A Study Guide for Margaret Atwood's "Rape Fantasies" (Short Stories for Students)

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Estelle, during the course of these conversations, makes observations about the women, subtly revealing her method of focus and her sense of the important, telling less about the characters of the women and more about Estelle herself. These constant, critical, and often silly observations are the very thing that clearly draws the character of this narrator. La sangre, el fluido elemental, el jugo de la vida, subproducto del nacimiento, preludio de la muerte. I believe that most people find it hard to believe that they are being raped so they make good out of the situation. They say thing like “I was quirt because he told that it wouldn’t be that bad if I keep my mouth shut”, or “Afterward he explained to me why he does it, I understand now and I don’t blame him”. Last one “he was nice to me after he finished”. I always am and they know it. There’s no point in being anything else, is the way I look at it, and sooner or later the truth will out so you might as well not waste the time, right? (33) We can see that the similarities between this fantasy and her others have something in common. Unlike Chrissey’s or Greta’s fantasies, none of them actually involve any kind of actual sexual act. By the end of the story, we believe that the polite rapist who gets the lemon juice in his eye is part of an actual fantasy of Estelle’s.

Comprendió que solo quería a la Louise desesperanzada y loca, la indefensa y privada de toda aspiración. Con una Louise cuerda y capaz de juzgarlo, nunca podría entenderse. Her last fantasy is, in Estelle’s words, “the most touching… and kind of dignified” (pg. 35) rape fantasy where she is dying of leukemia and is grabbed by a man in the same condition. She woos him and they move into an apartment where they die together. Estelle likes power; she is not helpless in her fantasies. Her fantasies of being a Kung-Fu expert demonstrate her wish for control over her body and her safety. Estelle can outwit, confuse, and fool her fantasy rapists; in fact she hopes she is not too vicious to them. Todo el mundo cree que los escritores saben más acerca de la mente humana, pero es un error. Saben menos. Por eso escriben. Para tratar de descubrir lo que todos los demás dan por sentado. Explains that the women's liberation movement had been fighting for women’s rights and equality in society since the publication of "rape fantasies" in 1977.Many of the stories dealt with young women and their first jobs, first apartments, first lovers and first babies, which is to be expected given that this was one of her earliest books, comprised of stories originally printed in various magazines and periodicals at the start of her career. One can assume she was struggling to find her way as a young author in the midst of '70s feminism, with not much hope yet for a happy and balanced relationship. Estelle’s humor reflects the rather absurd situation that she finds herself in. She’s in a society in which rape is discussed in the same manner one might write about “ten new hairdos.” La inteligencia era un activo, sostenía Joseph. Solo teníamos que fijarnos en lo que les pasaba a las tontas. Arguably, what many women visualize is agreeable sex (which is not the same as rape) with ‘handsome strangers.’ The narrator confesses, “Maybe I’m abnormal or something, I mean I have fantasies about handsome strangers coming in through the window too, like Mr. Clean, I wish one would, please somebody without flat feet and big sweat marks on his a shirt, and over five feet tall.” The narrator’s aspiration cannot be categorized as rape fantasy because she is envisaging herself having sex with her idyllic man. Accordingly, she would not repel the man’s attempts to be intimate with her because it is what she yearns. Conversely, in a rape fantasy, woman resorts to actions to thwart the rapist’s efforts to intrude upon her body. Betty Almost a coming of age tale, with the adolescent narrator who doesn’t quite understand the world of the grown-ups that she observes. Betty is part of “Betty and Fred” the couple who live next door at the cottages where her family is spending the summer, and the girl and her sister are a bit taken with Fred, but it is Betty who makes them welcomed and treats them well. Fred seems so ideal to their young minds. About half way through the tale, our narrator observes, “I began to think that I might not want to be married to Fred after all. He unrolled from Betty’s mouth like a long ribbon of soggy newspaper printed from end to end with nothing but the weather.” That simile said all.

