Allmon 1

Anastasia Allmon

British Literature

20 November 2006

Silent Sacrifices of Women in The Blind Assassin

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood displays the effects of a patriarchal system in the lives of two sisters, Iris and Laura. This cultural valuehas always played a major role in the family history of the Chase sisters. Iris and Laura, although raised in wealth, are not immune to expectations of society, disrespect, sacrifice, or tragedy. In this novel, Atwood portrays women as they are truly seen by the public as she hears their quiet cry and uncovers their hidden suffering. In The Blind Assassin, women are depicted as passive objects of society, for they not only endure sexual sacrifice and unconsciously become self-sacrificial, but they are also portrayed as silent when dealing with difficult situations.

The Blind Assassin repeatedly demonstrates women’s sexual sacrifice by showing that females are viewed only as objects, or worse, only sexual objects.During the time period of World War II, a woman’s goal was to be socially respectable and follow the rules governing proper femininity. However, this did not give women true respect, as they were still viewed as worthless objects, especially in a man’s eyes. As Iris and Laura grow older, they find themselves pressured by their father and nanny to be “neat, obedient, silent, and show no overt signs of sexuality” (Bouson Screen 4). As the girls learn to live under these expectations of society, a sadistic tutor, Mr. Erskine, is introduced into their lives. Ironically, as he “actively shames the sisters” (Bouson Screen 4) and convinces them of their “ignorance and mental deficiency” ( Bouson Screen 4), he simultaneously molests Laura, causing traumatic emotional and sexual abuse. This act of depriving Laura of her sexuality andusing her as a worthless,passive object illustrates the sexual sacrifice that females such as Lauraare forced to endure. From Mr. Erskine, who in the novel serves as an “embodiment of the repressive forces of masculinist culture”, Iris and Laura “learn about their cultural role as submissive sexual objects and victimized females” (Bouson Screen 4). When Iris marries Richard, a man she scarcely knows, she finds her selfhood threatened and feels like “wet clay” (Atwood 303), over which Richard’s hands glide over. Iris feels as if she is accepting the “shape intended” for her (303). In her marriage to Richard, Iris is “the object shaped by his hands at their will” (Blakely 40). To Richard, she is a replaceable sexual object, and she responds to this treatment with a passive attitude, just as expected for a “neat, obedient, silent” (BousonScreen 4) woman of society.

Sexual sacrifice is evident in The Blind Assassin as Laura is raped by her sister’s husband Richard. He is not a protector, as the sisters’ father trusted, but he is “an oppressor” who assumed ownership over both sisters, “physically abusing Iris and sexually abusing Laura” (BousonScreen 5). Richard views Iris and Laura as “objects for male consumption and sexual pleasure” (Bouson Screen 5). To him, the sisters are items, and a “bargain – two for the price of one” (Atwood 505). Richard rapes Laura by threatening to kill the man she loves, therefore forcing her to sleep with him. When Laura becomes pregnant with Richard’s child, he is afraid for his reputation and respectability, so he arranges for Laura to be sent toBella Vista, a private clinic, forcing her to have an abortion. Meanwhile, he tells the public that Laura is mentally ill and was never pregnant. This act displays Richard’s attitude towards women: they are simply sexual objects that have no meaning and can be disposed of if necessary. Years later, when Laura finally finds Iris, she confesses the horrifying truth to her oblivious sister: “they take out the babies. Then they tell you you’ve made the whole thing up. Then when you accuse them of it, they say you’re a danger to yourself and others” (Atwood 486). Due to Laura’s knowledge of her place in society, her response to Richard’s cruelty was silent and passive. According to Laura, who wished to save the one she loves, “It was horrible, but I had to do it. I had to make the sacrifice. I had to take the pain and suffering onto myself. That’s what I promised God. I knew if I did that, it would save Alex” (487). This sort of sexual sacrifice endured by Laura is the result of her helpless state, natural selflessness, passive attitude, and submission to a man’s powerful control.

The Blind Assassin connects Laura’s and Iris’s sexual sacrifices to the sacrifices of the virgins in the science fiction tale that is created by two anonymous lovers for entertainment. The tale of the Blind Assassin takes place on a fictional planet Zycron, in the city of Sakiel-Norn, but is supposedly based on ancient history. Because of this, the connection that is made signifies a link between the past and the present, as it draws attention to “the cultural and historical repetition of sexual violence against women” (BousonScreen 1). Ironically, the tale is about a misogynistic society that practices child slavery, the sacrifice of young virgins, and exchange of their wives and children as “possessions that can be sold if necessary to get out of debt” ( Bouson Screen 6). This theme is reflected in the lives of Iris and Laura, as they are treated as items or possessions that are forced to endure sexual sacrifice in a misogynistic society.In the tale, virgins, one from every family, were taken to be sacrificed and told that “the welfare of the entire kingdom depended on their selflessness” (Atwood 29). Just as Laura and Iris were passive and silent when dealing with sacrifice, the virgins were silenced by having their tongues cut out to prevent protest. They were dressed as brides and led to lie on the Bed of Voiceless Tears, where they were to wait on the Lord of the Underworld, who pays to sleep with them as part of the ritual before the girls are killed. This is an example of the irony in the connection between the past and present: throughout ages, women are sexually sacrificed to men, as they are silenced, fooled, and used as objects.

