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Futuristic dystopian novel
- The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood published in 1985.
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Who is Margaret Atwood?
May 14, 2024 · Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer best known for her prose fiction and for her feminist perspective. Her notable books include The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Alias Grace (1996), The Blind Assassin (2000), Oryx and Crake (2003), and The Testaments (2019).
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Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.
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- Graeme Gibson (1973–2019; his death)
- 1961–present
Apr 10, 2017 · She once wrote a vivid narrative poem in the voice of Half-Hanged Mary—in Atwood’s telling, a sardonic, independent-minded crone who was targeted by neighbors “for having blue eyes and a...
- Summary
- Themes
- Structure
- Literary Devices
- Analysis, Section by Section
‘Half Hanged Mary‘ by Margaret Atwood is a moving retelling of the near-death of accused witch Mary Webster. In the first stanzas of ‘Half Hanged Mary,’ the speaker, Mary Webster herself, describes the moments leading up to her hanging and why she was chosen. Atwood describes the prejudice against this woman, living alone with “blue eyes and sunbur...
In ‘Half Hanged Mary,’ readers can find themes including women’s rights and the treatment of women, as well as strength and suffering. From the first stanzas of the poem, Mary’s suffering and incredible willpower come through quite clearly. By the end, readers should be amazed that she survived the night, no matter the state that her mind was in at...
‘Half Hanged Mary’ is divided into stanzas of varying lengths. These stanzas are further divided into sections based on the time of the day, beginning with 7:00 in the evening and ending with some time after 8:00 am the next morning. Atwood wrote this poem in free verse, meaning no single rhyme schemeor metrical pattern that unites the lines. Reade...
Atwood makes use of several literary devices in ‘Half Hanged Mary.’ These include anaphora, enjambment, and imagery. The latter, imagery, is one of the most important literary devices that poets can employ in their poems. It is dependent on being creative enough to trigger the reader’s senses. For example, the lines from the 3 A.M. section: “my ear...
7 p.m.
In this section of ‘Half Hanged Mary‘, the woman is accused of witchcraft and sentenced to hang with no evidence apart from that she lived alone, had blue eyes, and sunburned skin. She had apparently given others a home remedy to cure warts and was therefore accused of witchcraft. Her appearance fitting the charge was enough to have her hanged. She mentions, of course, that her breasts were another factor that led her to be hanged without a trial. As a woman, she did not stand a chanceagainst...
8 p.m.
In this section of ‘Half Hanged Mary‘, she is raised to hang. She wonders why they must still use such brutal means of execution and suggests that an ax would be quicker than to hang. She compares herself to a blackened apple, referring once against to her sun-baked skin. She feels people must view her and an “old bone-faced goddess” or some form of a supernatural being who “once took blood in return for food.” She then turns her attention to the men who “stalk homeward” and are “excited by t...
9 p.m.
At 9 pm, she is looking around at everyone she has known, and she feels as though she can peer right into their souls, and what she sees is fear. Her tonein this section does not condemn or hate the ones who once loved her, but now watch her hang. Rather she identifies with them in their fear. Perhaps she had felt the same way before when she had watched others hang. She looks at specific people and remembers what she had done for them. She had cured one’s child and helped another to avoid th...
- The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
- The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
- Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)
- The Blind Assassin
Half-Hanged Mary Summary & Analysis. "Half-Hanged Mary" is Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's tale of patriarchal cruelty and powerful transformation. This dramatic monologue 's speaker is Mary Webster, a 17th-century woman hanged for witchcraft in Puritan Massachusetts.
Apr 27, 2017 · Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was first published in 1985. It’s set in a bleak future where Christian theocrats take over the United States and force some women — called handmaids — to bear children for infertile couples.
