The ballerina who reads Harrison's escape bulletin is
hinted to be the same one who Harrison chooses as his Empress. She is strong and
graceful, more so than any other woman, and her mask is "hideous." Since she has unfair
advantages in her looks, strength, and voice, she is heavily handicapped so nobody will
feel inferior in comparison.
She must have been extraordinarily beautiful,
because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest
and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by
two-hundred pound men.
(Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergeron,"
tnellen.com)
Her voice is
"luminous" and when she (if it is she) removes her handicaps, she is shown to be more
beautiful than anyone. Her handicaps are preventing her from reaching her true
potential, as intended by the handicap laws; nobody can be better than anyone else, and
so her abilities are negated to keep her "average." If she is the same ballerina, then
her true potential was truly extraordinary, because as soon as she removes the handicaps
she is able to fly alongside Harrison.
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