Publisher's Synopsis
The Handmaid's Tale The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel[2] by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.[3][4] Set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian, Christian theonomy that has overthrown the United States government, [5] the novel explores themes of women in subjugation and the various means by which they gain individualism and independence. The novel's title echoes the component parts of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected stories ("The Merchant's Tale," "The Parson's Tale," etc.). The Handmaid's Tale is structured into two parts, night and other various events. This novel can be interpreted as a double narrative, Offred's tale, and the Handmaid's tales. The night sections are solely about Offred, and the other sections (shopping, waiting room, household etc.) are the stories that describe the possible life of every Handmaid. The Handmaid's Tale won the 1985 Governor General's Award and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987; it was also nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. The book has been adapted into a film (1990), an opera (2000), a TV series (2017), and other media. 1 Plot summary 2 Characters 2.1 Offred 2.2 The Commander 2.3 Serena Joy 2.4 Ofglen 2.5 Nick 2.6 Moira 2.7 Luke 2.8 Professor Pieixoto 3 Setting 3.1 Politics 3.2 Religion 3.3 Caste and class 3.4 Gender and occupation 3.5 Legitimate women 3.6 Illegitimate women 3.7 Men 3.8 Babies 3.9 The Ceremony 3.10 Language 4 Genre classification 5 Critical reception 5.1 Feminist reading 5.2 Awards 6 Academic reception 6.1 Other use in academia 7 In other media 7.1 Film 7.2 Television 7.3 Radio 7.4 Audio 7.5 Stage 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Works cited 12 Further reading 13 External links Plot summary The Handmaid's Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America.[5] Beginning with a staged attack that kills the President and most of Congress, a fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionist movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.[7] They are quickly able to take away women's rights, largely attributed to financial records being stored electronically and labelled by sex. The new regime, the Republic of Gilead, moves quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical model of Old Testament-inspired social and religious fanaticism among its newly created social classes. In this society, human rights are severely limited and women's rights are even more curtailed; for example, women are forbidden to read. The story is told in the first person by a woman called Offred. She has an odd name which is explained as the book progresses. The character is one of a class of women kept for reproductive purposes and known as "handmaids" by the ruling class in an era of declining births due to sterility from pollution and sexually transmitted diseases. Offred describes her life during her third assignment as a handmaid, in this case to Fred (referred to as "The Commander"). Interspersed in flashbacks are portions of her life from before and during the beginning of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, through her failed attempt to escape with her husband and daughter to Canada, to her indoctrination into life as a handmaid. Offred describes the structure of Gilead's society, including the several different classes of women and their circumscribed lives in the new theonomy.
