The Handmaid's Tale

17/12/2017 The Handmaid's Tale - Wikipedia
The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel[2] by Canadian author Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Atwood.[3][4] The book was originally published in 1985. Set in a near-future
New England, in a totalitarian, Christian theonomy that has overthrown the
United States government.[5] The novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid
Offred. Her name derives from the possessive form "of Fred"; handmaids are
forbidden to use their birth names and must echo the male, or master, for
whom they serve.
The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in subjugation to misogyny in

a patriarchal society and the various means by which these women gain
individualism and independence. The novel's title echoes the component parts
of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected
stories ("The Merchant's Tale", "The Parson's Tale", etc.).[6]
The Handmaid's Tale is structured into two parts, night and other various
events. This novel can be interpreted as a double narrative, Offred's tale and
the Handmaid's tales. The night sections are solely about Offred, and the other
sections (shopping, waiting room, household, etc.) are the stories that describe
the possible life of every Handmaid, though from the perspective of Offred. In
Cover of the first edition
many of these sections, Offred jumps between past and present as she retells
the events leading up to the fall of women's rights and the current details of her Author Margaret Atwood
life which she lives. Cover artist Tad Aronowicz,[1]
design; Gail Geltner,
The Handmaid's Tale won the 1985 Governor General's Award and the first
collage (first edition,
Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987; it was also nominated for the 1986 Nebula
hardback)
Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. The book has
Country Canada
been adapted into a 1990 film, a 2000 opera, a television series, and other
media. Language English
Genre Dystopian novel,
science fiction,
speculative fiction
Contents Publisher McClelland and
Plot summary Stewart
Characters Publication 1985 (hardcover)

Offred date
The Commander Pages 311
Serena Joy
ISBN 0-7710-0813-9
Ofglen
Nick
Moira
Luke
Professor Pieixoto
Setting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale 1/22
Politics
Religion
Caste and class
Gender and occupation
Women
Legitimate women
Illegitimate women
Men
Babies
The Ceremony
Language
Genre classification
Historical context
Critical reception
Feminist reading
Race
Awards
Academic reception
Other use in academia
In other media
Film
Television
Radio
Audio
Stage
See also
Notes
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Plot summary
The Handmaid's Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what
was formerly the United States of America.[5]
Beginning with a staged attack that kills the President and most of Congress, a fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionist
movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the
pretext of restoring order.[7] They quickly remove women's rights, largely attributed to financial records being stored
electronically and labelled by sex. The new regime, the Republic of Gilead, moves quickly to consolidate its power,
including overtaking all pre-existing religious groups, including Christianity, and reorganize society along a new
militarized, hierarchical model of Old Testament-inspired social and religious fanaticism among its newly created social
classes. In this society, human rights are severely limited and women's rights are strictly curtailed. For example, women
are forbidden to read, and anyone caught in homosexual acts would be hanged for "Gender Treachery."
The story is told in the first person by a woman called Offred. The character is one of a class of women kept for
reproductive purposes and known as "handmaids" by the ruling class in an era of declining births due to sterility from
pollution and sexually transmitted diseases. Offred describes her life during her third assignment as a handmaid, in this
case to Fred (referred to as "The Commander"). Interspersed in flashbacks are portions of her life from before and during
the beginning of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, their failed escape attempt to
Canada, and finally her indoctrination into life as a handmaid by government-trained women called the Aunts.
Offred describes the structure of Gilead's society, including the different classes of women and their lives in the new
theonomy. The women are physically segregated by colour of clothingblue, red, green, striped and white - to signify
social class and assigned position, ranked highest to lowest. The Commanders' wives are dressed in blue, handmaids in
red, Marthas (cooks and maids) in green, and striped is for the lower class women who essentially do everything in the
domestic sphere. Young girls are dressed in white.
The Commander is a high-ranking official in Gilead. Although his contact with Offred is supposed to be limited to "the
ceremony," a ritual of sexual intercourse intended to result in conception and at which his wife is present, he begins an
illegal relationship with Offred. Secret meetings occur in his study, which the Commander's Wife is not permitted to enter.
The room is filled with books and is considered a private place for the man of the house. During these meetings, he tries to
earn her trust by talking and playing board games together, such as Scrabble. This is another offence, as women are not
permitted to read and write. Despite this, the Commander offers her hidden or contraband products, such as old (1970s)
fashion magazines and cosmetics. His last gift is finally lingerie and the Commander takes her to a brothel run by the
government. This brothel is meant to add variety to men's sex lives, as stated is necessary by the Commander. There
Offred meets her long-lost friend, Moira, and learns how Moira ended up there after escaping from the Red Centre (where
the Handmaids are trained). There are several types of women in the brothel, as they are seen to be defiant against the
new system. They are offered the choice of working at Jezebel's or being sent to work in the colonies. They are classified as
UnWomen and clean up radioactive waste, eventually dying from radiation sickness. For the women in the brothels, they
are allowed alcohol and drugs, a freedom Offred notes. Though they are allowed to choose their patrons, they are
discouraged from refusing a man's advances.
The Commander's wife, Serena Joy, is seen as a minor antagonist. Offered remembers her as someone who supported
women's domesticity before the full oppression of women. Though Offred wants a sense of companionship, Serena hates
sharing her husband with a handmaid and makes her feelings very clear. She is a conservative woman who keeps to herself
in a stern and strict fashion. Ironically enough, though, Serena also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her
to sleep with Nick, the Commander's driver, in an effort to get Offred pregnant. In return, Serena Joy gives her news of her
daughter and a recent photo, whom Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.
After Offred's initial meeting with Nick, they begin to meet more frequently. Offred discovers she enjoys sex with Nick,
despite her indoctrination and her memories of her husband. She shares potentially dangerous information about her past
with him. Through Offred's shopping partner, a friend called Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an
underground network working to overthrow the Republic of Gilead. Shortly after Ofglen's disappearance (later revealed as
a suicide), the Commander's wife finds evidence of the relationship between Offred and the Commander. Offred
contemplates suicide.
As the novel concludes, Offred tells Nick that she thinks she is pregnant. Shortly afterwards, she is taken away from the
Waterfords' house by the secret police, the Eyes of God, known informally as "the Eyes". Before she is put in the large
black van, Nick tells her that the men are part of the Mayday resistance and to trust him. Offred does not know if he is a
member of Mayday or an Eye posing as one, and is unsure if leaving will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the
van with her future uncertain.
The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the
beginning of what is called "the Gilead Period." The epilogue is "a partial transcript of the proceedings of the Twelfth
Symposium on Gileadean Studies" written in 2195. According to the symposium's "keynote speaker" Professor Pieixoto, he
and his colleague Professor Knotly Wade discovered Offred's story recorded onto cassette tapes. They transcribed the
tapes, calling them collectively "the handmaid's tale." Through the tone and actions of the professionals in this final
section of the book, the world of academia is highlighted and critiqued, and Pieixoto discusses his team's search for the
characters named in the Tale, and the impossibility of proving the tapes' authenticity.[8]
It is assumed that Offred survived and that the Eyes that collected her were, in fact, part of Mayday as her cassette tapes
contain parts of the story that would have been impossible to tape if she had not escaped. Nevertheless, the epilogue
implies that, following the collapse of the theonomic Republic of Gilead, a more equal societythough not the United
States that previously existedre-emerged, with a restoration of full rights for women and freedom of religion. This is
meant to serve as irony for the reader as the Professor speaks of Offred's troubling tale with little emotion, whereas the
reader feels the utmost sympathy for Offred.
Characters
Offred
Offred is the protagonist and narrator. She was labeled a "wanton woman" when Gilead was established because she had
married a man who was divorced. All divorces were nullified by the new government, meaning her husband was now
considered still married to his first wife, making Offred an adulteress. In trying to escape Gilead, she was separated from
her husband and daughter. She is part of the first generation of Gilead's women, those who remember pre-Gilead times.
