Historical notes
Synopsis of Historical NotesCommentary on Historical Notes
Synopsis of Historical Notes
This section is supposedly a transcript of one lecture from a conference, held in the year 2195, of
historians interested in the former Republic of Gilead, which, it is implied, ceased to exist some time in
the late twentieth/early twenty-first century. The conference is being held in Canada, and the speaker
is a Professor Pieixoto from the University of Cambridge, England, talking on ‘Problems of
Authentication in Reference to The Handmaid's Tale'.
He describes how he and a colleague, Professor Wade, have been working on transcripts of a group
of about thirty old cassette tapes found in a metal box in what had once, before Gilead, been the
State of Maine. Professor Wade has given the title The Handmaid's Tale to these tapes. The voice on
all the cassettes is the same, but they have no way of knowing the correct order in which they should
be organised, nor even if they are authentic. Pieixoto points out that, in Gilead at the time the material
deals with, the tapes could not have been recorded, since a Handmaid would have had no access to
such facilities, so presumably they were not made at the time the speaker is talking about (even
though most of the material is in the present tense).
Professors Pieixoto and Wade have tried to establish the identity of the Handmaid, but with no
success. They realise that she must have been one of the first women forced by the régime to try to
bear children because of the fertility problems in Gilead - the result of AIDS, syphilis, nuclear-plant
accidents and toxic leakages. However, they do not know her name, and suspect that other names
she mentions may be pseudonyms to protect identities.
They have tried instead to identify the Commander in the story, and have come up with two
suggestions: a Frederick Waterford and a Frederick Judd. Waterford was responsible for the design of
uniforms, and details of names and ceremonial details for activities such as Salvagings, whilst Judd
was involved in the massacre of Congress at the time the new régime took over, and for the forced
emigration of Jews. Judd was also responsible for promoting the idea of particicution, and for forming
the group known as the Aunts, whereas Waterford thought of giving them the reassuring names of
well-known commercial products.
However, neither of these men was married to a woman called Serena Joy, but they think this name
may have been invented by the Handmaid. They think the evidence is most in favour of the
Commander being Waterford, who was executed for being in possession of literary material and for
‘harbouring a subversive', which could have been Offred.
Pieixoto admits that they have no idea what happened to the Handmaid, and whether Nick really
assisted her. He may have done so, Pieixoto suggests, because Nick himself would have been in
danger after indulging in illicit sexual activity and could not risk Offred talking under torture.
Pieixoto then asks if there are any questions.
Commentary on Historical Notes
These ‘Historical Notes' completely alter our perception of the novel. We have been made aware
throughout that Offred's account is a construct, but now we are told that the order of the material is
totally arbitrary. We are also asked to consider the Republic of Gilead not as a possible future state,
but as one that existed in the past, as far as the speaker is concerned. See Structure and methods of
narration.
Notes - This term perhaps suggests something relatively unimportant, as if the whole of Offred's
experiences is a mere side issue for these historians
Gileadean Studies - The Republic of Gilead no longer exists, and is merely the subject of historical
research. This is a reminder to Atwood's readers that even the most powerful régime or empire will in
time fail or fade into obscurity.
Denay, Nunavit - Nunavut is a genuine place - a large region of
northern Canada. Atwood's choice of the names for this place and region create an interesting pun:
‘deny none of it'- which suggests that, although Pieixoto is patronising and flippant about Offred's
experiences, Atwood may well be indicating that there is an essential truth to be found in her
narrative.
Chair ... Keynote Speaker - The Chair is a woman, and her name suggests that she is of native
Canadian Indian descent. However, the Speaker, from a different academic background, is male and
indulges in patronising comments belittling women.
The Nature Walk - these activities suggest a very different environment from the toxic-waste and
nuclear fall-out background which so affected Gilead. Atwood herself spent her childhood summers in
the Canadian backwoods with her entomologist father. (See Biography of Margaret Atwood.)
Republic of Texas - We learn that the structure of the USA has obviously changed if Texas is now a
separate republic.
Gileadean Civil Wars - Presumably the rebels grew in numbers until civil war erupted - an echo of
the Civil War in nineteenth century America.
If not personally - The word ‘personally' is significant: ironically, Pieixoto, like Offred, is only known
through what is written; yet his writings are obviously impersonal and, as we see later, he does not
value her revelation of her own thoughts and personality.
Authentication - The Professors are only interested in proving the provenance of the material. Its
actual content, and the way in which Offred shares her thoughts with us, together with her insights
into human relationships, seem of little or no interest to them. Later Pieixoto expresses regret that the
Handmaid did not talk about ‘the workings of the Gileadean empire'. He never discusses what she
does talk about.
‘enjoy' - Pieixoto indulges in a sexist punning joke: he enjoyed eating the fish, char, and he finds the
Chair pleasant, but he implies that a man such as himself might once have ‘enjoyed' such a women
sexually.
‘The Handmaid's Tale'... Chaucer - Chaucer, the fourteenth century English poet
(whose work features elsewhere on the Crossref-it website), wrote a series of stories in verse
called The Canterbury Tales, including, for example, The Wife of Bath's Tale.
puns … intentional, particularly … tail - Pieixoto - and some of his audience - find it amusing that
his colleague has chosen a title which makes a joke about Offred's being forced into sexual slavery.
