The Handmaid's Tale: Chapters 8–17

by Margaret Atwood
In this dystopian novel, America is a totalitarian theocracy in which young women are conscripted to serve the political elite.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–17, Chapters 18–24, Chapters 25–30, Chapter 31–Historical Notes

Click here to explore our lists for the novel's sequel, The Testaments.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. treachery
    an act of deliberate betrayal
    The two others have purple placards hung around their necks: Gender Treachery.
  2. sanctity
    the quality of being holy
    Her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, about how women should stay home.
  3. ingratiate
    gain favor with somebody by deliberate efforts
    I hold out this idea to her like an offering. I wish to ingratiate myself.
  4. parley
    a negotiation between enemies
    Like the flag of an unknown country, seen for an instant above a curve of hill. It could mean attack, it could mean parley, it could mean the edge of something, a territory.
  5. irreverent
    showing lack of due respect or veneration
    I turn her into Moira, Moira as she was when she was in college, in the room next to mine: quirky, jaunty, athletic, with a bicycle once, and a knapsack for hiking. Freckles, I think; irreverent, resourceful.
  6. lugubrious
    excessively mournful
    Sometimes I sing to myself, in my head; something lugubrious, mournful, presbyterian...
  7. sterile
    incapable of reproducing
    There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially.
  8. barren
    not bearing offspring
    There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law.
  9. lethargic
    deficient in alertness or activity
    After the first shock, after you’d come to terms, it was better to be lethargic. You could tell yourself you were saving up your strength.
  10. plaintively
    in a manner expressing sorrow
    He won’t look at me, he looks down at the floor, where the cat is rubbing itself against his legs, mewing and mewing plaintively. It wants food, but how can there be any food with the apartment so empty?
  11. heretical
    departing from accepted beliefs or standards
    “Five members of the heretical sect of Quakers have been arrested,” he says, smiling blandly, “and more arrests are anticipated.”
  12. protocol
    code of correct conduct
    Maybe he’s just forgotten the protocol, but maybe it’s deliberate.
  13. innocuous
    lacking intent or capacity to injure
    His manner is mild, his hands large, with thick fingers and acquisitive thumbs, his blue eyes uncommunicative, falsely innocuous.
  14. incendiary
    inciting action or rebellion
    The Bible is kept locked up, the way people once kept tea locked up, so the servants wouldn’t steal it. It is an incendiary device: who knows what we’d make of it, if we ever got our hands on it?
  15. tableau
    a group of people attractively arranged
    Behind me, one of them, Cora or Rita, leaves her space in the tableau and pads off towards the kitchen.
Created on Tue Dec 06 17:11:26 EST 2016 (updated Tue Aug 12 10:56:12 EDT 2025)

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