Science for feminists: Margaret Atwood's body of knowledge

Twentieth Century Literature, Winter, 1997 by June Deery

Scientific ideas appear as theme, as metaphor, and as narrative structure in Atwood's works. There is a particular concentration of explicit references to science in Cat's Eye and a more implicit treatment in The Robber Bride. Cat's Eye tells the story of an artist, Elaine Risley, who returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her work and at the same time looks back on her own life, especially her relationship to Cordelia, who bullied Elaine as a child. Much of the science enters the novel through Elaine's brother, Stephen (named after Hawking), who becomes a top physicist before being murdered by terrorists. The Robber Bride follows three characters: Roz, the head of a successful business; Charis, a well-meaning New Age psychic; and Tony, a diminutive history professor whose specialty is war. What they have in common is that each has been manipulated and betrayed by a protean and evil character named Zenia, who they at first think is dead but who returns to cause further pain to this group of friends before finally meeting her end. My discussion will focus on these novels and will highlight both explicit references to science and more latent possibilities for using science to describe women's experiences that Atwood's writing opens up by suggesting that apparently bizarre features of twentieth-century physics are already familiar to many women.

ENERGY-MATTER

In Atwood's writing, matter is pictured as energy; for example, skyscrapers are described as "gravestones of cold light" or "Frozen assets" (Cat's Eye 9), and bodies as "pure energy, solidified light" (Cat's Eye 258). Elaine, the protagonist of Cat's Eye, learned from her scientist brother that "matter and energy are aspects of each other." So "It's as if everything is made of solid light" (235). She has also learned that "matter is not really solid. It's just a bunch of widely spaced atoms moving at greater or lesser speeds" (Cat's Eye 235). This subatomic picture is used by Atwood's heroines to express their everyday fears. Elaine voices her insecurity and lack of support as a fear of "the spaces between the atoms you could fall so easily through" (Cat's Eye 395). In The Robber Bride, when Charis fears she might lose track of Zenia, she speculates that "If you knew enough about matter you could walk through walls" (195). An unsettling prospect.

There are several references in Atwood's writing to the apparent transformation of energy into matter and matter into energy. As an artist, Elaine is seen pouring her energy into her paintings so that they can materialize. "Whatever energy they have came out of me," she notes. "I'm what's left over" (Cat's Eye 431). Elsewhere there are energy transfers among women characters or between these characters and the material word. This is particularly prevalent in The Robber Bride where Charis, for instance, sets out to transfer her "positive" or "good" energy into the ailing Zenia (222, 224). These exchanges often result in a change in physical appearance, usually with an inverse relation between energy and mass. Take the relationship between Elaine and her antagonist, Cordelia, in Cat's Eye. When Cordelia is lethargic, she gains "limp weight," which makes her "bloated and watery," whereas Elaine is trim and energetic (275). When Cordelia is on top of things again, she is thin and attractive, and Elaine is at a disadvantage (31920). In the end, Cordelia is once more a defeated, bloated, and passive lump in a mental institution, with all the energy belonging to Elaine (377).