species would bless me as its creator – conscious dream reveals his ambition and deliberate
exclusion from society under the premise of scientific development and research
 Shelley’s critique of self-serving desire and fear of failure
- I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother – Freud’s theory of repressed desires, condensation
and displacement
 Foreshadowing, graphic representation of abnormal procreation, continuation of the dream when
he awakes
- Daydreaming vs nightmares spurred by internalised fears
- My mother comes in with a tray – desires for comfort and familiarity
 Spurred by external real fear – unlike victor’s internalised fears
- I need to be very clear in my own mind – compartmentalised method of thinking (THT)

Knowledge

- Source of knowledge – representative of dominant hegemonic societal views
Frankenstein
- Monster reading books – should be symbolic of liberation as he acquires knowledge
- Volney’s ‘ruins of empire’ – thrust of society is sharing of ideas
- My sorrow only increased with knowledge – knowledge is only beneficial for the privileged and
societally accepted
THT
- Mirror – knowledge used by those in power to coerce
 Book burning and commander giving her the vogue

Books and magazines

Frankenstein
- Volney’s ruin of the empire
 Gains insight into different cultures of the world
 Understands difference
 Gave me insight into the manners
- Monster and DeLacey’s dialogue match – has been taught to be speak the language
- Sorrows of young Werther – unrequited love due to class and alienation
 Mirrors unrequited love of victor and monster
- Plutarch’s lives – moral virtue and failing
 Greeks vs romans

,  Reflections on two societies – used to mirror lives of victor and monster?
 ‘great’ historic men have polarising ideas of vices/virtues
- Paradise lost – gives novel its epigraph
 Monster is Adam
 Ostracises him from society – jealous of human connection with the DeLacey’s
- Representativeness – projects views of society
 Like in THT
- Books relate to the monster’s life – placing him outside of human society
 Detaching him from victor or realising he has no human connections
- Books – teaching the monster about society
The handmaid’s tale
- Porn magazines burnt by Offred’s mother
- Offred being given the magazine by the commander

Objects

- William’s locket – links to provenance and chain of ownership from mother to son and then monster
to Justine
- Personal becomes political
- Serena joy has a photo that is passed onto Offred after she earns it
- Offred must perform a systematic tasks to be rewarded
 Objects representing family/familial bonds
- Capacity to interpret and demonstrate aspects of history – shows how abnormal Gileadean regime is
and history of it
 Palimpsest
- Uncommon things turned rare through regime – meanings distorted and emphasised

Identity

Naming in THT

- My self is a thing I must now compose
- My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because its forbidden … I keep
the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure
- Self-outward presentation of one’s self – important in maintaining a sense of self
- Constructed by those around her – gender constraints of Gilead
- Something given to her by an oppressive regime
- Of-man – property/possession of Fred
 Outer self is transitory – name changes with household
- Distinct from inner self – attempts to preserve this
- Ambiguity around if Offred’s name is June – does not tell narrative in order to conceal herself
 Can have possession of herself
- Identity is flexible – different parts of herself given up to different people
 Layering of identities

Comparison – naming and identity

- Frank – devil … vile insect … miserable existence … abhorred monster! Demon you are!
- Difference between internal and external naming and effect it has on the individual
- Creature only has identity given to hm by Frankenstein and society – one that he internalises
 Idea of monster and Adam are both adults born into being – contrast idea of uncorrupted
romantic child
- Offred able to separate out her two beings – creature does not have that
- Monster’s dialogue mirrors the way he is treated – moving to violence and not benevolence
- Emotional abuse by Frankenstein