Proved fertile, she is considered an important commodity and has been placed as a handmaid in the home of the
Commander Fred and his wife Serena Joy, to bear a child for them (Serena Joy is believed to be infertile).[9]
Offred is a slave name that describes her function: she is "of Fred", i.e. she belongs to Fred, her commander, and is
considered a concubine. In the novel, Offred says that she is not a concubine, but a tool; a "two legged womb". The
Handmaids' names say nothing about who the women really are (Offred Of Fred, Ofglen Of Glen); their only identity is as
the Commander's property. "Offred" is also a pun on the word "offered", as in "offered as a sacrifice," as well as a play on
the words "off-red", referencing the color that handmaids wear and the character's frustrations with her assigned
position.[6]
The women in training to be handmaids whisper names across their beds at night. The names are "Alma. Janine. Dolores.
Moira. June", and all are later accounted for except June. In addition, one of the Aunts tells the handmaids-in-training to
stop "mooning and June-ing".[10] From this and other references, some readers have inferred that her birth name could be
"June."[11] Miner suggests that "June" is a pseudonym. As "Mayday" is the name of the Gilead resistance, June could be an
invention by the protagonist. The Nunavit conference covered in the epilogue takes place in June.[12] When the Hulu TV
series chose to state outright that Offred's real name is June, Atwood wrote that it was not her original intention to imply
that Offred's real name is June "but it fits, so readers are welcome to it if they wish."[6]
The Commander
The Commander says that he is a sort of scientist and was previously involved in something similar to market research,
pre-Gilead. Later, it is hypothesized, but not confirmed, that he might have been one of the architects of the Republic and
its laws. Presumably, his first name is "Fred", though that, too, may be a pseudonym.
He engages in forbidden intellectual pursuits with Offred, such as playing Scrabble, and introduces her to a secret club
that serves as a brothel for high-ranking officers. Offred learns that the Commander carried on a similar relationship with
his previous handmaid and that she killed herself when his wife found out. In the epilogue the academics speculate that
one of two figures, both instrumental in the establishment of Gilead, may have been Fred, based on his first name. It is
strongly suggested that the Commander was a man named Frederick R. Waterford who was killed in a purge shortly after
Offred was taken away, charged with harboring an enemy agent.
Serena Joy
Serena Joy is a former televangelist and the Commander's wife in the fundamentalist theonomy. The state took away her
power and public recognition, and tries to hide her past as a television figure. Offred identifies her master's wife by
recalling seeing her on TV when she was a little girl early on Saturday mornings while waiting for the cartoons to air.
Believed to be sterile (although the suggestion is made that the Commander is sterile, Gileadean laws attribute sterility
only to women), she is forced to accept that he has use of a handmaid. She resents having to take part in the monthly
fertility ritual. She strikes a deal with Offred to arrange for her to have sex with Nick in order to become pregnant.
According to Professor Pieixoto in the epilogue, "Serena Joy" or "Pam" are pseudonyms; the character's real name is
implied to be Thelma.
Ofglen
Ofglen is a neighbour of Offred's and a fellow Handmaid. She is partnered with Offred to do the daily shopping.
Handmaids are never alone and are expected to police each other's behaviour. Ofglen is a member of the Mayday
resistance. In contrast to Offred, she is daring. She knocks out a Mayday spy who is to be tortured and killed in order to
save him the pain of a violent death. Offred is told that when Ofglen vanishes, it is because she has committed suicide
before the government can take her into custody due to her membership in the resistance, possibly to avoid giving away
any information.
A new handmaid, also called Ofglen, takes Ofglen's place, and is assigned as Offred's shopping partner. She threatens
Offred against any thought of resistance. She breaks protocol by telling her what happened to the first Ofglen.
Nick
Nick is the Commander's chauffeur, who lives above the garage. By Serena Joy's arrangement, he and Offred start a sexual
relationship to increase her chance of getting pregnant. If she were unable to bear the Commander a child, she would be
declared sterile and shipped to the ecological wastelands of the Colonies. Offred begins to develop feelings for him. Nick is
an ambiguous character, and Offred does not know if he is a party loyalist or part of the resistance, though he identifies
himself as the former. The epilogue suggests that he really was part of the resistance, and aided Offred in escaping the
Commander's house.
Moira
Moira has been a close friend of Offred's since college. A lesbian, she has resisted the homophobia of Gilead society. Moira
is taken to be a Handmaid soon after Offred. She escapes by stealing an Aunt's pass and clothes, but Offred later finds her
working as a prostitute in a party-run brothel. She was caught and chose the brothel rather than be sent to the Colonies.
Luke
Luke was Offred's husband prior to the formation of Gilead. He had divorced his first wife to marry her. Under Gilead, all
divorces were retroactively nullified, resulting in Offred being considered an adulteress and their daughter a bastard.
Offred was forced to become a Handmaid and her daughter was given to a loyalist family. Since their attempt to escape to
Canada, Offred has heard nothing of Luke.
Professor Pieixoto
Pieixoto is the "co-discoverer [with Professor Knotly Wade] of Offred's tapes". In his presentation at an academic
conference, he talks about "the 'Problems of Authentication in Reference to The Handmaid's Tale' ".[9]
Setting
The novel is set in an indeterminate future, speculated to be around the year 2005,[13] with a fundamentalist theonomy
ruling the territory of what had been the United States but is now the Republic of Gilead. Individuals are segregated by
categories and dressed according to their social functions. The complex sumptuary laws (dress codes) play a key role in
imposing social control within the new society and serve to distinguish people by sex, occupation, and caste.
The action takes place in what once was the Harvard Square neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts;[14][15] Atwood
studied at Radcliffe College, located in this area.
Politics
In Gilead, the bodies of fertile women are politicized and controlled. The North American population is falling as more
men and women become infertile (though in Gilead, legally, it is only women who can be the cause of infertility). Gilead's
treatment of women is based upon a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, meaning that women are the
property of and subordinate to their husband, father, or head of household. They are not allowed to do anything that
would grant them any power independent of this system. They are not allowed to vote, hold a job, read, possess money, or
own anything, among many other restrictions.
A particular quote from The Handmaid's Tale sums this up: "The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds.
Gilead is within you" (HT 5.2). This describes that there is no way around the societal bounds of women in this new state
of government. Handmaids, being not allowed to wed, are given two-year assignments with a commander, and lose their
own name: they are called "Of [their Commander's first name]", such as the novel's protagonist, known only as Offred.
When a handmaid is reassigned, her name changes with her. Their original identities before the revolution are suppressed,
although while being reeducated as handmaids, they surreptitiously share their names with each other.
In this book, the government appears to be strong though "no one in Gilead seems to be a true believer in its revolution"
(Beauchamp). The Commanders, portrayed via Commander Fred, do not agree with their own doctrines. The commander
takes Offred at one point to a brothel in order to have sex with her in an informal setting apart from the Ceremony. The
wives, portrayed via Serena Joy, former television evangelist, disobey the rules set forth by their commander husbands.
Serena smokes black market cigarettes and expresses the forbidden idea that men may be infertile, and schemes to get
Offred impregnated by her chauffeur.
Religion
Bruce Miller, the executive producer of The Handmaid's Tale television serial, declared with regard to Atwood's book, as
well as his series, that Gilead is "a society thats based kind of in a perverse misreading of Old Testament laws and
codes".[16] The author explains that Gilead tries to embody the "utopian idealism" present in 20th-century rgimes, such
as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[17] Both Atwood and Miller stated that the people
running Gilead are "not genuinely Christian".[18][16] The group running Gilead, according to Atwood, is "not really
interested in religion; they're interested in power."[19] In fact, in her prayers to God, June (Offred), reflecting on Gilead,
prays I don't believe for an instant that what's going on out there is what You meant. I suppose I should say I forgive
whoever did this, and whatever theyre doing now. Ill try, but it isnt easy.[20] Margaret Atwood, writing on this, says that
"Offred herself has a private version of the Lord's Prayer and refuses to believe that this regime has been mandated by a
just and merciful God."[21]
Christian churches that do not support the actions of the Sons of Jacob are systematically demolished, and the people
living in Gilead are never seen attending church.[16] Christian denominations, including Quakers, Baptists and Roman
Catholics, as well as Jews, are specifically named as enemies of the Sons of Jacob.[19][16] To this end, the book includes a
scene in which a Catholic Christian nun is "forced to renounce her vow of chastity in order to become a child-bearing
handmaid."[18] Likewise, a Catholic Christian priest was hanged from a bridge for refusing to renounce his faith.[22]
Atwood pits Quaker Christians against the rgime by having them help the oppressed, something she feels they would do
in reality: "The Quakers have gone underground, and are running an escape route to Canada, asI suspectthey
would."[21]
Caste and class

African Americans, the main non-white ethnic group in this society, are called the Children of Ham. A state TV broadcast
mentions they have been relocated en masse to "National Homelands" in the Midwest, which are suggestive of the
Apartheid-era homelands set up by South Africa. Roman Catholics are only briefly mentioned: nuns who refuse
conversion are considered "Unwomen" and banished to the Colonies, owing to their reluctance to marry and refusal (or
inability) to bear children. Priests unwilling to convert are executed and hanged from the Wall. Jews are called Sons of
Jacob, also the name of the fundamentalist group that rules the Republic of Gilead. Offred observes that Jews refusing to
convert are allowed to emigrate to Israel, and most choose to leave. However, in the Epilogue, Professor Pieixoto reveals
that many of the emigrating Jews ended up being dumped into the sea while on the ships ostensibly tasked with
transporting them to Israel, due to privatization of the "repatriation program" and capitalists' effort to maximize profits.
