HANDMAIDS TALE DYSTOPIAN ELEMENTS: The people are restricted from independent thought and action - - - The government in control is often oppressive - The setting if often futuristic, or in fictional universe - Contains elements of conformity, or extreme equality - The government portrays their society as a utopia - Women were not allowed to own property or hold jobs in the early days of the regime. Women were segregated into different classes, and they were not allowed to move freely into other countries, many families were split up, and were not allowed to shirk their duties. Everyone had to be careful of what they said, because they could be turned in for treason. The government restricts access to food, local areas, and travel with the use of food tokens, pass cards and checkpoints Government requires Commanders’ households with Handmaids complete the ceremony each month Pious answers be given as responses for everyday conversations Black vans ride around and pick up people who are accused of treason Hang the bodies on the wall for public display The setting is not futuristic until the end of the novel; however, at the time of the writing of the novel, this does take place sometime in the future (1990s) The western hemisphere has fundamentally changed; the US no longer exists, replace by Republic of Gilead All classes expected to wear the same clothing that corresponds to their class or duty Handmaids wear red, wives wear powder blue, Martha’s wear green. People expected to greet each other with pious sayings Gilead does allow tourists to come and view the society as the example of the society that is doing right When Japanese tourists ask Offred if she is happy, she is expected to say yes When the population is replenished and women no longer have to work so hard, everyone will be happy - The protagonist wishes to restore the people to conventional life QUOTE GENRE: dialogue “Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary” – Aunt Lydia (C6) *Government is controlling and oppressive* GENRE: characterisation “I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.” – Offred (C7) * Restricted from independent thought and action, protagonist wishes to restore the people to conventional life* - Offred holds out hope that her husband Luke is still alive and that together they will be able to save their daughter Toys with the Mayday Resistance idea, but decides not to give in to it because she’s falling for Nick Makes tapes in hope that it can be used for the resistance to return to a normal life CONTEXT Offred and Ofglen are standing by the Wall, looking at the bodies of the people who have been hung. Horrifies Offred, but she pushes aside her repugnance and substitutes an emotional blankness as she represses her natural revulsion, she remembers Aunt Lydia’s words about how life in Gilead will “become ordinary.” Reflects the connection between Offred’s story, her readers, her lost family, and her inner state. These words suggest that Offred is not recounting events from afar, looking back on an earlier period in her life. Rather, she is describing the horror of Gilead as she experiences it from day to day. EXPLANATION Aunt Lydia’s statement reflects the power of totalitarian state to transform a natural human response such as revulsion at an execution into “blankness” suggests that Gilead succeeds not by making people believe that its ways are right, but by making people forget what a different world could be like Torture and tyranny become accepted because they are “what you are used to.” For Offred, the act of telling her story becomes a rebellion against her society. Gilead seeks to silence women, but Offred speaks out, even if it is only to an imaginary reader, to Luke, or to God. Gilead denies women control over their own lives, but Offred’s creation of a story gives her, as she puts it, “control over the ending.” Offred’s creation of a narrative gives her hope for the future, a sense that “there will be an ending . . . and real life will come after it.” She can hope that someone will hear her story, or that she will tell it to Luke someday. Offred has found the only avenue of rebellion available in her totalitarian society: she denies Gilead control over her inner life. GENRE: language “I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping.” -Offred (C13) Offred sits in the bath, naked, and contrasts the way she used to think about her body to the way she thinks about it now. Before, her body was an instrument, an extension of herself; now, herself no longer matters, and her body is only important because of its “central object,” her womb, which can bear a child. Offred’s musings show that she has internalized Gilead’s attitude toward women, which treats them not as individuals but as objects important only for the children that they can bear. Offred describes how she and Ofglen sometimes take different ways to and from their shopping trips. Although Offred and the other Handmaids can leave their houses without direct supervision, they can only go as far as the walls of the city. Offred understands that though it seems like a kind of freedom to be able to go different places, within their own “maze” they are just as much prisoners as anyone in a jail cell. Women’s wombs are a “national resource,” the state insists, using language that dehumanizes women and reduces them to, as Offred puts it, “a cloud, congealed around a central object, which is hard and more real than I am.” * The government portrays their society as a utopia* GENRE: metaphor, setting Now and again, we vary the route; there’s nothing against it, as long as we stay within the barriers. A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze. *The government portrays their society as a utopia* GENRE: setting, imagery, language The lawns are tidy, the facades are gracious, in good repair; they’re like the beautiful pictures they used to print in the magazines about homes and gardens and interior decoration. Describes the external perfection of the “heart of Gilead,” which belies the corruption at its centre. Offred likens the empty, perfect neighbourhood to magazine photos, observing the oppressive vacancy of the streets. There are no people here and notably no children play on the tidy lawns, which creates an unnatural quiet. * The government portrays their society as a utopia* Here in the heart of Gilead, “the war cannot intrude.” While she cannot know how big Gilead has become, Offred does know that here, in the centre, all of the changes its emergence has brought about seem permanent. GENRE: setting, imagery Not a dandelion in sight here, the lawns are picked clean. I long for one, just one, rubbishy and insolently random and hard to get rid of and perennially yellow as the sun. Cheerful and plebeian, shining for all alike. * The government portrays their society as a utopia* Offred observes the clinical neatness of the lawns in Gilead, in which not even a single dandelion can grow, as she and Ofglen, and the other handmaids, make their way to the Prayvaganza. Offred longs for a dandelion to break up the false perfection of the perfectly manicured lawns, in much the same way she revels in her memories of Moira and her escape, desperate for some tangible proof that nature is working against the forces of Gilead. GENRE: dialogue, language “Under His Eye,” she says. The right farewell. “Under His Eye,” I reply, and she gives a little nod. Offred and Ofglen exchange the appropriate goodbye when they part at the end of the shopping trip. The saying serves as a reminder to the people of Gilead that they are always being watched. This farewell is symbolic of their complete lack of freedom: No matter where they go, they are at risk of being caught should they break any rules or transgress in any way. *Elements of conformity, or extreme equality* GENRE: symbolism Everything except the wings around my face is red: the colour of blood, which defines us. *Elements of conformity, or extreme equality* Handmaids wear clothing made almost entirely of red (except for the white wings extending from their wimple). The colour red symbolizes blood: the menstrual blood of the handmaids, necessary for conception but also a reminder of sexuality. Thus, the red clothing represents the dual symbolism of the handmaids’ fertility: their function and purpose as breeders, but also as objects of perversion in this repressed society.