But it is the clear similarities between Estelle and the women, shown vividly during this collective speculation on the “rape fantasy” topic, which realizes Estelle’s character to the audience. Of all the women at the table, only Estelle tosses out obnoxious humor, and it is the reaction to this obnoxiousness that unifies the group and identifies Estelle: they’re thinking of her the same way she’s thinking of them, but with better reason to do so. Her next story begins the same way as the first. This time she describes the rapist. She makes you believe that all rapists are lonely depressed guys who feel that their last resort in getting “some” is to rape a female. So being the kind hearted victim that she is she advised him that he got a makeover he wouldn’t have to go around raping everyone. All of Estelle’s stories end with her helping out the rapist or getting out of being raped. To me that is what a rape fantasy should be. It starts off as a unpleasant scenario but plays out to be a good ending. Fantasies are desires and wants no one wants to be raped and in a fantasy. In a rape fantasy the out come is that you don’t get raped. In Margaret Atwood’s 1977 short story “ Rape Fantasies,” the narrative situation is revealed through the narrator’s sarcastic, ironic, and ultimately sincere style of speaking. Estelle is above such criticism only because she can relate to her own feelings, and she is ready to trivialize and criticize the other characters because she believes she cannot relate to them, considering mostly their flaws.Estelle ponders another of her fantasies: She is walking down a dark street when a short, unattractive man covered in pimples rushes her and pins her to a wall. As he attempts to rape her, however, his zipper won’t open and he begins to weep in frustration. Estelle feels sorry for him. No longer is it a wonder how simple statements that don’t involve Estelle can all of the sudden lead to fiercely critical thoughts about her fellow bridge players; Estelle rarely stays to the point, and shifts from one thought to the next to keep herself from becoming too serious. She makes light of all of the possible rape scenarios in which she can imagine herself being involved; and she cannot, ironically, be too critical of theoretical rapists. To her rapists she is sympathetic, and her rapists are always receptive to this sympathy. El interior desprendía ese olor dulce y tristón de las tiendas en las que se vende de todo, mezcla del aroma de los cucuruchos de helado, las galletas Oreo, los caramelos duros y las barritas de regaliz que se exponían en el mostrador, y eso otro olor, almizcleño y penetrante, a sudor y a rancio.

The idea that the perfect woman, or the Virgin Mary, gave birth to a child while remaining a virgin presents woman with the same kind of paradoxical model as having rape fantasies, the similarity being that a woman can no more find a happy, exciting, pleasant rape than she can get pregnant and still be a virgin. As Estelle says, ‘Listen,’ I said, ‘those aren’t RAPE fantasies. I mean, you aren‘t getting RAPED, it ‘s just some guy you haven’t met formally who happens to be more attractive than Derek Cummins,… and you have a good time. Rape is when they’ve got a knife or something and you don’t want to’ (32). Rămas-bun", îți spun, așteptând privirea ta îngândurată, plină de regret. Ar trebui să-mi întorci spatele și să te îndepărtezi, dincolo de cuferele vechi, după colț, în spălătorie, și să dispari în spatele mașinii de spălat și al uscătorului; însă tu nu te clintești."

Confieso que no soy muy amiga de los libros de cuentos. Incluso de autores que considero mis favoritos, nunca termino conforme del todo con la lectura. Por lo mismo, no me atrevería a decir que Chicas bailarinas me gustó cabalmente. She sees their frustrations and their reasons for acting the way they do: “I feel so sorry for him, in my rape fantasies I always end up feeling sorry for the guy.” This sense of understanding is never once present for the women at the bridge table, where no one is trying to rape Estelle, but where everyone is burdened by the limits of Estelle’s perception of reality. The late introduction of Estelle’s location during the telling of the story–a singles bar–emphasizes the character elements that have been introduced throughout.

My giving away the story’s surprises won’t spoil the story for those who have yet to read it. I believe that this brief appreciation of the surprises will prove an enticement. Truly, you could read Atwood’s tour de force dozens of times and continue to find pleasure in its inventiveness and Atwood’s astonishing knowledge of the human heart (also, if you happen to be a writer, you’ll gain much from studying its valuable lessons in the art of surprise). Her disregard for dreadful concepts and her ability to make light of serious situations are the very character qualities that make believable her carelessness in the end. La tematica è la vita, in ogni sua sfaccettatura: amore, nascita, morte, follia, paure, solitudine. L'ambientazione è quasi sempre grigia, sporca, sciatta, fredda. I desideri, una volta soddisfatti, sono niente, le relazioni sono tutte segnate dall'incomprensione e dall'insoddisfazione. In un mondo in cui la comunicazione si fa sempre più di aut aut e slogan (bianco o nero, giusto o sbagliato, buono e cattivo), le sfumature di ombre e i toni sempre sovrapposti della sua narrazione è sempre accattivante. Però in alcuni casi, almeno per questi racconti, l'effetto mi è parso un po' strascicato. Kui kunagi arvasin, et mulle ei meeldi lühijutte lugeda, siis pean oma arvamust korrigeerima. Tegelikult naudin lühijutte ja novelle väga - enne magamajäämist paras üks lugemisamps võtta. :)En cuanto a Fred, ha dejado de intrigarme. Os Freds de este mundo se delatan por lo que hacen y por lo que eligen. Son las Bettys las que resultan misteriosas. Analyzes how estelle scolds her co-workers for their romanticized view of rape. she portrays them as fitting the stereotype depicted in the magazine. In the story the women reveal to the readers more about themselves than the narrator, Estelle, tells us.