Offred mentions that many Jews who chose to stay were caught secretly practicing Judaism and executed.
Gender and occupation

The sexes are strictly divided. Gilead's society values reproduction by white women most highly. Women are categorised
"hierarchically according to class status and reproductive capacity" as well as "metonymically colour-coded according to
their function and their labour" (Kauffman 232). The Commander expresses the prevailing opinion that women are
considered intellectually and emotionally inferior to men.
Women are segregated by clothing, as are men. With rare exception, men wear military or paramilitary uniforms, which
takes away their individualism as it does the women, but also gives them a sense of bravado and empowerment. All classes
of men and women are defined by the colours they wear (as in Aldous Huxley's dystopian Brave New World), drawing on
colour symbolism and psychology. All lower-status individuals are regulated by this dress code. All non-persons are
banished to the "Colonies" (usually forced-labor camps in which they clean up radioactive waste, becoming exposed and
dying painful deaths as a result). Sterile, unmarried women are considered to be non-persons. Both men and women sent
there wear grey dresses.
Women
Six main categories of "legitimate" women make up mainstream society. Two chief categories of "illegitimate" women live
outside of mainstream society:
Legitimate women
Wives
They are at the top social level permitted to women. They are married
to the higher-ranking functionaries. Wives always wear blue dresses,
suggesting traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary in historic Christian
art. When a Commander dies, his Wife becomes a Widow and must
dress in black.
Daughters
The natural or adopted children of the ruling class. They wear white
until marriage, which is now arranged. The narrator's daughter has
been adopted by an infertile Wife and Commander.
Handmaids
Fertile women whose social function is to bear children for the Wives. The bonnets that
They dress in a red habit that completely conceals their shape, plus red Handmaids wear are
shoes and gloves. They wear white bonnets on their heads to prevent modeled on the Old
their seeing or being seen except when standing directly in front of a
Dutch Cleanser.[6]
person. Handmaids are produced by re-educating fertile women who
have broken the new gender and social laws. Needing fertile
Handmaids, Gilead gradually increased the number of gender crimes.
The Republic of Gilead justifies the use of the handmaids for procreation by biblical stories:
Jacob took his two wives' handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah, to bed to bear him children, when the
wives could not (Gen. 30:13), and Abraham took his wife's handmaid, Hagar (Gen. 16:16).
Handmaids are assigned to Commanders and allowed to live in their houses, but sent back to
Aunts' facilities if a Commander is deployed (and sent back to the Commander's house upon his
return). Handmaids who successfully bear children assist in raising them for a short time and
are then sent away to a new assignment, never to see the child again. Their success as a
Handmaid, however, means they will never be declared an "Unwoman" and sent to the
Colonies, even if they never have another baby.
Aunts
They train and monitor the Handmaids. They promote the role of Handmaid as honorable and
legitimate and a method by which women who have committed crimes can redeem themselves.
They directly control and police women; serving as an Aunt is the only role for some unmarried,
infertile and often older women to have any autonomy. It allows them to avoid going to the
Colonies. Aunts dress in brown. They are the only class of women permitted to read. ("The
Aunts are allowed to read and write." Vintage Books, p. 139. However, on p. 100 of the Vintage
Books edition: "They played it (the Beatitudes) from a disc; the voice was a man's." In the
Anchor Books edition: "They played it (the Beatitudes) from a tape, so not even an Aunt would
be guilty of the sin of reading. The voice was a man's. (p.89.)")
Marthas
They are older infertile women who have domestic skills and are compliant, making them
suitable as servants. They dress in green smocks. The title of "Martha" is based on a story in
Luke 10:3842, where Jesus visits Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha; Mary listens to Jesus
while Martha works at "all the preparations that had to be made".
Econowives
Women who have married relatively low-ranking men, not part of the elite. They are expected to
perform all the female functions: domestic duties, companionship, and child-bearing. Their
dress is multicoloured red, blue, and green to reflect these multiple roles.
The division of labour among the women generates some resentment. Marthas, Wives and Econowives perceive
Handmaids as promiscuous and are taught to scorn them. Offred mourns that the women of the various groups have lost
their ability to empathize with each other. They are divided in their oppression.
Illegitimate women
Unwomen
Sterile women, the unmarried, some widows, feminists, lesbians, nuns, and politically dissident
women: all women who are incapable of social integration within the Republic's strict gender
divisions. Gilead exiles Unwomen to "the Colonies," areas both of agricultural production and
deadly pollution. Joining them are handmaids who fail to bear a child after three two-year
assignments.
Jezebels
Women forced to become prostitutes and entertainers. They are available only to the
Commanders and to their guests. Offred portrays Jezebels as attractive and educated; they
may be unsuitable as handmaids due to temperament. They have been sterilized, a surgery that
is forbidden to other women. They operate in unofficial but state-sanctioned brothels, unknown
to most women. Jezebels, whose title also comes from the Bible (note Queen Jezebel in the
Books of Kings), dress in the remnants of sexualized costumes from "the time before," such as
cheerleaders' costumes, school uniforms, and Playboy Bunny costumes. Jezebels can wear
make-up, drink alcohol and socialize with men, but are tightly controlled by the Aunts. When
they pass their sexual prime and/or their looks fade, they are discarded without any precision as
to whether they are killed or sent to the Colonies in the novel.
Men
Men are classified into four main categories:
Commanders of the Faithful

The ruling class. Because of their status, they are entitled to establish a patriarchal household
with a Wife, a Handmaid if necessary, Marthas (female servants) and Guardians. They have a
duty to procreate, but many may be infertile, as a possible result of exposure to a biological
agent in pre-Gilead times. They wear black to signify superiority. They are allowed cars.
Eyes
The secret police attempting to discover those violating the rules of Gilead.
Angels
Soldiers who fight in the wars in order to expand and protect the country's borders. Angels may
be permitted to marry.
Guardians (of the Faith)
Soldiers "used for routine policing and other menial functions". They are unsuitable for other
work in the republic being "stupid or older or disabled or very young, apart from the ones that
are Eyes incognito" (chapter 4). Young Guardians may be promoted to Angels when they come
of age. They wear green uniforms.
Men who engage in homosexuality or related acts are declared "Gender Traitors"; they are either hanged or sent to the
"colonies" to die a slow death.
Babies
In this society, birth defects have become increasingly common.
There are two main categories of human children:
Unbabies, also known as "shredders"

Babies born physically deformed or with some other birth defect. They do not last but Offred
does not know what happens to them. Pregnant Handmaids fear giving birth to a damaged
child, or unbaby. Gilead forbids abortion and all tests to determine prenatal health of a fetus.
Keepers
Babies that are born alive with no defects.
The Ceremony
"The Ceremony" is a non-marital sexual act sanctioned for reproduction. The ritual requires the Handmaid to lie on her
back between the legs of the Wife during the sex act as if they were one person. The Wife has to invite the Handmaid to
share her power this way; many Wives consider this both humiliating and offensive. Offred describes the ceremony:
My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is
fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing.
Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does
rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for.[23]
Language
In the novel's fictional fundamentalist society, sterile is an "outlawed" word.[24] In this society, there is no such thing as a
sterile man anymore. In this culture, women are either fruitful or barren, the latter of which is declared to be an
"unwoman" and is sent to the colonies with the rest of the "unwomen" to do life-threatening work until their death, which
is, on average, three years.
Atwood emphasises how changes in context affect behaviours and attitudes by repeating the phrase "Context is all"
throughout the novel, establishing this precept as a motif.[25] Playing the game of Scrabble with her Commander illustrates
the key significance of changes in "context"; once "the game of old men and women", the game became forbidden for
women to play and therefore "desirable".[26] Through living in a morally rigid society, Offred has come to perceive the
world differently from earlier. Offred expresses amazement at how "It has taken so little time to change our minds about
things".[27] Wearing revealing clothes and makeup had been part of her former life, but when she sees Japanese tourists
dressed that way, she now feels the women are inappropriately dressed.[27]
Offred can read but not translate the phrase "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" carved into the closet wall of her small
bedroom; this mock-Latin aphorism signifies "Don't let the bastards grind you down".[28] The significance of this phrase is
intensified by the challenges the book has faced, creating a "Mise en abyme" as both the protagonist and the reader
decipher subversive texts.
Genre classification
In interviews and essays Atwood has discussed generic classification of The Handmaid's Tale as "science fiction" or
"speculative fiction", observing:
I like to make a distinction between science fiction proper and speculative fiction. For me, the science fiction
label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in space
to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand, such as
DNA identification and credit cards, and that takes place on Planet Earth. But the terms are fluid.[3]
Hugo-winning science fiction critic David Langford observed in a column: "The Handmaid's Tale won the very first Arthur
C. Clarke Award in 1987. She's been trying to live this down ever since." He says:
Atwood prefers to say that she writes speculative fictiona term coined by SF author Robert A. Heinlein. As
she told the Guardian, "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really
happen." She used a subtly different phrasing for New Scientist, "Oryx and Crake is not science fiction. It is
fact within fiction. Science fiction is when you have rockets and chemicals." So it was very cruel of New
Scientist to describe this interview in the contents list as: "Margaret Atwood explains why science is crucial
to her science fiction." ... Play it again, Ms Atwoodthis time for the Book-of-the-Month Club: "Oryx and
Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no
teleportation, no Martians." On BBC1 Breakfast News the distinguished author explained that science
fiction, as opposed to what she writes, is characterized by "talking squids in outer space".[4]
In distinguishing between these genre labels science fiction and speculative fiction, Atwood acknowledges that others may
use the terms interchangeably. But she notes her interest in this type of work to explore themes in ways that "realistic
fiction" cannot do.[3]
Historical context
Fitting with her claims that The Handmaid's Tale is a work of speculative fiction, not science fiction, Atwood's novel offers
a satirical view of various social, political, and religious trends of the 1980s United States. Further, Atwood questions what
would happen if these trends, and especially "casually held attitudes about women" were taken to their logical end.[29]
Atwood continues to argue that all of the scenarios offered in The Handmaid's Tale have actually occurred in real lifein
an interview she gave regarding Oryx and Crake, Atwood maintains that "As with The Handmaid's Tale, I didn't put in
anything that we haven't already done, we're not already doing, we're seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are
already in progress... So all of those things are real, and therefore the amount of pure invention is close to nil."[30] Atwood
was also known to carry around newspaper clippings to her various interviews to support her fiction's basis in reality.[31]
Atwood has explained that The Handmaid's Tale is a response to those who claim the oppressive, totalitarian, and
religious governments that have taken hold in other countries throughout the years "can't happen here"but in this work,
she has tried to show how such a takeover might play out.[32]
Atwood's inspiration for the Republic of Gilead came from her time studying early American Puritans while at Harvard,
which she attended on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.[29] Atwood argues that the modern view of the Puritansthat they
came to America to flee religious persecution in England and set up a religiously tolerant societyis misleading, and that
instead, these Puritan leaders wanted to establish a monolithic theocracy where religious dissent would not be
accepted.[29] Atwood also had a personal connection to the Puritans, and she dedicates the novel to her own ancestor Mary
Webster, who was accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England but survived her hanging.[33] Due to the totalitarian
nature of Gileadan society, Atwood, in creating the setting, drew from the "utopian idealism" present in 20th century
rgimes, such as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[17] Atwood has argued that a coup,
such as the one depicted in The Handmaid's Tale, would misuse religion in order to achieve its own ends:[34]
... if you wanted to seize power in the US, abolish liberal democracy and set up a dictatorship, how would
you go about it? What would be your cover story? It would not resemble any form of communism or
socialism: those would be too unpopular... Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on
foundations that aren't there already. Thus China replaced a state bureaucracy with a similar state
bureaucracy under a different name, the USSR replaced the dreaded imperial secret police with an even
more dreaded secret police, and so forth. The deep foundation of the US so went my thinking was not
the comparatively recent 18th-century Enlightenment structures of the republic, with their talk of equality
and their separation of church and state, but the heavy-handed theocracy of 17th-century Puritan New
England, with its marked bias against women, which would need only the opportunity of a period of social
chaos to reassert itself. Like any theocracy, this one would select a few passages from the Bible to justify its
actions, and it would lean heavily towards the Old Testament, not towards the New.[17]
Atwood, with respect to those leading Gilead, further stated:[19]
I don't consider these people to be Christians because they do not have at the core of their behavior and
ideologies what I, in my feeble Canadian way, would consider to be the core of Christianity and that would
be not only love your neighbors but love your enemies. That would also be 'I was sick and you visited me not'
and such and such And that would include also concern for the environment, because you can't love your
neighbor or even your enemy, unless you love your neighbor's oxygen, food, and water. You can't love your
neighbor or your enemy if you're presuming policies that are going to cause those people to die. Of course
faith can be a force for good and often has been. So faith is a force for good particularly when people are
feeling beleaguered and in need of hope. So you can have bad iterations and you can also have the iteration
in which people have got too much power and then start abusing it. But that is human behavior, so you can't
lay it down to religion. You can find the same in any power situation, such as politics or ideologies that
purport to be atheist. Need I mention the former Soviet Union? So it is not a question of religion making
people behave badly. It is a question of human beings getting power and then wanting more of it.[19]
In the same vein, Atwood also declared that "In the real world today, some religious groups are leading movements for the
protection of vulnerable groups, including women."[21] Atwood also draws connections between the ways in which Gilead's
leaders maintain their power and other examples of actual totalitarian governments. In her interviews, Atwood offers up
Iran and Afghanistan as examples of religious theocracies forcing women out of the public sphere and into their homes, as
in Gilead.[31][29] The "state-sanctioned murder of dissidents" was inspired by the Philippines, and the last General
Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceausescu's obsession with increasing the birth rate led to the strict
policing of pregnant women and the outlawing of birth control and abortion.[31] However, Atwood clearly explains that
many of these deplorable acts were not just present in other cultures and countries, "but within Western society, and
within the 'Christian' tradition itself".[17]
The Republic of Gilead struggles with infertility, making Offred's services as a Handmaid vital to producing children and
thus reproducing the society. Handmaids themselves are "untouchable", but their ability to signify status is equated to that
of slaves or servants throughout history.[17] Atwood connects their concerns with infertility to real-life problems our world
faces, such as radiation, chemical pollution, and venereal disease (HIV/AIDS is specifically mentioned in the "Historical
Notes" section at the end of the novel, which was a relatively new disease at the time of Atwood's writing whose long-term
impact was likely still unknown). Atwood's strong stance on environmental issues and their negative consequences for our
society has presented itself in other works such as her MaddAddam trilogy, and refers back to her growing up with
biologists and her own scientific curiosity.[35]
Critical reception
The Handmaid's Tale was well received by critics, helping to cement Atwood's status as a prominent writer of the 20th
century. Not only was the book deemed well-written and compelling, but Atwood's work was notable for sparking intense
debates both in and out of academia.[36] Atwood maintains that the Republic of Gilead is only an extrapolation of trends
already seen in the United States at the time of her writing, a view supported by other scholars studying The Handmaid's
Tale.[37] Indeed, many have placed The Handmaid's Tale in the same category of dystopian fiction as Nineteen Eighty-
Four and Brave New World,[32] with the added feature of confronting patriarchy, a categorization that Atwood has
accepted and reiterated in many articles and interviews.[38]
Even today, many reviewers hold that Atwood's novel remains as foreboding and powerful as ever, largely because of its
basis in historical fact.[39][40] Yet when her book was first published in 1985, not all reviewers were convinced of the
"cautionary tale" Atwood presented. For example, Mary McCarthy's New York Times review argued that The Handmaid's
Tale lacked the "surprised recognition" necessary for readers to see "our present selves in a distorting mirror, of what we
may be turning into if current trends are allowed to continue".[41]
In the aftermath of the television series' debut in 2017, there was much debate on whether parallels could be drawn
between the series (and by extension, this book) and American society following Donald Trump's and Mike Pence's
election as President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, respectively.[42][43]
Feminist reading
Much of the discussion about The Handmaid's Tale has centered on its categorization as feminist literature. Atwood does
not see the Republic of Gilead as a purely feminist dystopia, as not all men have greater rights than women.[17] Instead,
this society presents a typical dictatorship: "shaped like a pyramid, with the powerful of both sexes at the apex, the men
generally outranking the women at the same level; then descending levels of power and status with men and women in
each, all the way down to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an
Econowife".[17] Additionally, Atwood has argued that while some of the observations that informed the content of The
Handmaid's Tale may be feminist, her novel is not meant to say "one thing to one person" or serve as a political message
instead, The Handmaid's Tale is "a study of power, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are
living within that kind of regime".[32][38]
Some scholars have offered such a feminist interpretation, however, connecting Atwood's use of religious fundamentalism
in the pages of The Handmaid's Tale to a condemnation of their presence in current American society.[44][45] Yet others
have argued that The Handmaid's Tale critiques typical notions of feminism, as Atwood's novel appears to subvert the
traditional "women helping women" ideals of the movement and turn toward the possibility of "the matriarchal network ...
