Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Blind Assassin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling, Narrative, and Truth
Doomed Love
Oppression vs. Resistance
Violence and Death
Emulation, Repetition, and Identity
Summary
Analysis
Myra brings Iris a new, healthy breakfast cereal to eat, and because of this, Iris makes an effort to sit at the table and use a napkin while eating. She knows that it is easy to let your behavior slip when living alone. Myra also does Iris’s laundry, but she’s been thinking about hiring another woman to do these tasks, as her back is getting bad. Iris is resistant to his prospect as she doesn’t want a stranger involved in her life. As a result, that Sunday Iris decides to do her laundry herself to prove to Myra that she still can.
This passage helps explain Iris’s ambivalent attitude toward Myra. While she clearly finds Myra somewhat annoying and intrusive, she also perceives her as familiar (and indeed on some level family), which means that she doesn’t mind Myra being involved in her life.
Themes
However, while Iris is walking down the stairs to the cellar, she immediately realizes she is making a mistake. She perceives the ground at the bottom of the stairs as a dark pool of water and hears a “gurgling sound.” She turns around and flees as quickly as possible. She makes herself a cup of tea and longs for Reenie. However, without Reenie there, Iris has resolved to take care of both herself and Laura, just like she promised she would many years ago. She returns to telling her story, going back in time to the spring of 1936 when the Spanish Civil War had begun.
Iris’s longstanding resolve to take care of herself and Laura is interesting, considering the reader knows at this point that Laura is long dead. However, one of the ideas conveyed in the novel is that it is possible—and indeed important—to take care of people even after they are dead, in part by preserving and honoring their memory.
Themes
Laura is living with Iris and Richard, though she avoids them as much as possible. Laura has stopped being rude to Richard’s face, but she leaves any room he enters. At breakfast, Richard reads the newspaper and comments on how Hitler was a “smart fellow.” Iris makes a sound of agreement, but she isn’t really listening. At this point, Winifred thinks Iris is a harmless fool. Years later, Winifred tells Iris, “I used to think you were stupid, but really you’re evil.” During this conversation, Iris will claim that Richard was the one to burn down the button factory, while Winifred will accuse Laura and Iris of killing him.
The way Iris behaves in this passage may decrease the sympathy the reader has for her, and diminish the sense that she should be pitied in the context of her marriage to Richard. Clearly Richard harbors abhorrent views, particularly his admiration of Nazism. Yet rather than challenging these views or even really hearing them, Iris retreats into a world of her own. While it’s true that she has little power over Richard, her behavior could still be seen as a form of complicity with his politics.
Themes
Back in 1936, however, Winifred still treats Iris as her “protégée.” Lately, people have been asking Iris when Richard is going to make his “big announcement” related to his political career, but Iris has no idea. By this point, she and Richard have sunk into a routine of living two almost entirely separate lives. Increasingly, Richard leaves bruises on Iris’s skin, though never on her arms to make sure it doesn’t harm his political career.
Iris manages to achieve a degree of peace and respite due to the chasm between her life and Richard’s. However, his physical abuse of her suggests that she will never be totally free of his power. The woman in The Blind Assassin also has bruises on her skin, which is a second clue that the woman may be based on Iris rather than Laura.
Themes
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In the present day, Myra takes Iris to the doctor, who has a rough manner. Iris complains that she’s dreaming too much that it’s interrupting her sleep, and the doctor replies that “a bad conscience” must be to blame, although it is clear that he is joking. In April 1936, Richard and Iris receive a phone call from the headmistress at St. Cecilia’s complaining about Laura’s behavior. Richard is busy with business, so Iris goes to the school to meet with the headmistress herself. The headmistress explains that the school has been trying their best, but that they now have no choice but to expel Laura. During Religion, the only subject in which Laura is remotely engaged, she’s been pointing out logical flaws and inconsistencies in the Bible and demanding answers.
Due to the fact that the conventional familial relationships in the novel are largely corrupted or destroyed, many of the characters take on surrogate familial roles for each other. At times, Reenie behaves as Iris and Laura’s surrogate mother, whereas in this passage Iris takes on the role of Laura’s parent. The most disturbing of the surrogate relations are the moments when Richard and Winifred assume a kind of parental role over Iris, limiting her agency as though she is a child rather than an adult woman.
Themes
Iris defends Laura, saying that Laura is just curious. However, the headmistress says that Laura has been scaring some of the other girls, who think that she’s mentally unstable or a Bolshevik, and she has too much of an influence over others. The headmistress also mentions Laura’s health problems, and at this point it became clear that Laura has been forging Iris’s signature in order to excuse herself for fake doctor’s appointments. At this point, Iris gets up to leave, saying she’ll speak to Laura. To Iris’s surprise, Richard isn’t angry about this news. Instead, he seems entertained and even impressed. Later, Iris confronts Laura, and Laura explains that she never wanted to go to St. Cecilia’s.
