The color red has long since reminded humanity of blood. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the red of the Handmaids’ gowns represents menstrual blood and childbirth, all dealing with their purely reproductive purposes. The red gowns are a constant reminder to Offred and to everyone else that her only function in life is to give birth. As Offred notes early on in the novel, “everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us” (Atwood, 8). In addition to being a symbol of reproduction, the red gowns are a sign of shame and adultery as well. As in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, in which a red letter “A” determines Hester Prynne as a social outcast, the Handmaids’ red gowns set them apart from much of society
