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The central conflict of The Handmaid’s Tale arises as Offred struggles to preserve her sense of herself as a human being under the oppressive regime of the Republic of Gilead. This struggle takes place across three timelines.
- Full Book Summary
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a...
- 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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- The Handmaid's Tale
From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations...
- Full Book Summary
The best study guide to The Handmaid’s Tale on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need.
This analysis provides insight into the motivations and developments of the key characters in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” showcasing their struggles, adaptations, and roles in the broader narrative of resistance and survival within a dystopian regime.
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- The Handmaid’s Tale Themes
- Analysis of Key Moments in The Handmaid’s Tale
- Style, Tone and Figurative Language
- Analysis of Symbols
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.
This dystopian novel sets a new trend in postmodern, futuristic fiction by presenting a totalitarian regime of Gilead in the United States in the aftermath of civil war, a patriarchal future government.
By Margaret Atwood. 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a dystopian novel set in New England, in the new totalitarian state, Gilead. The novel depicts a society that uses religion to excuse the subjugation of women and those who fight back in a desperate attempt to regain their freedom.