and a new form of misogyny: women's hatred of women".[46]
Race
Other critics have characterized The Handmaid's Tale as "White Feminism" noting that Atwood does away with black
people in a few lines by relocating the "Children of Ham" while borrowing heavily from the African-American experience
and applying it to white women.[47] Other critics have noted the parallels with apartheid and that it misrepresents how
black people resist in times of crisis. The writer Mikki Kendall said about the book,
It requires me to believe that not only are my people gone, but often that they vanished quietly without any
real resistance. As if. Like...Black people did not survive slavery, Jim Crow & the War on Drugs to be taken
out by a handful of white boys with guns.[48][49]
Awards
1985 Governor General's Award for English language fiction (winner)
1986 Booker Prize (nominated)
1986 Nebula Award (nominated)
1987 Arthur C. Clarke Award (winner)[a]
1987 Prometheus Award (nominated)[b]
Academic reception
Atwood's novels, and especially her works of speculative fiction The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, are frequently
offered as examples for the final, open-ended question on the North American Advanced Placement English Literature
and Composition exam each year.[50] As such, her books are often assigned in high-school classrooms to students taking
this Advanced Placement course, despite the mature themes the work presents. Atwood herself has expressed surprise that
her books are being assigned to high-school audiences, largely due to her own censored education in the 1950s, but she
has assured readers that this increased attention from high-school students has not altered the material she has chosen to
write about since.[51]
Many people have expressed discontent at The Handmaid's Tale's presence in the classroom, as it has been frequently
challenged or banned over the last 30 years. Some of these challenges have come from parents concerned about the
explicit sexuality and other adult themes represented in the book. Others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale depicts a
negative view of religion, a view supported by several academics who propose that Atwood's work satirizes contemporary
religious fundamentalists in the United States, offering a feminist critique of the trends this movement to the Right
represents.[44][45]
The American Library Association (ALA) lists The Handmaid's Tale as number 37 on the "100 Most Frequently
Challenged Books of 19902000".[52] Atwood participated in discussing The Handmaid's Tale as the subject of an ALA
discussion series titled "One Book, One Conference".[53]
Some complaints have included:
1990: Challenged at Rancho Cotate High School, Rohnert Park, California, as too explicit for students.
1992: Challenged in schools in Waterloo, Iowa, reportedly because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and
statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled.
1993: Removed because of profanity and sex from the Chicopee, Massachusetts, high-school English class reading
list.
1998: Challenged for use in Richland, Washington, high-school English classes, along with six other titles determined
to be "poor quality literature and [that] stress suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness".
1999: Challenged because of graphic sex, but retained on the advanced placement English list, at George D.
Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida.
2000: Downgraded from "required" to "optional" on the summer reading list for eleventh graders in the Upper
Moreland School District near Philadelphia due to "age-inappropriate" subject matter.
2001: Challenged, but retained, in the Dripping Springs, Texas, senior Advanced Placement English course as an
optional reading assignment. Some parents were offended by the book's descriptions of sexual encounters.
2006: Initially banned by Superintendent Ed Lyman from an advanced placement English curriculum in the Judson
independent school district in Texas, after a parent complained. Lyman had overruled the recommendation of a
committee of teachers, students, and parents; the committee appealed the decision to the school board, which
overturned his ban.[54]
According to Education Reporter Kristin Rushowy of the Toronto Star (16 January 2009), in 2008 a parent in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, wrote a letter to his son's high school principal, asking that the book no longer be assigned as required
reading, stating that the novel is "rife with brutality towards and mistreatment of women (and men at times), sexual
scenes, and bleak depression".[55] Rushowy quotes the response of Russell Morton Brown, a retired University of Toronto
English professor, who acknowledged that
"The Handmaid's Tale wasn't likely written for 17-year-olds, but neither are a lot of things we teach in high
school, like Shakespeare... And they are all the better for reading it. They are on the edge of adulthood
already, and there's no point in coddling them," he said, adding, "they aren't coddled in terms of mass media
today anyway"... He said the book has been accused of being anti-Christian and, more recently, anti-Islamic
because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed... But that "misses the point", said Brown. "It's really
anti-fundamentalism."[55]
In her earlier account (14 January 2009), Rushowy reported that a Toronto District School Board committee was
"reviewing the novel". While noting that "The Handmaid's Tale is listed as one of the 100 'most frequently challenged
books' from 1990 to 1999 on the American Library Association's website", Rushowy reports that "The Canadian Library
Association says there is 'no known instance of a challenge to this novel in Canada' but says the book was called anti-
Christian and pornographic by parents after being placed on a reading list for secondary students in Texas in the
1990s."[56]
In November 2012 two parents in Guilford County, North Carolina protested against inclusion of the book on a required
reading list at a local high school. The parents presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,300 people,
prompting a review of the book by the school's media advisory committee. According to local news reports, one of the
parents said "she felt Christian students are bullied in society, in that they're made to feel uncomfortable about their
beliefs by non-believers. She said including books like The Handmaid's Tale contributes to that discomfort, because of its
negative view on religion and its anti-biblical attitudes toward sex."[57]
Other use in academia

In institutions of higher education, professors have found The Handmaid's Tale to be useful, largely because of its
historical and religious basis and Atwood's captivating delivery. The novel's teaching points include: introducing politics
and the social sciences to students in a more concrete way;[58][59] demonstrating the importance of reading to our freedom,
both intellectual and political;[60] and acknowledging the "most insidious and violent manifestations of power in Western
history" in a compelling manner.[61] The chapter entitled "Historical Notes" at the end of the novel also represents a
warning to academics who run the risk of misreading and misunderstanding historical texts, pointing to the satirized
Professor Pieixoto as an example of a male scholar who has taken over and overpowered Offred's narrative with his own
interpretation.[62]
In other media
Film
The 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale was based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter and directed by Volker Schlndorff.
It stars Natasha Richardson as Offred, Faye Dunaway as Serena Joy, and Robert Duvall as The Commander (Fred).
Television
Hulu has produced a 10-episode series of the novel starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred. The first three episodes were
released on April 26, 2017, with subsequent episodes following on a weekly basis. Margaret Atwood served as
consulting producer.[63] The show has been renewed for a second season, set to be released in early 2018.
Radio
A dramatic adaptation of the novel for radio was produced for BBC Radio 4 by John Dryden in 2000.