Part of what makes Laura such an enigmatic character is that she is so full of contradictions: she is devoutly religious yet gets in trouble for questioning God, and she’s simultaneously shunned by other people yet manages to influence her fellow students at St. Cecilia’s. These conflicting qualities mean that the other characters in the novel don’t understand her, and the reader might experience similar feelings of confusion.
Themes
In May, Iris, Laura, Richard, and Winifred go to England, returning on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary. The ship is celebrated as the very epitome of luxury, but Richard doesn’t enjoy himself. Used to being a big fish in a small pond, he now finds that he’s insignificant in comparison to the kind of people aboard. Winifred has similar problems. Laura, meanwhile, spends her evenings reading in her cabin, as she’s too young to dance with everyone else. One morning, Laura and Iris spot a “brawny” woman who seems to be a professional dog-walker aboard the ship and Laura expresses a desire to become a dog-walker herself.
This passage contains a useful example of how Laura is the total opposite of Richard and Winifred. In true capitalist fashion, Richard and Winifred are not satisfied with their significant wealth and power but instead grow resentful because there are other people who are even more wealthy and powerful than them. Laura, meanwhile, craves an ordinary, humble job far more than the life of luxury that’s been presented to her.
Themes
Iris asks Laura if she’s okay, but Laura brushes her off. When Iris mentions that she promised their parents that she would take care of Laura, Laura replied that she “absolve[s]” Iris of this task. After Laura changes the subject, Iris doesn’t think about it much again. Aside from this conversation, the thing Iris most remembers about the Queen Mary is how everything is monogrammed—the guests stole everything they could as souvenirs.
Laura seems dismissive and even resentful of the idea that Iris feels a responsibility to take care of her. Although it is not explicitly clear why, it could be that Laura believes Iris has already failed in this task and thus might as well give up.
Themes
In the present day, Iris takes one of the sleeping pills prescribed by the doctor; it helps her get to sleep but doesn’t stop her from dreaming. She has a frightening nightmare about Laura, who in the dream is an old woman but still has a child’s voice. Back in the past, Iris and her family disembark the Queen Mary in New York and stay there for a few days. Richard has business and suggests the women go sightseeing, but Laura doesn’t want to. They then go to Toronto for a few weeks, followed by Avilion. Lately, Iris has been noticing that Richard seems intrigued by Laura and that he wants to figure her out. She notices Richard staring at Laura and she believes he’s imagining himself finally gaining control over her.
Given Richard’s physical abuse of Iris, it’s possible that his interest in Laura is more sinister than what Iris assumes. The fact that it never occurs to Iris that Richard’s fixation on Laura could be sexual is evidence of her naïveté. Yet the question remains: can she be blamed for this ignorance, or does the very fact that she is too innocent to perceive Richard’s predatory behavior mean that she shouldn’t be blamed? It is a difficult question, one that Atwood largely leaves the reader to judge for themselves.
Themes
Laura is not particularly excited about the prospect of going to Avilion, but she does look forward to seeing Reenie—until Richard informs her that Reenie has been dismissed. When they get to Avilion, Winifred walks around the house complaining about the dust while Richard goes to inspect Norval’s old boat, the Water Nixie. After Winifred goes off to nap, Laura tells Iris that Reenie yelled at Callie at Norval’s funeral, chastising her for not coming earlier while Norval was dying. Laura recalls the Christmas when Norval dressed up as Santa Claus, just before Liliana died. Iris argues that this was an example of Norval trying his best to be a good father, but Laura says she hated it. She explains that she thought the Santa Claus outfit was Norval’s true self and that all the rest of the time he’d been “pretending.”
Laura’s strange interpretation of Norval dressing up as Santa Claus emphasizes the fact that she has a unique way of comprehending the world around her. While to most other people (including young children) it would be obvious that Norval was dressing up for fun, Laura’s conviction that the Santa Claus outfit was Norval’s true self conveys her strangely literal and somewhat paranoid way of processing her surroundings.
Themes
Presently, Iris is awoken by the sound of Myra arriving at her house. She has brought the Portuguese woman who will henceforth be working as Iris’s cleaner. Iris wonders if Myra is her guardian angel or “a foretaste of Purgatory.” Returning to the story, Iris recalls that she and Laura went to see Reenie on their second day at Avilion. She was now working three days a week at Betty’s Luncheonette in town. Iris and Laura bring a teddy bear for Reenie’s baby. As soon as Reenie opens the door to her small cottage, Laura starts crying. The cottage is shabby but has been decorated with care. Reenie brings the girls in to see her baby, Myra.