The children in the science fiction tale also serve as symbols of female victimization and sexual sacrifice. The children are slaves, who are forced to weave carpets because “only the fingers of children were small enough for such intricate work” (Atwood 22). Because of this, the children become blind, and the carpets are valued by how many children they blinded and at what age. This cruel, uncivilized thought process is similar to value of sacrifice in women’s lives, especially the Chase sisters’. Once the children were blind, they were sold off and hired for professional assassins, due to their acute sense of hearing, ability to pick locks, and kill “as softly as a moth brushing against your neck” (22). This treatment of children is symbolic of the treatment of women in The Blind Assassin. Because they are viewed as worthless, passive objects, they are like slaves to men, sacrificing themselves. After men are finished with them, women are left with a dreadful future for which there is no escape due to society. This link between women of the twentieth century and women of an ancient tale not only displays the repeated sexual sacrifice and passive response of women throughout time and culture, but also the lingering of cruelty in a civilized world.

In The Blind Assassin, women not only endure sexual sacrifice, but they also become self-sacrificial. Many times women are not aware of this, so they become blind to their own self-sacrifice as well as that of other women. When Iris’s and Laura’s father, Norval Chase, returned from World War I, “he had one good eye and one good leg. His face was gaunt, seamed, fanatical” (Atwood 76). There was a noticeable distance between him and the sisters’ mother, Liliana, “something materialized like a sword between them” (76), and they were now strangers. Scarred by the death of his two brothers, Norval came back an atheist, a pessimist, and a shattered man. He often hid away in a room and drank himself numb to vent his rage. Despite this, Liliana saw him as her husband who was “broken and needed mending” (Atwood 77). Even as a witness of “sudden fits of rage, the bowl or glass thrown against the wall or floor” (77), Liliana “wished to create around him an atmosphere of calm, indulge him, put flowers on his breakfast table, and arrange his favorite dinners” (77). According to Bouson, Liliana “exhibits the classic female selflessness of the sacrificial ‘good’ woman” (Screen 3). She forgives her husband for his poor attitude and numerous affairs while at war, as she is devoted to comforting him and being the self-sacrificial wife she thinks he needs. When Norval desires a son to be an heir to his button factory, Chase Industries, Liliana attempts to get pregnant, just as her husband wants, despite the doctor’s warning not have any more children due to her weak health. She suffers from a miscarriage as she falls on the kitchen floor, unconscious. Putting her life in danger for her husband, she conceived a child but could not give birth to it nor could she survive. Liliana dies as a result of herself-sacrificial nature, which is present in all women. Liliana’s passive behavior to Norval’s rage fits, her desire to soothe him, and her will to risk her life to give him a son,not only display her commitment to him and the unawareness of her sacrifice, but also represent women’s nature as passive, silent, self-sacrificial beings.

Women’s self-sacrifice is not only displayed in Liliana’s marriage, but also in Iris’s marriage. According to Laura, Iris enters marriage “like a sleepwalker” (Atwood 237). Iris is expected by her father to be the dutiful daughter and marry to progress the family business. According to Bouson, Iris was “made to feel by her father that she should marry Richard to save the Chase factories and the jobs of the Chase workers, so the 18 year old consents to become the wife of the 35 year old Richard, a man she scarcely knows” (Screen 5). Although Iris dreads marrying Richard, she insists that she must do it. Iris is sacrificing her desires and her future in order to enter an arranged marriage and become a society bride. This led to a double life: her public existence and her private life as a mistress, because her sexual life with Richard was something to be endured, not enjoyed. In her marriage, Iris feels as if she must live up to the ideals of her father’s WWI medals that she had inherited, which were granted for “Courage and Bravery under fire and Noble Gestures of self-sacrifice” (Atwood 315). When Richard closed down Chase Industries, Iris admits, “I’d married Richard for nothing, then – I hadn’t saved the factories, and I certainly hadn’t saved Father. But there was Laura, still; she wasn’t out on the street. I had to think of that” (314). By sacrificing her future and happiness, Iris portrays women’s, caring, passive nature as she thinks of her father’s and his company’s well-being, as well as Laura’s.