A Canadian dramatic adaptation for radio was written by playwright Michael O'Brien and produced on CBC Radio in
2002.
Audio
An audiobook of the unabridged text, read by Claire Danes (ISBN 9781491519110), won the 2013 Audie Award for
fiction.[64]
In 2014, Canadian band Lakes of Canada released their album Transgressions, which is intended to be a concept
album inspired by The Handmaid's Tale.[65]
Stage
The very first authorized stage adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale was written and directed by Bruce G. Shapiro and
performed at Tufts Arena Theater, Tufts University, in 1989. The late actress Molly Glynn played "Offred." The
production was very well received and highly regarded.[66]
An operatic adaptation, The Handmaid's Tale, by Poul Ruders, premiered in Copenhagen on 6 March 2000, and was
performed by the English National Opera, in London, in 2003.[67] It was the opening production of the 20042005
season of the Canadian Opera Company.[68]
A stage adaptation of the novel, by Brendon Burns, for the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, England, toured the UK
in 2002.[69]
A ballet adaptation choreographed by Lila York and produced by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered on 16 October
2013. Amanda Green appeared as Offred and Alexander Gamayunov as The Commander.[70]
A one-woman stage show, adapted from the novel, by Joseph Stollenwerk premiered in the U.S. in January 2015.[71]
See also
Canadian literature
Feminist science fiction
Pregnancy in science fiction
Persepolis (comics)
Notes
a. The Handmaid's Tale is the inaugural winner of this award for the best science fiction novel published in the United
Kingdom during the previous year.
b. The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given out annually by the Libertarian Futurist
Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal, Prometheus.
References
1. Cosstick, Ruth (January 1986). "Book review: The Handmaids Tale" (https://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/cmarchive/vol14n
o1/handmaidstale.html). Vol. 14 no. 1. CM Archive. Retrieved 2016-06-26. "Tad Aronowicz's jaggedly surrealistic
cover design is most appropriate."
2. "The Handmaid's Tale Study Guide: About Speculative Fiction" (http://www.gradesaver.com/the-handmaids-tale/study
-guide/section9/). Gradesaver. 22 May 2009.
3. Atwood, Margaret (17 June 2005). "Aliens have taken the place of angels" (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/ju
n/17/sciencefictionfantasyandhorror.margaretatwood). The Guardian. UK. "If you're writing about the future and you
aren't doing forecast journalism, you'll probably be writing something people will call either science fiction or
speculative fiction. I like to make a distinction between science fiction proper and speculative fiction. For me, the
science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in
space to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand, such as
DNA identification and credit cards, and that takes place on Planet Earth. But the terms are fluid. Some use
speculative fiction as an umbrella covering science fiction and all its hyphenated formsscience fiction fantasy, and so
forthand others choose the reverse... I have written two works of science fiction or, if you prefer, speculative fiction:
The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake. Here are some of the things these kinds of narratives can do that socially
realistic novels cannot do."
4. Langford 2003.
5. Douthat, Ross (24 May 2017). " 'The Handmaid's Tale and Ours' ". The New York Times. "Now, in the era of the
Trump administration, liberal TV watchers find a perverse sort of comfort in the horrific alternate reality of the Republic
of Gilead, where a cabal of theonomist Christians have established a totalitarian state that forbids women to read,
sets a secret police to watch their every move and deploys them as slave-concubines to childless elites."
6. Atwood, Margaret (10 March 2017). "Margaret Atwood on What 'The Handmaid's Tale' Means in the Age of Trump" (h
ttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html?smid=fb-nytim
es&smtyp=cur). The New York Times. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
7. Segovia, Jos de (22 June 2017). Daniel Wickham, ed. "There is no balm in Atwood's Gilead". Evangelical Focus. "A
clear example of Atwoods focus on the Reconstructionism of theonomy is his way of representing the death penalty."
8. Grace, DM (1998). "Handmaid's Tale Historical Notes and Documentary Subversion". Science Fiction Studies.
Science Fiction Studies. 25 (3): 48194. JSTOR 4240726 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4240726).
9. "The Handmaid's Tale Study Guide: Character List" (http://www.gradesaver.com/the-handmaids-tale/study-guide/char
acter-list/). Gradesaver. 22 May 2009.
10. Atwood 1986, p. 220.
11. "Offreds Real Name In 'The Handmaids Tale' Is The Only Piece Of Power She Still Holds" by Dana Getz, Bustle,
April 26, 2017, "In Margaret Atwood's original novel, Offred's real name is never revealed. Many eagle-eyed readers
deduced that it was June based on contextual clues: Of the names the Handmaids trade in hushed tones as they lie
awake at night, "June" is the only one that's never heard again once Offred is narrating."
https://www.bustle.com/p/offreds-real-name-in-the-handmaids-tale-is-the-only-piece-of-power-she-still-holds-53607
12. Madonne 1991
13. Oates, Joyce Carol (2 November 2006). "Margaret Atwood's Tale" (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2006/11/02/marg
aret-atwoods-tale/). The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
14. Atwood 1998, An Interview: 'Q: We can figure out that the main character lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts'
15. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/09/books/no-headline-423986.html?pagewanted=2
16. O'Hare, Kate (16 April 2017). " 'The Handmaid's Tale' on Hulu: What Should Catholics Think?" (http://blog.familytheat
er.org/the-handmaids-tale-on-hulu-what-should-catholics-think/). Faith & Family Media Blog. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
17. Atwood, Margaret (20 January 2012). "Haunted by the Handmaid's Tale" (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/ja
n/20/handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood). The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
18. Lucie-Smith, Alexander (29 May 2017). "Should Catholics watch The Handmaid's Tale?" (http://catholicherald.co.uk/c
ommentandblogs/2017/05/29/should-catholics-watch-the-handmaids-tale/). The Catholic Herald. Retrieved 18 June
2017.
19. Williams, Layton E. (25 April 2017). "Margaret Atwood on Christianity, 'The Handmaid's Tale,' and What Faithful
Activism Looks Like Today" (https://sojo.net/articles/margaret-atwood-christianity-handmaid-s-tale-and-what-faithful-a
ctivism-looks-today). Sojourners. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
20. Blondiau, Eloise (28 April 2017). "Reflecting on the frightening lessons of 'The Handmaid's Tale' " (https://www.americ
amagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/04/28/reflecting-frightening-lessons-handmaids-tale). America. Retrieved 21 June
2017.
21. Atwood, Margaret (10 March 2017). "Margaret Atwood on What 'The Handmaid's Tale' Means in the Age of Trump" (h
ttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html). The New
York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
22. Cooke, Rachel (1 June 2017). "The Handmaid's Tale could be straight out of Raqqa" (http://www.newstatesman.com/
culture/tv-radio/2017/06/handmaids-tale-could-be-straight-out-raqqa). New Statesman. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
23. Atwood 1998, p. 94.
24. Atwood 1998, p. 161.
25. Atwood 1998, pp. 144, 192.
26. Atwood 1998, pp. 17879.
27. Atwood 1998, pp. 36.
28. Atwood 1998, pp. 235.
29. "An Interview with Margaret Atwood on her novel, The Handmaid's Tale" (http://www.library.nashville.org/nashvilleread
s/margaretatwood_interview_handmaidstale.pdf) (PDF). Nashville Public Library. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
30. Gruss, Susanne (2004). " "People confuse interpersonal relations with legal structures." An Interview with Margaret
Atwood" (http://www.genderforum.org/fileadmin/archiv/genderforum/queer/interview_atwood.html). Gender Forum.
Retrieved 28 March 2016.
31. Neuman, Shirley (2006). " 'Just a Backlash': Margaret Atwood, Feminism, and The Handmaid's Tale" (https://muse.jh
u.edu/journals/university_of_toronto_quarterly/v075/75.3neuman.html#FOOT6). University of Toronto Quarterly.
32. Rothstein, Mervyn (17 February 1986). "No Balm in Gilead for Margaret Atwood" (https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/
09/03/specials/atwood-gilead.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
33. Evans, Mark (1994). Nicholson, Colin, ed. Versions of History: The Handmaid's Tale and its Dedicatees. Margaret
Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 177188.
