Character Analysis of Estelle in Margaret Atwood’s "rape Fantasies"

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Estelle is the only thoroughly developed character in Margaret

Atwood's "Rape Fantasies." Though she is the narrator and quite thoughtful of

the ideas and reactions of the story's supporting players, it is her almost

obsessive preoccupation with a singular topic that actually prompts her to

fully illustrate her own ideas and reactions, drawing a character far more

compelling than any of the men or women she will attempt to describe. Estelle

begins her story and ruminations swiftly. She considers rape, how rape has

recently been treated like a new scourge, and how essays and tips on rape

prevention have become something of an institution themselves. Estelle

recalls a conversation during a recent bridge game, where "rape fantasies"

was the topic and her lunchmates each offered a feeling about it, from

disgust to confusion to admitted interest in elaborate, particular fantasies.

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 which clearly draws the character of this narrator. 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.

The anecdotes about each of the bridge players indicates the comfort

Estelle finds in gossip, unfair criticism, and the sharing of the particulars

of her own rape fantasies. Estelle tells of a moment when one of the bridge

players, Darlene, seemed to address her directly; Estelle thinks that "I may

have been mistaken but she was looking at me." Without ever giving Darlene

the benefit of the doubt, or even considering the minimal power of such an

insult, Estelle is quick to remind the reader how she believes she has the

upper hand to this older woman: "She's forty-one though you wouldn't know it

and neither does she, but I looked it up in the employee file...I mean, not

everyone has access to that file..." Another player, Greta, pipes up the

slightest opinion, this one having nothing remotely to do with Estelle, and

she is disregarded as frivolous. "She worked in Detroit for three years and

she never lets you forget it, it's like she thinks shes'a war hero or

something..." Estelle puts each of them into what she feels is their place,

and never once looks at herself with the same eye. 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. But it is the clear

similarities between Estelle and the women, shown vividly during this

collective speculation on the "rape fantasy" topic, that 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,