Iris’s resentment of Myra again may decrease the sympathy the reader has for her. While it is clear why Iris might find Myra somewhat irritating, it also seems that Myra is genuinely trying to take care of Iris and make her life easier. Furthermore, the flashback scene featured in this passage emphasizes that, because Reenie was a kind of surrogate mother to Iris, there is an extent to which Myra is a kind of sister figure to Iris. Yet rather than loving Myra, Iris pities herself for having to endure her presence.
Themes
In an aside, Iris addresses Myra directly. She admits that there have been times when she has wondered if Norval was Myra’s father, not Ron, which would make Myra the half-sister of Iris and Laura. Back in the past, the rest of Iris’s stay at Avilion is hot and uncomfortable. She passes the time leafing through scrapbooks or old magazines. Laura, on the other hand, spends all her time outside. Richard works on the Water Nixie, determined to get it functioning again. One day at lunch, Richard looks at the newspaper and announces the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Laura is once again not eating, instead going to the sea with only a cup of coffee. Richard comments that the war could provide a useful boost to the economy.
Iris’s surprising speculation that Norval may be Myra’s father appears without much context, and there are no other points in the novel in which there is evidence of a sexual relationship between Norval and Reenie. Perhaps rather than truly thinking that Norval and Reenie had sex, Iris does feel on some level that Myra is her sister due to the fact that Reenie is a kind of surrogate mother figure to her. At the same time, uncertainty surrounding the paternity of a baby foreshadows important events later in the novel.
Themes
Winifred mentions that Callie was recently arrested during a roundup at “a pinko party.” She called, trying to get through to Iris, and Richard ended up bailing her out. Richard ignores this statement. Feeling uncomfortable, Iris announces that she’s going to join Laura by the water, but Richard tells her to stay put so as not to “encourage” Laura. Shortly before they leave Avilion, Iris goes up to the attic and found Laura already there, surrounded by the Chase family’s old belongings. Laura explains to Iris that she’s saving them so that Winifred and Richard can’t throw them away. She shows Iris some of Alex’s old notebooks, though she doesn’t mention him by name.
The detail that Richard bailed out Callie should signal alarm bells in the reader’s mind, as it a totally out-of-character act that is not properly explained. Richard hates communists (“pinko” was a derogatory term for communists and communist sympathizers) and believes that the state should harshly punish anyone related to the movement. Given this, the fact that he chooses to bail out Callie, whom he supposedly doesn’t even know well, suggests that Richard may somehow be using Callie to get to Alex.
Themes
Suddenly, Laura brings up Mr. Erskine and recalls that Iris never believed her, although Reenie did. Laura wonders if he’s dead or if anyone has caught him yet. The day before the family is due to leave Avilion, Winifred and Iris are sitting together when Winifred points out that Richard successfully managed to get the Water Nixie to sail and that he and Laura are now out on it together. Iris is puzzled. She’s noticed that Richard and Laura’s behavior has reversed: now it is him who leaves the room whenever she enters it.
Again, Richard’s bizarre behavior surrounding Laura, in combination with his abusive tendencies, suggests that he is perhaps having an inappropriate relationship with Laura. In particular, the unexpected occurrence of Laura and Richard on the boat together is very important. When Richard dies, his body is found in this same boat on the same body of water. This suggests that the boat comes to be significant for him and that this significance may have something to do with the day he spends sailing with Laura.
Themes
In the present, Iris addresses the reader directly. She admits that what she’s written thus far is wrong—not because of what she’s included, but because of what she’s left out. The previous night, Iris believed that she awoke from a dream to the sound of clinking on her window. Looking outside, she saw a chestnut tree there, which is odd because there is no chestnut tree outside this house—although there was one outside the house she shared with Richard. She looked out and saw a drunk man stumbling along the street who looked up and waved at her. She wanted to call out to him, but suddenly Richard was there with his hands around her neck. Then Iris actually woke up, her face covered with tears. She realized that the clinking glass sound she heard was being made by two racoons across the street.
Here, Iris meditates on the nature of truth and memory, introducing the idea that what one omits is just as important to the truth of a story as what one includes. In this way, Atwood further characterizes Iris as an unreliable narrator. Meanwhile, Iris appears to be simultaneously haunted by the ghosts of Richard and Norval. It is notable that both her husband and father die of apparent yet unconfirmed suicides. This may be connected to the fact that she feels haunted by them, as if—despite her best efforts—she can’t quite convince herself that she is not partly responsible for their deaths.
Themes
