Chapter 64: The Ashtray – Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens in the present day with Iris visiting her doctor, accompanied by Myra. The doctor teases her about insomnia; Iris deflects his questions with sardonic inner commentary. Back home, she recalls an episode from April 1936. The headmistress of St. Cecelia’s school has summoned her about Laura’s behaviour. Iris, dressed in formidable clothes, learns that Laura wrote an essay questioning whether God lies, citing 1 Kings 22 as evidence. The headmistress finds Laura disruptive, especially because the other students view her as funny, odd, or a Bolshevik. Worse, Laura forged Iris’s signature on letters to excuse herself from school. Confronted privately, Laura admits the forgery but claims she was only “borrowing” Iris’s handwriting. She reveals she skipped school to walk around the city, occasionally spotting Iris shopping. Iris feels a pang of panic but says nothing to Richard. That May, the family – including Winifred – crosses the Atlantic on the Queen Mary’s maiden voyage. Richard is a minor figure on the grand ship and grows disgruntled. Laura stays apart, reading in her cabin, and tells Iris she does not need to be taken care of anymore. The chapter ends with the ship docking in New York; passengers steal monogrammed souvenirs, and Iris takes an ashtray.
Key Events
- Iris’s present-day doctor’s visit and her frank denial of stress.
- Laura’s expulsion from St. Cecelia’s for writing “Does God Lie?” and forging excuse notes.
- Iris confronts Laura about the forged letters; Laura admits the deception but defends her need for freedom.
- The family travels on the Queen Mary’s maiden voyage; Richard’s reduced status irritates him.
- Laura rebuffs Iris’s concern, insisting she is not sick and that Iris is “off the hook” for any promise to their parents.
- The ship docks and passengers steal souvenirs; Iris takes an ashtray, giving the chapter its title.
Character Development
Iris continues to navigate her dual role as caregiver and sibling. Her confidence has grown since earlier years; she dresses to intimidate the headmistress and manages Richard’s reaction by hiding the forgery. Yet inwardly she still feels shame (she is “sometimes ashamed of myself”) and a lingering panic about Laura’s whereabouts. The ashtray she steals becomes a concrete symbol of her own need to hold onto proof of an experience.
Laura is shown as intellectually bold (her essay on God’s deception) and secretly defiant (forging letters, wandering the city). She rejects Iris’s protective fussing and asserts independence: “I absolve you. You’re off the hook.” This moment deepens the emotional distance between the sisters.
Richard is briefly amused by Laura’s rebelliousness, seeing it as “backbone,” but on the ship his vanity is wounded by his lack of prestige. He uses Iris as a dance partner for business contacts and disappears for long stretches.
Winifred appears as a social climber who is snubbed onboard, reduced to a “small potato.” Her earlier instructions – never do anything too well – still echo in Iris’s mind.
Myra (present day) hovers over Iris with well-meaning advice about cabbage and stress, but Iris drives her away with crude humor.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Deception and truth: The chapter is saturated with questions of falsehood – Laura’s forged letters, Iris’s lie about coffee, the doctor’s jocular evasion, Laura’s essay on divine deceit. Even the souvenirs are a kind of theft of authenticity: “now becomes then even while it is still now.”
Memory and the unreliability of records: Iris narrates from old age, and her hand “has taken on a life of its own.” The ashtray she takes is a physical reminder of a moment she can only reconstruct imperfectly.
Power and control: Iris wields class and money to intimidate the headmistress; Richard tries to control Iris’s social interactions; Laura escapes surveillance by forging letters and disappearing. The ship’s hierarchy mirrors the power struggles at home.
Sisterly bonds and guilt: Iris still feels bound by her promise to their parents. Laura’s release of her – “I absolve you” – does not free Iris from her own guilt or watchfulness. The chapter’s framing (Iris’s present-day insomnia) suggests the past continues to disturb her sleep.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 64 is a turning point in Iris’s retrospective self-understanding. It shows how Laura’s intellectual independence and secretive behaviour pushed the sisters apart, even as Iris tried to protect her. The forged letters and the Queen Mary voyage set the stage for events that will reverberate through the rest of the novel. The title “The Ashtray” – a trivial stolen object – encapsulates Atwood’s theme of how we try to pin down memory with material proof, and how unreliable those keepsakes are. The present-day scenes with Myra and the doctor ground the past in Iris’s unquiet old age, reinforcing the novel’s meditation on aging, regret, and the stories we tell ourselves.
Study Questions
1. Why does Laura forge Iris’s signature, and what does her explanation reveal about their relationship?
Laura forges the letters to skip school because she feels the school is not serious and she needs freedom to think. When caught, she dismisses it as “borrowing” and says she didn’t think Iris would mind. This shows Laura’s assumption that Iris’s identity is porous – she can borrow it just as she borrows handwriting. It also exposes the imbalance: Laura sees Iris as someone who will forgive, while Iris sees the forgery as a violation of trust akin to theft.
2. How does the Queen Mary voyage expose the power dynamics within the Griffin family?
On the ship, Richard is no longer a big fish; his influence doesn’t translate, and he grows short-tempered. He uses Iris as a social asset while disappearing for hours. Winifred is snubbed by wealthier passengers. Laura retreats into reading, refusing to participate. Iris becomes more aware of these cracks in Richard’s authority, and her own role as a managed spouse. The looting of souvenirs also mirrors their grasping for status.
3. What does the stolen ashtray come to represent for Iris?
Iris steals the ashtray alongside other passengers who take anything monogrammed. She calls it “proof” of being there, but then reflects that souvenir-hunting confuses now and then. The ashtray becomes a symbol of Iris’s need to own tangible evidence of her experiences, even as memory itself is slippery. In the present-day frame, the ashtray may be one of the physical objects that anchors her story, though its significance is overdetermined.