The Handmaid's Tale

Detail from best-known US paperback edition by -- ?

First edition

Cover of notes

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood.

Plot

Set in a dystopian vision of North America, society has been taken over by religious zealots who have founded the Republic of Gilead. In this republic, the bible is used as a means of repressing and controlling women for the purposes of breeding. The handmaid of the title is known now only as Offred (her real, pre-Gileadean name is never exposed), and her role in this new society is as a 'vessel' for barren wives. Handmaids are ritualized surrogate mothers who live in family households and provide a 'vessel' for the husband's sperm - any babies born then become the property of the wive and the handmaid is moved onto another household. In this environment, Offred dreams of escape and rebellion even as she submits to the routine imposed upon her.

Characters

• Offred ("of Fred") is a woman who clearly remembers the pre-Gileadean society (which is essentially the same as late 20th century America). Separated from her husband and young daughter by the Gileadeans, she and women like her are subjected to a training/brainwashing regime for the vocation of handmaid and then packed off to different households. Offred's dearest memories and the source of her ability to resist the indoctrination process are the recollections of three important females in her life: her radical feminist mother, who seems to have been part of the 1960s/70s feminist movement; her young daughter, and her feminist, rebellious friend Moira.
• Luke, "Offred"'s husband
• Moira, Offred's friend
• Nick, Offred's lover
• Serena Joy
• Fred, the Commander
• Ofglen, neighbor

Women in Gileadean Society:

Women are segregated into colour-coded roles:

• Handmaids (red) - women who have proved to be fertile, often also the ones who pose the biggest threat to the republic's repression of sex and sexuality. Handmaids are perhaps the most scorned of the female groups in the republic.
• Wives (blue) - live lives of dull, polite monotony, knitting, going to each other's houses to gossip, occasionally sharing the excitement of a birth.
• Econowives (multi-coloured stripes) - poor wives who cannot afford servants.
• Marthas (green) - servants.
• Daughters (white)
• Aunts (can't remember colour - brown?) - the women who run the indoctrination centres for handmaids.

Editions & translations

• 1985
• Houghton Mifflin 1986
• Fawcett 1986

Adaptations

• The Handmaid's Tale (film)
• "The Handmaid's Tale (opera)" by Poul Ruders.
• The Handmaid's Tale (stage)" Theatrical stage adaptation by Brendon Burns (2002), toured by Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, UK.

Influence and Awards

• Ironically, The Handmaid's Tale has frequently been challenged by religious right groups, requesting that it be removed from libraries and school curricula. American Library Association 10 Most Challenged Books of 1999; #37 on 100 Most Frequently Challenged books of 1990-2000.
• Shortlisted for Retrospective James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
• Won first annual Arthur C. Clarke Award in England
• nominated for Nebula Award, best novel
• shortlisted for Booker Prize

Further reading

• Paul Brians, Study Guide to Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale (1986)
• Book discussion group on feministSF mailing list (Nov. 2001)
• LibraryThing discussion of THT (and another)

Additional fiction

• Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue shows a future US in which women have been stripped of their rights