If you haven’t heard of the award-winning drama The Handmaid’s Tale, you’re missing out! This binge-worthy Hulu series captured the imagination of people all over the world with feminist messages and its expansion on the original Margaret Atwood plot. Based on a dystopian world where women are basically property, the show has uncomfortable parallels with current events, and has done a lot to bring awareness to women’s rights.
There’s one unforgettable quote from the book which made its way onto the show: “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.” Its enduring power is seen in the sheer number of women who get tattoos of this sentence. But what does it mean? Where did it come from? We’ll fill you in with our detailed analysis of this memorable line.
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What Does ‘Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum’ Mean?
According to the book, ‘nolite te bastardes carborundorum’, translated from Latin to English, meant ‘don’t let the bastards grind you down’. But Margaret Atwood said herself that this translation and the quote itself were completely made up.
The proper pronunciation for this sentence is ‘no-lee-tay teh bas-tar-dehs car-boh-run-doh-room’. This was actually just composed of several Latin words strung together. Atwood attributes this made-up quote to an old joke back in her school days.
Broken down, the word ‘nolite’ means ‘don’t’ in Latin, and ‘te’ means ‘you’. But ‘bastardes’ and ‘carborundorum’ don’t have any English translation, because they were made up. ‘Carborundorum’ sounds pretty Latin, like ‘memoriam’ and ‘decorum’, but it’s not a real word!
The closest translation of ’carborundorum’ comes from the Oxford English Dictionary, which says that carborundorum was an abrasive industrial product. That may be where the meaning of grinding something or someone down comes from!
What Is This Quote’s Significance To The Plot Of The Handmaid’s Tale?
The Handmaid’s Tale’s heroine, Offred, first encounters the quote scratched on the floor of her closet. Because Offred doesn’t understand Latin, she asks Commander Waterford what the phrase means. He explained it as a funny line made up by defiant schoolboys learning Latin, a nonsense sentence that meant ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down.’
It’s just a silly joke to the Commander, but to Offred, it is a message that tells her to hold on. The Handmaids of Gilead are the few fertile women left in a world where birth rates are declining. They are trapped in an oppressive system which forces them to try to bear children with the Commanders, who are the high-ranking officers of Gilead’s society. With very little to live for, this bit of Latin nonsense gives Offred the courage to continue.
While the book leaves her fate unknown, in the show, Offred wakes up from her fear and learns to resist the repression and violence of Gilead. This quote is instrumental in awakening her determination to survive, and we see its consequences resonate in subsequent episodes.
Why Is It So Meaningful? Does The Book Or Show Have Other Great Quotes?
While there are other incredible quotes from The Handmaid’s Tale, few have become as iconic as ‘nolite te bastardes carborundorum’. Women’s rights movements and feminists have adopted it as a rallying cry to fight injustice. Whether it’s someone who’s tired of being seen as an object, or a woman who’s sick of sexism, many women see similarities to the Handmaids’ struggle to their own.
From mugs to shirts, this literary quote has become part of pop culture. The Handmaid’s Tale has more memorable lines. While they’re not as well-known as the Nolite one, we think they’re just as quotable! Here are a few:
- “Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse, for some.”
- “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.”
- “But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.”
Read Or Watch The Handmaid’s Tale For More Incredible Dialogue
The Handmaid’s Tale was written by Margaret Atwood over 30 years ago, but its dystopian society still haunts our imagination. Though ‘nolite te bastardes carborundorum’ isn’t a real Latin sentence, it’s created a movement of rebellion and empowerment.
This modern literary classic is full of other quotable gems. While the show has largely stayed faithful to its plot, Season 2 and 3 have gone beyond it to show what happens to Offred and how she changes in Gilead. Check out a few episodes and you’ll see for yourself why the quote and book have experienced a resurgence in popularity!
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