Essays on The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale
Original title The Handmaid’s Tale
Author Margaret Atwood
Genre

Dystopian Novel Speculative Fiction Tragedy

Language English
Characters Offred, Commander Fred Waterford, Serena Joy Waterford, Moira, Luke, Aunt Lydia, Nick, Janine, Ofglen, Ofwarren ...
Published 1985 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0385490818
Book Summary
Essay Examples

Table of Contents

About The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The novel is set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian, Christian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government. The story centers on the handmaids, women who are forced into sexual servitude as a last resort to bear children for the elite. The novel examines themes of women in subjugation and the various means by which they resist and attempt to gain independence.The novel is told in the first-person perspective of a handmaid named Offred. The character is one of the few remaining fertile women in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian, theocratic state that has overthrown the United States government. In Gilead, women are divided into different social classes based on their fertility and usefulness. The handmaids are a class of women who are forced into sexual servitude in order to bear children for the elite. Offred is assigned to the household of the Commander, a high-ranking official in the Gilead regime. She is treated as a property of the state, and her every move is monitored.Offred is a complex character who is forced to navigate the dangerous waters of the Gilead regime. She is a handmaid, but she is also a wife and a mother. She is a victim of the regime, but she is also a survivor. Throughout the novel, Offred slowly begins to rebel against the strictures of the Gilead regime. She starts to form friendships with the other handmaids, and she even begins a clandestine relationship with the Commander. As the novel progresses, Offred becomes more and more daring in her resistance.The Handmaid’s Tale is a powerful and disturbing novel about the oppression of women in a male-dominated society. It is a story of survival and resistance, and it is also a story of hope.

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FAQ about The Handmaid’s Tale

How does the Handmaids Tale address the issues of social examination?
...Her memories will always be there and rebellion will always live in certain members of society, the brothel in which Moira worked was a form of revolt as was the very account of Offred's tales. These rays of hope shine through the totalitarian, dysto...
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