The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency, against a backdrop of the establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state. Sumptuary laws (essentially, dress codes) play a key role in the form of social control in the new society.

Plot

The story is told from the perspective of Offred, a Handmaid. "Offred" is the patronymic which describes her function in the Republic of Gilead. Offred belongs to, or is "of" her Commander, whose first name is Fred. She does not state her "real" name. (In the 1990 film adaptation, Offred gives her real first name as Kate; however, this was not derived from the novel.) In fact, none of the characters in the novel are identified as having surnames, which enhances the atmosphere of other-worldliness.

Related Topics:
Perspective - Patronymic - 1990 - Surnames

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Offred's assignment to the household of the Commander is her third, meaning that if she fails to become pregnant, she will be exported to the colonies as an Unwoman. This assignment differs from her prior experiences in that she is given, in various disjointed episodes, glimpses that all is not as it seems in the new world and that the people in her life, while paying lip service to society's mores, seek various means of expressing their individuality.

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Offred initially becomes aware of this new viewpoint when Fred oversteps the bounds of her official role by ordering her to visit his study late at night to play Scrabble with him. He also obtains forbidden hand lotion for her and allows her to read magazines from the old days — something extremely forbidden as women are no longer allowed to read. Once, he dresses her up in a sexy costume and smuggles her out to a forbidden nightclub called Jezebel's for the night. He asks that she keep these secrets from his Wife, Serena Joy.

Related Topics:
Scrabble - Magazines - Nightclub

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At the same time, Serena Joy is asking Offred to keep secrets from the Commander. In the old days, Serena Joy was a televangelist (loosely based on Tammy Faye Bakker), and she resents her new diminished role. The only thing that can give meaning to her life is a child, and since the Commander is sterile (he has had multiple Handmaids before this one, none of whom have conceived) Serena Joy suggests that Offred attempt to conceive a child with Nick, their male servant.

Related Topics:
Televangelist - Tammy Faye Bakker

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Nick and Offred begin an emotional and sexual relationship which they continue until, in the final chapter, Offred is either caught or smuggled out of the household; however in the ambiguous ending neither is truly made clear and there seems to be no closure as to what becomes of Offred.

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Appendices following the story proper treat Offred's narrative as a historical document, implying an academic setting even farther into the future. In this respect The Handmaid's Tale is similar to Egalia's Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg, or Dune by Frank Herbert, and, to a different degree, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Despite the novel's ambiguity about Offred's fate, the academic appendix implies a "happy ending" for its society in general. When taking the very long view, Atwood seems to be saying "this too shall pass" about the novel's totalitarian society and, by extension, the fundamentalist and fanatical elements in her own time.

Related Topics:
Egalia's Daughters - Gerd Brantenberg - Dune - Frank Herbert - Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

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The Handmaid's Tale is similar in theme to some of Margaret Atwood's other books (such as Oryx and Crake) in its atmosphere of post-apocalyptica. It makes use of many motifs, such as the debate over the separation of church and state, sexual roles in society of both men and women, and ultimately the right to individuality within the confines of an increasingly controlling government.

Related Topics:
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake - Post-apocalyptica - Church

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