After I finished the first paragraph of Atwood’s “Revenant” I began to wonder if my fever and flu symptoms were getting the best of me. But after a second read, I realized it was just that strange. With all of the breasts and “sexually receptive chickens” and pillows, I really wasn’t sure what to make of it. When I was done with the story, I went back to read the introductory paragraph and was no less confused. However, it became clear that this was some sort of flashback…much like Constance’s glimpses of the past.

We briefly discussed looking at Atwood’s stories through a feminist lens after reading “Alphinland,” and here it seems incredibly clear. Atwood’s men, thus far, have been depicted as pigs, sex-obsessed, abusive in one way or another. Gavin is no exception, even in his old age. But other than the male depicted as domineering and difficult to like, there were a number of other themes that seemed to resonate. Gavin imagines a former wife, Constance, trapped in the eye of a snowstorm. It took me until this moment to realize that this is the same Constance from “Alphinland” and the same Gavin she keeps locked in a mythical cellar and visits occasionally. The subtlety of Atwood’s interweaving of these stories genuinely surprised me. I had no clue these were the same characters when they so clearly were. But why would Gavin be any different from the man Constance has already explained to us? The arrogant poet who can hardly stop thinking about “buns” long enough to focus on his nurse-like wife, or Naveena, the girl who would rather talk about his work than her shoes. He is a frustrating character and meeting him again after we’ve seen him through Constance’s pained eyes makes him even less sympathetic.

Before I started to read, I wanted to be sure I understood the definition of “revenant.” It is defined as: “a person who has returned, especially supposedly from the dead.” At first, it seemed to be a reference to the strange play inside Richard the Third’s skull — Richard’s unconscious being the revenant? But then, in the last few pages, Gavin falls and begins to fade. I don’t get the sense that he’s returning to Earth, but he returns to Constance, wherever she awaits him.