Particicution definition
Particicution. (p.290) which means a participatory execution. The handmaids are supposed to beat a Guardian to death and Offred states that she felt her hands ‘clench’ (p.290). Offred describes the handmaids’ reaction to the Guardian (p.291): ‘There’s a surge forward, like a crowd at a rock concert in the former time […] the air is bright with adrenaline’. The handmaids transfer their anger and frustration at those in power onto an innocent person. The image of the crowd at a rock concert and the word ‘surge’ suggests that, like Winston, the handmaids do not pause to think before they act and ‘mob-mentality’ takes over as the handmaids respond as if conditioned just as Winston does. Ofglen justifies her barbaric reaction to Offred, however, by claiming that they need to participate because ‘they’re watching’ (p.292) referring to the Wives, daughters, Aunts and Guardians. Even if handmaids do not want to participate, they will do so as they are being watched by each other and those in charge. Through a combination of vertical, lateral and coercive surveillance in the workplaces of all three novels, employees are monitored, controlled and disciplined.