The Handmaid's Tale: Part 10
Mar. 11th, 2018 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastI'm torn on how to think about the writing of this chapter. On the one hand, it would be insulting to Margaret Atwood to claim that this scene came from her just recording something that happened to her or someone she knows. On the other hand, Atwood has been clear that, at least in historical terms, she made sure that everything that happened in the recent history of her novel had real-world precedent.
And there's that I can't imagine that this didn't happen in the real world at least frequently enough that Atwood would have hear about multiple accounts. Being written in the 1980s, this was still a world where requiring a woman to be your gynocologist would be a relatively new thing on its own, that possibility being relatively new itself.
"Doc, why am I not pregnant yet?"
"Your husband may be infertile. I can help."
In crass overview, that's this chapter. Offred is taken, alone so there's no conversation on the way, to a doctor. The doctor verifies both that she is not pregnant and that she doesn't have any health issues keeping her from getting pregnant. That leads to an obvious potential possibility that is, nonetheless, not allowed.
The doctor says it openly that the Commander might be the issue, he might be infertile. Her response is to identify that thought as illegal and I'm doubtful. One big reason is that openly stating such a thought to be illegal is to verify that the thought might happen and might be valid. But, Offred is also denied reading, except the word "faith" on a pillow thus far, and is unlikely to be aware of all the laws. She's got to do what many a child has to do, figure out the unwritten rules and figure out which ones might actually be written.
Whether written rule or otherise, it's a rule and something she'd be in danger for openly considering.
And, this is where the doctor offers to... help. He's done so for others.
Offred is in an impossible position, now. She can't spurn the doctor, because if he's being honest and he feels insulted, he could take easy revenge. He could declare her to be infertile or say that she has cancer and she would be an unwoman. At the same time, if someone's listening or if he's working for the Eyes and she were to agree, this would be an opportunity to find a traitor in her and the same.
That's not to say that he *would* necessarily threaten her or take revenge. But, well, she can't exactly ask him to take a survey on his likelihood of revenge or working for secret police. She has to assume that he might.
So, she threads that needle, neither accepting the offer nor making a full on refusal so it seems like she might change her mind later on.
That's her perspective on this. We only have her understanding of his perspective on this, but I'll work with what I have on that. Her understanding of his perspective is that he's enjoying this, that his enjoyment of the sex would, in part, be an enjoyment of this prelude. He touches her in a suggestive manner, it's at least partially flirtatious.
Her understanding is also that he's actually sympathetic to her position and need. If not for personal desire reasons, she needs to get pregnant because that's how she maintains what safety and comfort she has in Gillead as it is. He's sympathetic and kind and... still enjoying this as the road to consent (of a kinda-sorta fashion where it's coerced but he's not the one doing the coercion).
In fact, I'll go so far as to say that his sympathy and concern for her as a patient is part of his enjoyment. He gets sex as well as a certain view of himself as someone doing what good he can for his patients. I'll get back to this concept when we get more into the Commander.
At the end of the chapter Offred's shaking and she's shaking because she sees some hope. That surprised me. Shaking, yes, but I would have thought of the fear of having had to thread that needle. But, again, hope... and I can kind of see it. After all, she's got to get pregnant in order to avoid becoming an unwoman.
I will say that his sperm donation didn't need to be of the immediate variety.
And there's that I can't imagine that this didn't happen in the real world at least frequently enough that Atwood would have hear about multiple accounts. Being written in the 1980s, this was still a world where requiring a woman to be your gynocologist would be a relatively new thing on its own, that possibility being relatively new itself.
"Doc, why am I not pregnant yet?"
"Your husband may be infertile. I can help."
In crass overview, that's this chapter. Offred is taken, alone so there's no conversation on the way, to a doctor. The doctor verifies both that she is not pregnant and that she doesn't have any health issues keeping her from getting pregnant. That leads to an obvious potential possibility that is, nonetheless, not allowed.
The doctor says it openly that the Commander might be the issue, he might be infertile. Her response is to identify that thought as illegal and I'm doubtful. One big reason is that openly stating such a thought to be illegal is to verify that the thought might happen and might be valid. But, Offred is also denied reading, except the word "faith" on a pillow thus far, and is unlikely to be aware of all the laws. She's got to do what many a child has to do, figure out the unwritten rules and figure out which ones might actually be written.
Whether written rule or otherise, it's a rule and something she'd be in danger for openly considering.
And, this is where the doctor offers to... help. He's done so for others.
Offred is in an impossible position, now. She can't spurn the doctor, because if he's being honest and he feels insulted, he could take easy revenge. He could declare her to be infertile or say that she has cancer and she would be an unwoman. At the same time, if someone's listening or if he's working for the Eyes and she were to agree, this would be an opportunity to find a traitor in her and the same.
That's not to say that he *would* necessarily threaten her or take revenge. But, well, she can't exactly ask him to take a survey on his likelihood of revenge or working for secret police. She has to assume that he might.
So, she threads that needle, neither accepting the offer nor making a full on refusal so it seems like she might change her mind later on.
That's her perspective on this. We only have her understanding of his perspective on this, but I'll work with what I have on that. Her understanding of his perspective is that he's enjoying this, that his enjoyment of the sex would, in part, be an enjoyment of this prelude. He touches her in a suggestive manner, it's at least partially flirtatious.
Her understanding is also that he's actually sympathetic to her position and need. If not for personal desire reasons, she needs to get pregnant because that's how she maintains what safety and comfort she has in Gillead as it is. He's sympathetic and kind and... still enjoying this as the road to consent (of a kinda-sorta fashion where it's coerced but he's not the one doing the coercion).
In fact, I'll go so far as to say that his sympathy and concern for her as a patient is part of his enjoyment. He gets sex as well as a certain view of himself as someone doing what good he can for his patients. I'll get back to this concept when we get more into the Commander.
At the end of the chapter Offred's shaking and she's shaking because she sees some hope. That surprised me. Shaking, yes, but I would have thought of the fear of having had to thread that needle. But, again, hope... and I can kind of see it. After all, she's got to get pregnant in order to avoid becoming an unwoman.
I will say that his sperm donation didn't need to be of the immediate variety.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-12 02:27 pm (UTC)I’m assuming Offred meant Illegal in the broad sense rather than the technical sense. Reminscent of Henry VIII not considering the possibility that he was incapable of fathering sons, because his position and self-view wouldn’t permit that idea.
Is it fair to see the doctor’s, uh, remedy as predatory despite the beneficial outcome for Offred? Hypothetically, he could keep a secret stash of his own semen or other men’s semen for that purpose.
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