Underground Frailroad - In chapter 38, there was an escape route from Gilead known as the
Underground Femaleroad - an echo of the nineteenth century escape route for slaves known as the
Underground Railroad. Pieixoto puns on the name substituting ‘Frail' for ‘Rail' or ‘Female', since
females were once known as the ‘frail sex'. This is another sexist joke which Atwood - a feminist ascribes to the Professor, suggesting therefore that she is presenting a type of man whose views we
are not to share.
U.S. Army issue - Nick had a U.S. Army blanket, though this does not offer any proof that he was
involved in hiding the tapes. As Pieixoto says, ‘This fact of itself need have no significance.'
two or three songs - In chapter 10, Offred recalls her mother's old cassette tapes of songs. She says
that her mother had ‘a scratchy and untrustworthy machine, too' and would play the music tapes for
her friends.
tapes … in no particular order - In the rest of the novel, Offred's story moves backwards and
forwards in time, but seems a coherent narrative. Now Atwood seems to suggest that the order of
events is arbitrary, leaving us to assume that the real significance of Offred's tale is not when things
happened but how she felt about them or reacted to them. (See Structure and methods of narration.)
judgements are … culture-specific ... not .. censure but .. understand - Although the audience
seems to share Pieixoto's view that we should not judge Gilead harshly, Atwood may well be
presenting us with a more complex ethical dilemma: how far can, or should, we stay morally neutral?
If the depiction of Gilead includes some terrible atrocities which we find echoed in our own society,
should we ignore the comparisons?
establish an identity for the narrator - Pieixoto and Wade see their task as ‘establishing an identity'
for Offred, but fail to respond to the identity which she has established for herself through her
narrative. (See Themes and significant ideas > Individualism and identity.)
The first wave of women recruited - ‘Recruited' suggests that volunteers were asked for, whereas
Offred's account makes it clear that women were arrested, imprisoned and forced into sexual slavery.
Pieixoto goes on to describe the men who ‘required such services and could lay claim to them', which
seems to suggest that men such as the Commander had a right to use women in such a way.
Nuclear-plant accidents … disposal sites - Atwood's strong awareness of, and commitment to,
environmental issues has in recent years led to her writing two dystopian novels about a cataclysmic
end to most of humankind and to civilisation as we know it: Oryx and Crake and The Year of the
Flood. (See Social / political context > Atwood's use of actual historical events > The real dystopia.)
Utah in the nineteenth century - A reference to the Mormons, a religious group founded in America
in the mid-nineteenth century, which initially supported the idea of polygamy (men having several
wives).
Our author … was one of many - Pieixoto seems to undermine the idea of Offred's individuality. As
she herself said in chapter 30, ‘One and one and one and one doesn't equal four. Each one remains
unique.' (See also Themes and significant ideas > Individualism and identity.)
Names … connection - Pieixoto's choice of terminology again diminishes the horror of what
happened to these women. They did not ‘take' the names, but, against their own wills, were called by
their ‘owners'' names. Their relationship with these men was not the bland one suggested by
‘connection' but a forced imprisonment for sexual purposes.
Sons of Jacob - The twelve sons of Jacob were the founders of
the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob's two wives were Rachel and Leah, after whom Gilead's Rachel and
Leah Centre (the Red Centre) was named.
mistake … teaching them to read - Atwood is extremely aware of the significance of reading and of
nuances of language. She has shown how Gilead closed the Universities and banned literature,
knowing that the dissemination of ideas through reading could be a vital weapon against oppression.
(See also Social / political context > Political satire > Hitler and the Nazis or China and the Cultural
Revolution.)
Scapegoats … useful throughout history - A scapegoat is someone who is blamed for the faults
or sins of others. For example, in Orwell's novel 1984, the populace is invited to scream in hatred at a
supposed enemy of the state, Emmanuel Goldstein, to divert their attention from government failures.
The term comes from a ritual, described in the Bible in Leviticus 16:6-22, of sending a goat out into
the desert, symbolically carrying away the sins of the Israelites.
Particicution ... echoes … fertility rites - In such rites men are sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the
earth (as described in Mary Renault's novel The King Must Die). It is ironic that such a rigorously
patriarchal, and supposedly fundamentalist Christian, society as the Republic of Gilead should use a
practice associated with strongly matriarchal pagan societies.
invention by our author - There may be a sly joke here by Atwood: for Pieixoto, ‘our author' who has
created the name ‘Serena Joy' is Offred - but we are also reminded that ‘our author' is actually
Atwood. (The same is true of the later phrase ‘our anonymous author', even though Atwood is not
‘anonymous'.)
the workings of the Gileadean empire - Pieixoto has missed the point of Offred's - and Atwood's narrative. Atwood has not chosen to invent the details of a totalitarian regime. What we do learn about
its methods are echoes, deliberately chosen by Atwood, of tactics used in many real tyrannies, so we
do not need to have further invented details. Instead, Atwood has chosen to give us an insight into the
mind of a woman trapped in such terrible circumstances, and her attempts to survive in both body and
soul.
the human heart remains a factor - For Pieixoto, Nick's only motive would be that ‘no male of the
Gilead period could resist the possibility of fatherhood.' Pieixoto fails to realise that the factor which is
‘the human heart' could mean that Nick felt love, or at least strong affection, for Offred, as she did for
him.
We cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day - Atwood leaves
us to wonder whether we can, in any case, ‘decipher' the voices of the past. How do we begin to do
this, and is ‘our own day' at all ‘clearer' than the past?
Are there any questions? - We should, after reading The Handmaid's Tale, have many questions to
ask about our own society, and what we find acceptable or unacceptable in it.