34. "Emma Watson interviews Margaret Atwood about 'The Handmaid's Tale' " (http://ew.com/books/2017/07/14/emma-w
atson-interviews-margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale/). Entertainment Weekly. 14 July 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
"Recently, someone said, Religion doesnt radicalize people, people radicalize religion. So you can use any religion
as an excuse for being repressive, and you can use any religion as an excuse for resisting repression; it works both
ways, as it does in the book. So that was one set of inspirations."
35. Curwood, Steve (13 June 2014). "Margaret Atwood on Fiction, The Future, and Environmental Crisis" (http://loe.org/s
hows/segments.html?programID=14-P13-00024&segmentID=5). Living on Earth. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
36. Greene, Gayle (July 1986). "Choice of Evils". The Women's Review of Books. JSTOR 4019952 (https://www.jstor.org/
stable/4019952).
37. Armbruster, Jane (Fall 1990). "Memory and Politics A Reflection on "The Handmaid's Tale" ". Social Justice.
JSTOR 29766564 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/29766564).
38. Atwood, Margaret (May 2004). "The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake "In Context" ". PMLA.
39. Robertson, Adi (20 December 2014). "Does The Handmaid's Tale hold up?" (https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/20/7
424951/does-the-handmaids-tale-hold-up-dystopia-feminism-fiction). The Verge. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
40. Newman, Charlotte (25 September 2010). "The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood" (https://www.theguardian.com/
books/2010/sep/26/the-handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood). The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
41. McCarthy, Mary (9 February 1986). "Book Review" (https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/26/specials/mccarthy-atwo
od.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
42. For articles that attempt to draw parallels between The Handmaid's Tale and Trump's election as President of the
United States, see:
Nally, Claire (May 31, 2017). "How The Handmaid's Tale is being transformed from fantasy into fact" (https://www.i
ndependent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-handmaids-tale-elizabeth-moss-channel-4-margaret-atwood-
donald-trump-feminism-abortion-a7763646.html). The Independent. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
Brooks, Katherine (May 24, 2017). "How 'The Handmaid's Tale' Villains Were Inspired By Trump" (http://www.huffi
ngtonpost.com/entry/-handmaids-tale-villains-inspired-by-trump_us_5925bf4ce4b0ec129d31a7b3). Huffington
Post. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
Robertson, Adi (November 9, 2016). "In Trump's America, The Handmaid's Tale matters more than ever" (https://
www.theverge.com/2014/12/20/7424951/does-the-handmaids-tale-hold-up-dystopia-feminism-fiction). The Verge.
Retrieved July 29, 2017.
Douthat, Ross (May 24, 2017). "The Handmaid's Tale,' and Ours" (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/opinion/h
andmaids-tale-and-ours.html). The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
43. For articles that disagree with attempts to draw parallels between The Handmaid's Tale and Trump's election as
President of the United States, see:
Crispin, Jessa (May 2, 2017). "The Handmaid's Tale is just like Trump's America? Not so fast" (https://www.thegua
rdian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/02/handmaids-tale-donald-trump-america). The Guardian. Retrieved June 18,
2017.
Smith, Kyle (April 28, 2017). "Sorry: 'Handmaid's Tale' tells us nothing about Trump's America" (https://nypost.co
m/2017/04/28/sorry-handmaids-tale-tells-us-nothing-about-trumps-america/). New York Post. Retrieved June 18,
2017.
Cohen, Ariel (May 2, 2017). "Stop comparing 'The Handmaid's Tale' to Trump's America" (http://www.washingtone
xaminer.com/stop-comparing-the-handmaids-tale-to-trumps-america/article/2621863). The Washington Examiner.
Retrieved July 29, 2017.
44. Hines, Molly (2006). "Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale": Fundamentalist religiosity and the oppression of
women" (http://search.proquest.com/docview/304914133/abstract/2573C15A1C0844DAPQ/1?accountid=9920).
Angelo State University. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
45. Mercer, Naomi (2013). " "Subversive Feminist Thrusts": Feminist Dystopian Writing and Religious Fundamentalism in
Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", Louise Marley's "The Terrorists of Irustan", Marge Piercy's "He, She and
It", and Sheri S. Tepper's "Raising the Stones" " (http://search.proquest.com/docview/1428851608/abstract/D3C5F41
D0BB1478DPQ/1?accountid=9920). University of Wisconsin Madison. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
46. Callaway, Alanna (2008). "Women disunited: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as a critique of feminism" (htt
p://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4501&context=etd_theses). San Jose State University.
47. https://theestablishment.co/the-handmaids-tale-a-white-feminist-s-dystopia-80da75a40dc5
48. http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/the-handmaids-tale-greatest-failing-is-how-it-handles-race.html
49. https://twitter.com/Karnythia/status/857415398832181249
50. "AP English Literature and Composition Exam" (http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_informat
ion/2002.html#name15). College Board. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
51. Perry, Douglas (30 December 2014). "Margaret Atwood and the 'Four Unwise Republicans': 12 surprises from the
legendary writer's Reddit AMA" (http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2014/12/margaret_atwood_and_the_four
_u.html). The Oregonian. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
52. "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 19902000" (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentl
ychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/). American Library Association.
53. "Annual Report 20022003: One Book, One Conference" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091201022613/http://www.al
a.org/ala/aboutala/governance/annualreport/annualreport/annualreportarch/20022003/conferences.cfm). American
Library Association. June 2003. Archived from the original (http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/annualreport/a
nnualreport/annualreportarch/20022003/conferences.cfm) on 1 December 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2009. Concerns
inaugural program featuring Margaret Atwood held in Toronto, 1925 June 2003.
54. Robert P. Doyle (2007). Banned Books Resource Guide. American Library Association. ISBN 978-0838984253.
55. Rushowy 2009

56. Rushowy 2009b
57. Carr, Mitch (2 November 2012). "Guilford County moms want reading list criteria changed" (http://www.journalnow.co
m/news/state_region/guilford-county-moms-want-reading-list-criteria-changed/article_572e4054-24dd-11e2-8a23-001
9bb30f31a.html). Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
58. Burack, Cynthia (Winter 198889). "Bringing Women's Studies to Political Science: The Handmaid in the Classroom".
NWSA Journal. 1 (2): 274283. JSTOR 4315901 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4315901).
59. Laz, Cheryl (January 1996). "Science Fiction and Introductory Sociology: The 'Handmaid' in the Classroom". Teaching
Sociology. 24 (1): 5463. JSTOR 1318898 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1318898).
60. Bergmann, Harriet (December 1989). " "Teaching Them to Read": A Fishing Expedition in the Handmaid's Tale".
College English. JSTOR 378090 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/378090).
61. Larson, Janet (Spring 1989). "Margaret Atwood and the Future of Prophecy". Religion and Literature.
62. Stein, Karen (1996). "Margaret Atwood's Modest Proposal: The Handmaid's Tale" (http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/vi
ewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=eng_facpubs). University of Rhode Island. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
63. Hardawar, Devindra (29 April 2016). "Hulu is adapting Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' " (https://www.engad
get.com/2016/04/29/hulu-is-adapting-margaret-atwoods-the-handmaids-tale/). Engadget. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
64. Gummere, Joe. "2013 Audie Awards Finalists by category" (http://joeaudio.com/index.html). joeaudio.com.
Retrieved 2017-01-09.
65. "Artists: Lakes of Canada" (http://artists.cbcmusic.ca/artist/38445). CBC Music. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
66. "Tufts University: Department of Drama and Dance: Performances & Events" (http://dramadance.tufts.edu/performanc
es/pastProductions.htm). dramadance.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
67. Clements, Andrew (5 April 2003). "Classical music & opera" (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/apr/05/classic
almusicandopera.artsfeatures2). The Guardian. UK.
68. Littler, William (15 December 2004), Opera Canada.
69. "The Handmaid's tale" (http://www.uktw.co.uk/archive/play/the-handmaids-tale/L0405535074/). UKTW..
70. "The Handmaid's Tale debuts as ballet in Winnipeg" (http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/the-handmaid-s-tale-debuts-as-ball
et-in-winnipeg-1.2055207). CA: CBC News. 15 October 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
71. Lyman, David (24 January 2015). " 'Handmaid's Tale' offers extreme view of future" (http://www.cincinnati.com/story/e
ntertainment/theater/2015/01/24/handmaid-tale-know-theater-review/22271029/). Cincinnati.com.
