Name: The Handmaid's Tale
Rating: 4.7 (44 reviews)
Author: Margaret Atwood

Zusammenfassung von The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

A Dystopian Novel Set in a Totalitarian, Loveless Police State

4.7 (44 Bewertungen)

18 Min.

Kurz zusammengefasst

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian novel about a woman's struggles in a totalitarian society where her identity, fertility and freedoms are suppressed. Through Offred's journey, the book highlights the dangers of extremist religious beliefs and the importance of individual resistance.

Inhaltsübersicht

What’s in it for me? Discover a complex feminist work

Every so often, a novel comes along that is so timely and incisive that it seeps into the wider cultural imagination. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is one such novel. This story of a futuristic patriarchal dystopia, Gilead, and of one woman’s struggle to break free from its oppressive, dehumanizing structures, has emerged as a modern classic.

Now a popular television series of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale has increasingly become a powerful symbol of women’s real-world oppression as well, and the red-robed Handmaids of Gilead have frequently jumped from the pages of Atwood’s novel to protest movements across the globe.

Beyond the red robes, though, lies a compelling and complex story of totalitarianism, misogyny, and resistance. In this Blink, we’ll guide you through a brief summary of all the major plot twists of this modern classic, and we’ll end each section with a brief analysis of some of the main themes.

So, with that, let’s dive in.

Gilead – a dystopia with real-world roots

Welcome to Gilead.

It wasn’t always known by that name, though. Formerly, it was the United States of America. But in the early 2000s, the US government was overthrown by a religious fundamentalist group called the Sons of Jacob. After their successful coup, the Sons of Jacob established their own theocratic dictatorship: the Republic of Gilead.

The citizens of Gilead are bound by many rules. They must dress, behave, and even speak in certain ways – rather than hello, citizens greet each other with “Blessed be the Fruit” or “Under his Eye.” Most of all, they must never venture past the Wall, a tall red brick structure that separates Gilead from the outside world.

For the most part, the citizens of Gilead follow these rules. After all, the Eyes – the secret police – are everywhere, eager to report infractions – and any infraction is met with harsh punishment. Rule-breakers could be exiled to the Colonies, tracts of territory that have been polluted with radioactive waste. Or they could be executed and their bodies hung from the top of the Wall as a warning to others.

But the citizens whose lives are most circumscribed are women. In Gilead, women are sorted into several different classes.

Wives are the most powerful class of women – they’re the spouses of high-ranking Commanders. Although they enjoy status, they have little power outside of their own households. They’re identified by wearing only teal-colored robes.

Handmaids are fertile women of childbearing age. Fertile women are a rarity in Gilead – in this world, fertility has sharply declined and the birthrate is perilously low. Handmaids are assigned to Commanders and have regular sex with them while the Commander’s wife looks on, with the objective of falling pregnant with their Commander’s child. Handmaids don’t have names. They are referred to by the prefix Of- followed by the name of their Commander. For example, Ofglen is the handmaiden of Glen; Ofwarren the handmaiden of Warren. They are only allowed out in the company of a Guardian, the male soldiers in Gilead’s army. Handmaids wear bright red robes and bonnets that hide their faces from view.

Marthas are servants who work in the homes of the Commanders. They wear gray robes.

Aunts act as supervisors to the Handmaidens – they are responsible for their behavior and religious education. They’re the only women in Gilead permitted to read or write. They wear brown robes.

Jezebels are prostitutes.

Unwomen are women who fail to cooperate with the state; as punishment, they’re sent to the Colonies.

ANALYSIS

The author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, has written that when she began the novel in the mid-1980s, she was inspired by recent and contemporary events, like World War II and the rise of the Iron Curtain. These were events, to her mind, that showed how easily the seemingly normal order of the world could be overturned – how easily ordinary people could find themselves living in totalitarian dystopias like Gilead. But, on the novel’s publication in 1985, Atwood wondered whether its premise, that the totalitarian state of Gilead had been established in place of the democratic USA, would strike readers as far-fetched – even though Gilead’s ruthlessly puritanical politics were inspired by events in American history such as the Salem witch trials.

Decades after its publication, though, many people believe that, rather than far-fetched, the novel was uncannily prescient. The 2010s and early 2020s have seen a rise in populist politics across the globe. And in the USA, where the novel is set, right-wing politicians have rolled back reproductive rights in a manner that strikes many observers as Gileadesque – most notably when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, in 2022. In the USA, and around the world, many women have dressed in red handmaid robes as a symbol of protest against the oppression of women’s rights.

The origins of a Handmaid

The story of The Handmaid’s Tale is, at its heart, the story of Offred. We first meet Offred in a repurposed school gymnasium where she and dozens of other women are asleep – or pretending to be – in cots. Guardians patrol the edges of the room, though they keep their backs turned so as not to look at the women. Moving between the beds are Aunts, with cattle prods, to stop the women from escaping, or even talking among themselves.

Later in the book, this gymnasium is revealed to be the Rachel and Leah Re-education Centre, or the Red Centre. In the aftermath of the Sons of Jacob’s coup, the few fertile women of the former USA are rounded up here and re-educated – taught to be submissive, docile Handmaidens. Here, the power-hungry Aunt Lydia gives long speeches about the role of women in Gilead. She attempts to persuade the Handmaidens that Gilead – unlike the USA where pornography and sexual violence proliferated – is a nation that protects and therefore respects women.

Resistance and rebellion

Offred’s life is cramped and confined. Her freedoms are restricted. But she is, at least, safe for the time being. But that’s beginning to change. Cracks are beginning to appear in the carefully controlled world of Gilead.

To begin with, her relationship with the Commander begins to deepen into an ambiguous sort of companionship. One night, after the monthly Ceremony has been completed, Nick, the Commander’s chauffeur, appears at Offred’s door. He informs her the Commander would like to see her in his study. Together, the two play Scrabble – a truly illicit pleasure in a world where women are forbidden to read or write. These visits become regular. The two play Scrabble or the Commander supplies Offred with contraband magazines, like old copies of Vogue, to read. Sometimes they kiss, even though handmaids are expressly forbidden from kissing their Commanders. Without ever forgetting the power the Commander wields over her, Offred begins to cautiously enjoy these intimate moments.