The Handmaid's Tale

novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ during the 1980s, a time when women were struggling to gain independence and identity due to social and religious expectations. This dystopian fiction is set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States. Atwood has implemented many themes and motifs throughout her work on this novel which are all a part of building up the ‘bigger picture’ or message that she is trying to convey throughout this text about female struggle. Her style of language used and symbolism is evidence that this is a text written with ideas/opinions hidden behind it and the audience’s job is to slowly unwind the tale and look at the subliminal messages underneath which show the authorial intent behind this tale. Atwood gives biblical precedent for the several…

Texts studied in tandem may share common ideas, values and concerns, whilst the paradigms of their individual context shape representation and meaning. A comparison of texts allows for a deeper understanding of the social and cultural commentary offered by their creators. The speculative fiction text The Handmaid’s Tale(1985) written by Margaret Atwood incorporates the 1980s context of different cultural and political ideologies, whilst the revolutionary biotechnology of the 1990s moulds the…

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood recounts the establishment of a theological state, Gilead, in place of the United States of America. Gilead uses the Bible to justify a misogynistic, hierarchical and racist society. Offred, the narrator, is a woman forced to become the “Handmaid” of a Gileadean Commander, Fred. Handmaids are supposedly a position of honour for fertile women; in reality, they are sex slaves, allowing only the leaders of Gilead to reproduce. In the novel, education is…

Rhetorical devices such as diction, satire, and sarcasm are heavily scattered throughout the Handmaid’s Tale, however, the paramount device present in the book the extreme use of symbolism. Margaret Atwood has made most everything in the story, whether on purpose or happy accident, into a symbol for some item of the past. In the story, the narrator, Offred, spends her life in a civilization known as The Republic of Gilead. While there, she discusses the trials and tribulations of all women to…

The Handmaid’s Tale lays out a future dystopic world where a ¬¬new elite has come to power on the ostensible basis of religion. The story follows a young woman and her struggle to deal with the society built around her and her soci¬¬¬al position within it. This struggle provides a new insight when examined through a Marxian lens, with an emphasis on the theories of Gramsci and Althusser, by providing illumination on the novel’s existing political hierarchy and the basis for the struggle itself. …

The Treatment of Sexuality in The Handmaid’s Tale The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, presents the story of Offred, a handmaid in the oppressive Gilead, a heavily theocratic nation that emerged from the downfall of the United States. This society that Atwood creates, built simultaneously on religious fanaticism and desperation to reproduce due to rapidly declining fertility rates, paints a chilling picture where women are completely at the mercy of men, as well as…

of government and dictatorship. Throughout history, the white men have segregated several ethical groups by stripping them of their individualism and autonomy. In order to achieve this totalitarianism, these men are willing to do anything necessary in order to achieve their goals. Just like how the aboriginal’s lost their independence by the early settlers, the proletariats in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale have lost their individualism by the power-hungry aristocrats that control the…

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” (Atwood 52), was written in a cabinet in Offred’s room from a woman that lived there before her. It means do not let the bastards grind you down. Whether it is a friend, parent, teacher, or even a stranger never let anyone discourage you from achieving a dream or goal. When reading The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood through a biographical lens, the connection between the author and the text is eminently clear. The connection between Margaret Atwood…

The Struggle of Women In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the women in Gilead appear to have diminished rights and a limited amount of freedom. These women have lives that resemble a lifestyle similar to the women who lived prior to women’s suffrage, even though this novel takes place in a futuristic time. Some of these women, like Offred, remember the past and long for a time when they can be free again. However, for many of the women, they will never understand what it is…

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood We all believe oppression is thing of the past, right? What if it isn’t? What if oppression was a thing in our future too? In the story “ The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, a futuristic story about a dystopian society that oppresses women and treats them as property, years after women had been finally equal in society. In this society women are not allowed to read, so all signs are turned into pictures, women also cannot leave the house more than…