70 pages • 2 hours read
Margaret AtwoodA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Back in the novel-within-a-novel, the unnamed lovers continue to meet, first at a cheap café, and later at a series of rundown houses where the man is staying. He is on the run from the police, which partially explains the couple's fear of being seen. At one point, the man even complains that the woman's hair is "too blonde": "[i]t stands out. Blondes are like white mice, you only find them in cages. They wouldn't last long in nature" (106). The woman objects that this isn't "kind," echoing the broader dynamics of their relationship; the man enjoysneedling and shocking his sensitive, upper-classlover (though she herself often banters back at him).
At each meeting, the man continues the story about Sakiel-Norn, elaborating further on the norms surrounding human sacrifice: to prevent the sacrificed girls from dying "unsatisfied, and…join[ing] the band of beautiful nude dead woman," each girl is raped before her death—ostensibly by a god, but really by a courtier (115). The story begins with one of these Temple maidens lying in the "Bed of One Night," waiting for the courtier's arrival. Unbeknownst to her, however, an assassin is on his way to her chamber; his job is to kill her, take her place, and then kill the King of Sakiel-Norn during the sacrificial ceremony.
By Margaret Atwood
Alias Grace
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy
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Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye
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Death By Landscape
Death By Landscape
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Hag-Seed
Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's The Tempest Retold
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Happy Endings
Happy Endings
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Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
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Lady Oracle
Lady Oracle
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Life Before Man
Life Before Man
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MaddAddam
MaddAddam
Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood
Rape Fantasies
Rape Fantasies
Margaret Atwood
Siren Song
Siren Song
Margaret Atwood
Stone Mattress
Stone Mattress
Margaret Atwood
Surfacing
Surfacing
Margaret Atwood
The Circle Game
The Circle Game
Margaret Atwood
The Edible Woman
The Edible Woman
Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
The Heart Goes Last
The Heart Goes Last
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The Landlady
The Landlady
Margaret Atwood