《女仆的故事》是玛格丽特·阿特伍德以反乌托邦的未来为背景的畅销女权主义小说。在那里，战争和污染使怀孕和分娩变得越来越困难，妇女被奴役为妓女或“处女”妾（“女仆”），以努力重新定居和控制人口。

阿特伍德在《女仆的故事》中的优美、令人难以忘怀的散文是从一个叫奥弗莱德（或她的主人弗雷德）的女人的第一人称视角讲述的。故事讲述了她第三次做女仆的经历，也让人想起了她在革命前的生活，革命导致了这个建立在宗教狂热基础上的新美国社会。

继续阅读，了解“女仆的故事”中的引语，并进一步了解玛格丽特·阿特伍德著名小说中描绘的不太遥远或不太可能的未来。

自由与希望

奥弗雷德带着一种平静的乐观情绪，她认为在革命开始时，当她试图与丈夫逃往加拿大时被带走的女儿仍然活着，尽管这一希望因她作为女仆生活的恶劣条件而破灭，如第五章所述：

"There is more than one kind of freedom...Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it."

在第五章中，奥弗雷德还谈到了她的女儿，她说：“她是山顶上的一面旗帜，表明我们仍然可以做什么：我们也可以被拯救。”在这里，奥弗雷德透露，她的希望取决于这样一个事实：她的女儿还没有出现在统治阶级在奥弗雷德所在地附近悬挂罪人的墙上。

尽管如此，面对奥弗雷德发现自己身处的现实，这种乐观和希望算不了什么。她在第七章中承认，她假装读者能听到她说的话，“但这不好，因为我知道你听不到。”

其他语录也表达了对自由的渴望。

“莫伊拉现在有了权力，她被释放了，她释放了自己。她现在是个放荡的女人。”（第22章）

其他女仆

奥弗莱德似乎看不起她的女仆同伴，也许是因为她们的自满或对世界的简单化看法：“她们对其他家庭的经营方式非常感兴趣；这些琐碎的流言蜚语给了他们骄傲或不满的机会。”

尽管如此，与其他所有的女仆相似的是，她们是“那些不在报纸上的人”，那些“生活在印刷边缘空白的白色空间”的人说，他们给了他们更多的自由。

洗脑和灌输

所有这些人都要接受灌输，在学院里接受洗脑仪式，在那里他们被训练成为女仆。在第13章中，奥弗莱德描述了一个场景，侍女们围着一个承认被强奸的女人坐成一圈——“她的错，她的错，她的错，我们齐声唱着，”阿特伍德写道。

训练她们的那位妇女，莉迪亚姨妈，也鼓励所有的女佣们，尽管在她们的学校里引入的新概念起初可能看起来很奇怪，但最终会变得平凡，但如果不是这样，女佣们就会因为越轨而受到惩罚。第八章描述了一个这样的例子：

"She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn't seem to agree with her. How furious she must be now that she has been taken at her word." 

奥弗莱德感到了一种压力，尽管她自己也要达到这些新标准。在第13章中，她谈到了自己的缺点：“我再次未能达到别人的期望，而这些期望已经成为我自己的。”

在第30章中，奥弗莱德谈到她的压迫者，“这是他们做的事情之一。最终在第32章中，她意识到了一个重要的教训，那就是她的主人弗雷德告诉她，“对每个人来说，更好永远都不意味着更好……对某些人来说，它总是意味着更糟。”

控制和提交

正如你所料，控制和服从是《女仆故事》中的主要主题，正如这些引文所示。

"I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely." (Chapter 12) "Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing." (Chapter 23) "The trouble is I can't be, with him, any different than I usually am with him. Usually, I am inert. Surely there must be something for us, other than this futility and bathos." (Chapter 39) "It makes me feel more in control as if there is a choice, a decision that could be made one way or the other." (Chapter 41) "Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like. Now that you've let me off, I'll obliterate myself, if that is what you really want; I'll empty myself, truly, become a chalice. I'll give up Nick, I'll forget about the others, I'll stop complaining. I'll accept my lot. I'll sacrifice. I'll repent. I'll abdicate. I'll renounce." (Chapter 45) "Don't let the bastards grind you down. I repeat this to myself but it conveys nothing. You might as well say, Don't let there be air; or Don't be. I suppose you could say that." (Chapter 46)

其他值得注意的引语

其他引文涵盖了从生育到身体机能的一系列主题。

"Give come children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her." (Chapter 15) "There is something subversive about this garden of Serena's, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to say: Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently." (Chapter 25) "Agreed to it right away, really she didn't care, anything with two legs and a good you-know-what was fine with her. They aren't squeamish, they don't have the same feelings we do." (Chapter 33) "And Adam was not deceived, but the women being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing." (Chapter 34) "There is something reassuring about the toilets. Bodily functions at least remain democratic. Everybody shits, as Moira would say." (Chapter 39) The crimes of others are a secret language among us. Through them, we show ourselves what we might be capable of, after all. This is not a popular announcement." (Chapter 42)