Religion

Quote

Character

Chapter

“And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, give me children, or else I die.”

Biblical quote

Epigraph

“Give me children, or else I die. There’s more than one meaning to it.”

Offred

11

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth.”

The Commander (from Bible)

15

“Blessed are the merciful. Blessed be the meek. Blessed are the silent. I knew they made that up, I knew it was wrong, and they left things out, too, but there was no way of checking.”

Offred

15

“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?”

Offred

15

“Oh God, obliterate me. Make me fruitful. Mortify my flesh, that I may be multiplied. Let me be fulfilled...”

Offred

30

“What we prayed for was emptiness, so we would be worthy to be filled: with grace, with love, with

self-denial, semen and babies.”

Offred

30

“The Eyes of God run over all the earth.”

Offred

30

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection...

But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

Commander (from Bible)

34