Not only did Iris become self-sacrificial in her marriage, but she became blind to her sacrifice, and also to the sacrifices her sister Laura was forced to endure. Iris spent a long time denying the severity of the troubles in her marriage, the problems in Laura’s life, and the trouble in their family. Iris is oblivious to Laura’s sexual sacrifice to Richard, who had repeatedly raped her. When Laura confesses what has been happening between her and Richard, she expects her only sister to know the horrific things that she went through, including her abortion. However, for years, Iris had been fooled to believe that Laura was insane, so while listening to Laura’s confession, she thought, “This was the crossroads: either Laura had been mad, or Richard had been lying. I couldn’t believe both” (Atwood 485). Iris had no idea that Laura was raped by Richard, nor did she know that Laura remained silent in order to save Alex’s life, while patiently waiting for him to return from war. Ignorant of Laura’s only hope and her pain caused by self-sacrifice, Iris confesses that she and Alex were secret lovers. Unknowingly hurting her sister even further, Iris says, “Laura, I hate to tell you this, but whatever it was you did, it didn’t save Alex. Alex is dead. He was killed in the war, six months ago in Holland” (488). Seeing the look of sorrow, pain, betrayal, and disappointment on Laura’s face, Iris thinks, “I should have bitten my tongue, now I should’ve kept my mouth shut. Out of love, I should have lied, or said anything else: anything but the truth” (488). According to Earl Ingersoll, Iris “had a choice” (Screen 5), but she was blind. Only now does Iris begin to realize the depth Laura’s self-sacrifice for Alex. Iris’s passivity and blindness to Laura’s silent wounds led to more damage, which brought Laura closer to suicide.

In The Blind Assassin, when not blind to sacrifice, but aware of pain and grief, women are presented as silent, passive creatures when dealing with such circumstances.This quality is portrayed as a habit of all women, especially Laura. When her mother dies from a miscarriage, Laura holds her silent grief within. When most people around Laura cry out with heartache, Laura simply and quietly thinks of a way to bring her mother back. She hears a Remembrance Day sermon about the ultimate sacrifice of soldiers in World War I, who lost their lives for other people. Showing her self-sacrificial, silent nature, “Laura jumps into the LouveteauRiver in the misguided belief that if she sacrifices her life God will let her mother live again” (Bouson Screen 3).This is another example of a woman’s passive, silent attitude, which is exemplified repeatedly throughout the novel.

The most silent way of dealing with a difficult situation is the way Laura chooses, which is suicide. As an “extreme example of female sacrificial thinking” (Bouson Screen 1), Laura commits suicide in 1945 at the age of twenty-five. After being terribly hurt by her sister, Iris, who confessed to sleeping with Alex, Laura then also learns that the only man she loves is dead. According to Iris, “Laura said nothing. She only looked at me. She looked right through me. Lord knows what she saw. A sinking ship, a city in flames, a knife in the back” (Atwood 488).According to Earl Ingersoll, “Iris alone knows who is guilty of precipitating Laura’s death” (Screen 5). The knowledge that her sister betrayed her, and that all her years of sacrifice and pain did not save Alex, overwhelms Laura, who becomes a “mute trauma victim” (Bouson Screen 1).Laura, again, sacrifices herself and silently ends her life to quietly drift away from sorrow. In The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood uses a June bug to symbolize Laura: “It bumped over the glass like a blind thumb. It sounded angry, and thwarted, and also helpless” (Atwood 489). Not knowing how to deal with pain, Laura becomes an example of women’s habit of silence when dealing with grief and difficult situations.

The Blind Assassin not only shows women’s silent behavior in difficult circumstances, but also displays their avoidance of such situations. When sexually molested my Mr. Erskine, Laura learns to “subtract herself” (Atwood 164) from the scene. According to Atwood, Laura was totally passive when Mr. Erskine was enraged and physically abused her:“He took to shaking her – to snap her out of it, he said. You’re not the Sleeping Beauty, he would yell. Sometimes he threw her against the wall, or shook her with his hands around her neck. When he shook her she’d close her eyes and go limp, which incensed him further” (164). This was an uncomfortable situation for Laura, which she preferred to avoid any way possible. Her nanny, Reenie, always said, “You’ll have to face the music” (Atwood 492), but this novel demonstrates women’s natural desire to avoid hard situations. When passive Laura was being raped by Richard, she “never said anything to him” (394), in order to avoid confrontation; therefore, she chooses to sexually sacrifice herself instead and silently deal with the consequences.

Margaret Atwood brings to light the reason behind women’s passivity in The Blind Assassin. Not only is the power of society displayed in this novel, but so is the power of a man, as he “determines woman’s universe” (Blakely 37). Even through her visual art, which is linked to her fiction and essays, Atwood presents “female – male relationships” (Wilson 36) as male overpowering female.In The Blind Assassin, Atwood conveys that a woman’s self-sacrificial and submissive behavior is not only part of her nature, but is also induced by the pressures of society and the control of a man. According to Blakely, “Man oppresses woman through the operations of eye, body, and word so completely that she is trapped in the circle of his consciousness, unable to name herself” (37). Through The Blind Assassin, it is seen that in various situations, even in the modern age, women are portrayed as passive, silent, and self-sacrificial objects of society.