Laura asked Margaret Atwood:

I studied The Handmaid's Tale as a basis for my coursework and I loved the novel. I extended on the chapter when Moira is never seen again, with a Bonnie and Clyde spin-off! From my studies, I was wondering why speech marks are not used for conversation between Offred and the Commander. As a class, we thought it might be something to do with the class/societal divide, so what was your intention behind it?

Margaret Atwood Hello: Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed it! Texts on the page are a way of rendering the voice, including "speech;" speech marks are a textual convention. (Roman writing for instance did not have a lot of punctuation, making it harder for us to read today.) Sometimes one can use an initial dash; sometimes an inset. Probably I didn't use quotes for some reason having to do with the fact that the speeches in question are reported from memory. Something like that. I must have had my reasons at the time…

flag