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Learn how Offred struggles to preserve her identity and humanity under the oppressive regime of Gilead. Explore the novel's themes, characters, and timelines through a detailed summary and analysis.
- Full Book Summary
A short summary of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale....
- Themes
Offred’s choices invite us to wonder where passivity ends...
- Key Facts
Full title The Handmaid’s Tale. Author Margaret Atwood. Type...
- Important Quotes Explained
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- Full Book Summary
LitCharts offers comprehensive analysis of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Explore the plot, themes, characters, symbols, quotes, and historical context of this classic work of speculative fiction.
- The Handmaid’s Tale Themes
- Analysis of Key Moments in The Handmaid’s Tale
- Style, Tone and Figurative Language
- Analysis of Symbols
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Storytelling
Although it is less obvious than some of the themes in the novel, storytelling is quite important. The story is structured with Offred’s telling of her life in Gilead at the center. There are a few moments in which Offred reminds the reader of this fact, such as when she considers if anyone is ever going to hear her story. This theme is reinforced at the end of the story when Atwood concludes with “Historical Notes on the Handmaid’s Tale”. Here, the professor regards Offred’s story as somethi...
Oppression/Rebellion
If a story is going to make use of one of these themes, it is likely only going to be successful if it uses the other. The women, in all levels of Gilead’s society, are repressed at some level. This does not exclude the wives of the Commanders. The stories that Atwood fears in this novel, through Offred’s narration, are based around the desire to rebel or the act of rebellion itself. For example, Moira’s escape from the Red Center and Ofglen’s work with Mayday. Offred rebels in her own, less...
Gender Roles
No discussion of The Handmaid’s Tale would be complete without understanding the importance of gender roles in Gilead’s society. The government is a theocracy, based around religion, and they use that religion as an excuse to oppress and control the women who live within it. The hierarchy in their world is incredibly important. Women have lost control of their bank accounts, their homes, their families, and, most importantly, their bodies. There is a passage in the novel in which the Commande...
Offred arrives at Fred and Serena Joy’s home to become their new Handmaid.Offred goes shopping with Ofglen; Nick winks at her.Offred and Ofglen see the Japanese tourists.They go to the Wall where bodies of traitors are displayed.The tone throughout The Handmaid’s Tale is bleak. Hope and happiness are few are far between and Offred only just makes it from day to day in her life. The entirety of her independence has been striped away from her. There are moments of nostalgia as well when Offred pines for the past and the family she used to have. Throughout the novel, Margaret...
Red
The color red is one of the most important symbols in the novel. It appears throughout the story associated with the Handmaid’s, shame, sex/passion, as well as fertility. Offred even notices it, referring to it as “blood” and connecting it to the violence that Gilead creates. The color appears in the Handmaid’s clothes as well as in Serena’s garden. The tulips are also red.
Makeup
Makeup is a complex symbol in the novel. It at once symbolizes felinity and the lost freedom that Offred longs for as well as control. The Commander, on the other hand, sees the women as having been liberated from makeup. They no longer have to wear it, nor do they have to think about their appearance. But, despite this, he gives Offred makeup to where to the hotel. Although Offred is not given makeup or even lotion, she does the best she can to take care of herself. She uses butter on occasi...
Harvard University
The University is one of the less obvious symbols in the novel. It has been transformed into a detention center out of which the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police, operate. There, bodies hang off the walls that surround the college. The Eyes even put on mass executions in front of the library. Harvard exists as a juxtaposition between the world as it used to be and the world that Gilead created.
Explore the themes of oppression, rebellion, gender roles, and storytelling in Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel. Learn how Atwood uses nonlinear style, figurative language, and symbols to create a bleak and powerful narrative.
Explore the dystopian world of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that oppresses women and controls reproduction. Learn about the plot, characters, themes, symbols, and literary devices of Margaret Atwood's novel and its adaptation.
The story revolves around the narrative of Offred, a woman heading the group of women called handmaids assigned to produce children of the state for the ruling class of commanders. The novel presents the theme of feminine individuality under patriarchal subjugation, winning Booker, Arthur C. Clark, and Nebula Awards in quick succession for Atwood.
A comprehensive guide to the dystopian novel set in a totalitarian theocracy where women are enslaved and oppressed. Learn about the themes, characters, historical context, quotes, and more from this classic work of feminist literature.
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