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.