6.

Visualizing Emotion

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Brown and Grey) 1969

In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, the protagonist frequently uses visual elements (i.e. pattern, color, and perspective) to define her experience as a women with an emotional state of mind. Atwood recognizes that, as seen particularly in most of modern art, what we see has an unbelievable impression on what we feel.  She uses this to her advantage by incorporating visual elements into Offred's narrative.


Pattern
While in procession, Offred reflects, "We must look good from a distance: picturesque, like Dutch milkmaids on a wallpaper frieze...anything that repeats itself with the least minimum grace and without variation "(224). This image, of repeating, identical figures crossing a frame, visually expresses physical and emotional monotony experienced by the handmaids. The pattern represents the ordered aesthetic valued by Gilead's society. One can imagine that the image is predictable and appealing, but also oppressive in its strictness, a mold Offred hopes to break.


Color
When Offred senses herself growing appreciative of her environment, as opposed to maintaining resistance, she reflects "I'm only having an attack of sentimentality, my brain going pastel Technicolor...The danger is greyout"(210). I think in this case bright colors may represent rebellion, emotion, or individuality. Gilead is turning Offred's conscience monochrome, numbing her emotional experience. I feel like Mark Rothko's brown and grey composition above similarly embodies this emotional state.


Perspective
While alone in her room, Offred reflects,"What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face...Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be" (153). In art, the mastery of perspective is about the accurate portrayal of relative space - the rational division of foreground, mid ground, and background. I think this sense of relativity in space is much like the sense of relativity in time. Offred wants to establish her past, present and future so that she can be an active observer with a memory of the past and with the ability to plan for the future. It is crucial that she evaluate her life, not as a collection of immediate details, but from a distance, with a comprehensive idea of the "big picture." I think a sense of perspective, or relative time, is empowering. It is crucial to  see beyond one's immediate existence. 


I believe Offred's visualizations are an extremely powerful literary tool. A reader, I can physically "see," and thus understand, the abstract emotions experienced by the protagonist.  I wonder if this characteristic, the targeting of senses (particularly sight), is a common occurrence in literature written by women...?


Also, this sort of manipulated "synesthesia" reminds me of the scenes in the Disney film Ratatouille, where animators  translate tastes described by the mouse with color and shape. The animations allow the audience (who are watching the film on television) to experience taste, something that would have otherwise been quite distant. (Link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXoJjgxMj9M&feature=related