having a relationship with a woman than the “successful” rapists. Ironically, the men even leave her feeling sorry for their unsuccessful attempts at rape. For example, Estelle mentions one rapist who gets his zipper stuck as he starts to undo himself and begins to cry, at “one of the most significant moments in a girl’s life, it [rape]’s almost like getting married or having a baby or something.” So Estelle dismantles the traditional view of rape and rapists. The rapists in her six fantasies get cancer and colds. Some even have suicidal wishes. They are vulnerable. Estelle might not want to admit it, but she humanizes her rapists, so that he does not have to love in terror. It is her way of imagining control and of having power over them. (Walter, 3)As can be seen in these examples, the serious topic of Atwood’s Rape Fantasies is handled with a good amount of humor, and never do we hear mention of the physical Bloom, 4horror and shock of actual rape. This story does not really examine rape, but the mind and outlook of Estelle. It takes a sensationalist media topic and reorganizes it with the fantasies of the protagonist. We also find this kind of balancing in the main character’s balance of good and bad personality traits.Estelle’s dominant posture is offset by her belief in being nice and thinking that other people are nice too. Wondering if’ squirting lemon juice in a rapist’s eyes could be considered vicious and believing (or hoping) rapists can be deterred by kindness, understanding and sensitivity.Claiming to be honest shows us another aspect of Estelle’s personality exposed to us in the context of her conversation with the other women. Estelle says she is honest when Chrissey can not believe Estelle’s rape fantasy, thinking that she is making a joke out of their serious intimations: ‘I’m being totally honest,’ I say. I a...
