The Circle Game

“The Circle Game” has characteristics reminiscent of 18th-century Gothic literature. A sense of dread is pervasive, as the children’s game—at both the beginning and the end of the poem—has “no joy in it” (Lines 22 & 259). In section ii, Atwood places the couple in a room next to another one with unidentified “arguing, opening and closing drawers” (Line 57), reminiscent of a haunted house or castle of Gothic novels with a mood of suspense: Anything can happen, and it probably will not be positive. Atwood repeats this eerie line at the end of the section, suggesting the outside forces, real or imagined, that disconnect the couple: “[T]here is someone in the next room / there is always […] / someone in the next room” (Lines 67-71). Gothic works often have a clear moral closure, which Atwood incorporates in this poem: “I want the circle / broken” (Lines 294-295).

There is nothing in the poem itself to solidly suggest the gender of the speaker—but if the reader assumes (as readers tend to do) that the first-person speaker is a creative, semi-direct expression of the poet herself, then the speaker could be a feminine figure. Alternatively, the poem can be read in context of Atwood’s oeuvre, the protagonists of which are usually women burdened by societal strictures and systems. Such a reading would associate the poem’s speaker with a female protagonist, suggesting a variation on the Gothic heroine in distress: a heroine in constant philosophical distress. This speaker is confined to a certain way of being, traditions of play that continue through time, but they find the power to speak her mind about the need for change at the end: “I want to break / these bones, your prisoning rhythms” (Lines 285-286). This, too, aligns with Atwood’s other protagonists, who often must somehow reconstruct themselves to overcome or change an oppressive system.