Works cited
(17 June 2005), "Aliens Have Taken the Place of Angels", The Guardian
(14 Jan 2009), "Complaint Spurs School Board to Review Novel by Atwood", The Toronto Star.
Alexander, Lynn (22 May 2009), "The Handmaid's Tale Working Bibliography", Department of English, University of
Tennessee at Martin. Hyperlinked to online resources for Alexander, Dr Lynn (Spring 1999), Women Writers: Magic,
Mysticism, and Mayhem (course). Includes entry for book chap. by Kauffman.
An Interview with Margaret Atwood on her novel, The Handmaid's Tale (n.d.). In Nashville Public Library.
Armrbuster, J. (1990). "Memory and Politics A Reflection on "The Handmaid's Tale". Social Justice 17(3), 14652.
Atwood, Margaret (1985), The Handmaid's Tale, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 0-7710-0813-9 (1986), The
Handmaid's Tale, New York: Anchor Books.(1998), The Handmaid's Tale, New York: Anchor Books (div. of Random
House), ISBN 978-0-385-49081-8. Parenthetical page references are to the 1998 ed. Digitized 2 June 2008 by
Google Books (311 pp.) (2005), La Servante carlate [The Handmaid's Tale] (in French), Ru, Sylviane transl, Paris:
J'ai Lu, ISBN 978-2-290-34710-2.
Atwood, M. (2004). The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake "In Context". PMLA, 119(3), 513517.
Atwood, M. (20 January 2012). "Haunted by the Handmaid's Tale". The Guardian.
Bergmann, H. F. (1989). "Teaching Them to Read: A Fishing Expedition in the Handmaid's Tale". College English,
51(8), 847854.
Burack, C. (198889). "Bringing Women's Studies to Political Science: The Handmaid in the Classroom". NWSA
Journal 1(2), 27483.
Callaway, A. A. (2008). "Women disunited: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as a critique of feminism". San
Jose State University.
Curwood, Steve. (13 June 2014). "Margaret Atwood on Fiction, The Future, and Environmental Crisis". Living on
Earth. n.p.
Evans, M. (1994). "Versions of History: The Handmaid's Tale and its Dedicatees". In C. Nicholson (Ed.), Margaret
Atwood: Writing and Subjectivity (pp. 177188). London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Greene, Gayle. (1986). "Choice of Evils". The Women's Review of Books 3(10), 1415.
Gruss, S. (2004). "People confuse personal relations with legal structures". An Interview with Margaret Atwood. In
Gender Forum. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
Hines, M. E. (2006). Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Fundamentalist Religiosity and the Oppression of
Women. N.p.: Angelo State University.
Kauffman, Linda (1989), "6. Special Delivery: Twenty-First Century Epistolarity in The Handmaid's Tale", in Goldsmith,
Elizabeth, Writing the Female Voice: Essays on Epistolary Literature, Boston: Northeastern University Press,
pp. 22144. Cited in Alexander.
Langford, David (Aug 2003), "Bits and Pieces", SFX (UK: Ansible) (107).
Larson, J. L. (1989). "Margaret Atwood and the Future of Prophecy". Religion & Literature 21(1), 2761.
Laz, C. (January 1996). "Science Fiction and Introductory Sociology: The 'Handmaid' in the Classroom". Teaching
Sociology,24(1), 5463.
Lewis, Lapham H. (September 2004). "Tentacles of rage: The Republican propaganda mill, a brief history". Harper's
Magazine.
Mercer, N. (2013). "Subversive Feminist Thrusts": Feminist Dystopian Writing and Religious Fundamentalism in
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Louise Marley's The Terrorists of Irustan, Marge Piercy's He, She and I.
Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.
Miner, Madonne (1991), "'Trust Me': Reading the Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale".
Twentieth Century Literature 37: 14868, doi:10.2307/441844.
Morris, M. (1990). "Margaret Atwood, The Art of Fiction No. 121". The Paris Review.
Neuman, S. C. (2006). "'Just a Backlash': Margaret Atwood, Feminism, and The Handmaid's Tale". University of
Toronto Quarterly, 75(3), 857868.
Oates, J. C. (2 November 2006). "Margaret Atwood's Tale". The New York Review of Books.
Perry, D. (30 December 2014). "Margaret Atwood and the 'Four Unwise Republicans': 12 surprises from the
legendary writer's Reddit AMA". The Oregonian.
Rothstein, Mervyn. (17 February 1986). "No Balm in Gilead for Margaret Atwood". The New York Times.
Rushowy, Kristin (16 January 2009). "Atwood Novel Too Brutal, Sexist For School: Parent" (https://www.thestar.com/lif
e/parent/2009/01/16/atwood_novel_too_brutal_sexist_for_school_parent.html). The Toronto Star. Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20160421005619/http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2009/01/16/atwood_novel_too_brutal_sexist_f
or_school_parent.html) from the original on 21 April 2016.
Stein, K. F. (1996). "Margaret Atwood's Modest Proposal: The Handmaid's Tale". Canadian Literature, 148, 5772.
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 19902000, American Library Association, 2009.
Further reading
Adami, Valentina (2011). Bioethics Through Literature: Margaret Atwood's Cautionary Tales. Trier: WVT.
Atwood, Margaret (2001). Bloom, Harold, ed. The Handmaid's Tale. Philadelphia: Chelsea House.
Cooper, Pamela (1997). " 'A Body Story with a Vengeance': Anatomy and Struggle in The Bell Jar and The
Handmaid's Tale". Women's Studies. 26 (1): 89123. doi:10.1080/00497878.1997.9979152 (https://doi.org/10.1080%
2F00497878.1997.9979152).
Dopp, Jamie (1994). "Subject-Position as Victim-Position in The Handmaid's Tale". Studies in Canadian Literature. 19
(1): 4357.
Gardner, Laurel J (1994). "Pornography as a Matter of Power in The Handmaid's Tale". Notes on Contemporary
Literature. 24 (5): 57.
Garretts-Petts, WF (1988). "Reading, Writing and the Postmodern Condition: Interpreting Margaret Atwood's The
Handmaid's Tale". Open Letter. Seventh. I.
Geddes, Dan (January 2001). "Negative Utopia as Polemic: The Handmaid's Tale" (http://www.thesatirist.com/books/
HANDMAID.html). The Satirist.
Hammer, Stephanie Barb (1990). "The World as It Will Be? Female Satire and the Technology of Power in The
Handmaid's Tale". Modern Language Studies. XX (2): 3949. doi:10.2307/3194826 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3194
826).
Malak, Amin (1987). "Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and the Dystopian Tradition". Canadian Literature.
112: 916.
McCarthy, Mary (9 February 1986). "No Headline: The Handmaid's Tale (Boston: Houghton Mifflin)" (https://query.nyti
mes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEEDC143DF93AA35751C0A960948260). The New York Times (review).
Retrieved 11 April 2016.
Mohr, Dunja M. (2005), Worlds Apart: Dualism and Transgression in Contemporary Female Dystopias, Jefferson, NC:
McFarland 2005 Long chapter on The Handmaid's Tale as utopia and dystopia.
Myrsiades, Linda (1999). "Law, Medicine, and the Sex Slave in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale". In
Myrsiades, Kostas; Myrsiades, Linda. Un-Disciplining Literature: Literature, Law, and Culture. New York: Peter Lang.
pp. 21945.
Stanners, Barbara; Stanners, Michael; Atwood, Margaret (2004). Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Top Notes
Literature Guides. Seven Hills, NSW, Australia: Five Senses Education.
External links
Atwood, Margaret (April 2003). The Handmaid's Tale (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/133_wbc_archive_n
ew/page2.shtml) (Audio file format). World Book Club. BBC World Service..
The Handmaid's Tale (http://www.rwb.org/thehandmaidstale) ballet at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Awards
Preceded by Arthur C. Clarke Award Succeeded by
- 1987 The Sea and Summer
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Handmaid%27s_Tale&oldid=815565097"
This page was last edited on 15 December 2017, at 16:38.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

The Handmaid's Tale - Wikipedia

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

The Handmaid's Tale - Wikipedia

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

17/12/2017 The Handmaid's Tale - Wikipedia