The Handmaid’s Tale
by
Margaret Atwood
Edvard Munch: Summer Night’s Dream
An A level English Workbook
by
Jo Phillips
~ Wessex Publications ~
Contents
Using the Workbook .......................................................................................................................... 1
Biographical Note .............................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 3
Section I: Night ................................................................................................................................. 4
Section II: Shopping .......................................................................................................................... 6
Section III: Night ............................................................................................................................... 12
Section IV: Waiting Room................................................................................................................. 14
Section V: Nap................................................................................................................................... 17
Section VI: Household....................................................................................................................... 19
Section VII: Night.............................................................................................................................. 22
Section VIII: Birth Day...................................................................................................................... 23
Section IX: Night ............................................................................................................................... 27
Section X: Soul Scrolls ...................................................................................................................... 28
Section XI: Night ............................................................................................................................... 30
Section XII: Jezebel’s ........................................................................................................................ 31
Section XIII: Night ............................................................................................................................ 37
Section XIV: Salvaging ..................................................................................................................... 38
Section XV: Night.............................................................................................................................. 41
Section XVI: Historical Notes ........................................................................................................... 42
Themes............................................................................................................................................... 45
References to Time ............................................................................................................................ 47
Biblical and other References ............................................................................................................ 49
The Social Structure........................................................................................................................... 51
The First Person Narrative Style........................................................................................................ 52
Characters .......................................................................................................................................... 53
Essay and Revision Questions ........................................................................................................... 57
The Handmaid’s Tale
Using the Workbook
USING THE WORKBOOK
The workbook examines various aspects of The Handmaid' Tale and,
as you progress through the text, you will be asked to complete tasks
that will help you to focus on the text and its meaning. All the tasks are
designed to help you appreciate the meaning of The Handmaid's Tale
and to understand its significance as literature.
In addition to working in the workbook itself, you will need to keep
your own fuller notes. These will provide an important revision aid if
you are intending to answer on this text in an examination.
At the end of the workbook you will find a number of specimen
questions of the kind that you might find set for A-Level English
Literature (or an examination of similar standard). These titles and
questions would also be suitable for coursework assignments on this
text. If you are going to answer on this text in an examination, it would
be very useful to practise writing answers to some of these and to
consider how you would tackle the others.
Good luck with your studying.
Edvard Munch: Summer Night’s Dream
NOTE:
All text references in this workbook refer to the Vintage edition 1996.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
A Biographical Note
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and spent much of her
early life in Canadian bush country in parts of Ontario and Quebec.
Her first volume of poetry The Circle Game came out in 1966 and her
first novel The Edible Woman in 1969. Recurrent themes in her work
explore survival: women struggling for independence and identity; and
an environment under siege from pollution and mismanagement.
The full list (November 2001) of Margaret Atwood's work is as
follows:
NOVELS
The Edible Woman
Surfacing
Lady Oracle
Life Before Man
Bodily Harm
The Handmaid's Tale
Cat's Eye
The Robber Bride
Alias Grace
The Blind Assassin
SHORT FICTION
Murder in the Dark
Good Bones
Bones and Murder
SHORT STORIES
Dancing Girls
Bluebeard's Egg
Wilderness Tips
POETRY
Selected Poems 1965-1975
Selected Poems 1976-1986
Morning in the Burned House
The Journals of Susanna Moodie
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
This is a futuristic story set in the not very far future. The imaginary
regime, Gilead, had its genesis in the assassination of the President and
Congress, so we imagine Gilead to be centred around Washington D.C.
but we do not really know and the exact geographical location is not
important. At least we know that it is somewhere in what is now the
United States of America. We also know that people escape from
Gilead, over the border into Canada, and that there is constant
resistance to the regime from neighbouring States. Though no precise
dates are given, the Tale is one of warning, of what could happen to
our present society if a backlash were initiated, by a new regime,
against our slack morals and our neglect of the environment. The fact
that the Tale is a warning, only becomes apparent as the story unfolds.
Like all 'good' stories the reader is kept curious and is impelled to seek
out clues as to what exactly is going on in the restrictive regime under
which the narrator, Offred, is living.
Read the text first
It is important to read the story through as a whole before you begin to
study the book in detail - with the help of these notes. If you launch
into the notes immediately, you will not be able to enjoy the subtlety
with which the story unfolds and the suspense element will lose its full
impact.
The Handmaid's Tale is a work of art by one of the top writers in
English at the present time. A careful second reading of the novel,
asking yourself the questions raised in the notes and examining details
of language and technique, will help you to appreciate Margaret
Atwood's skill and give you a greater understanding of the whole
work.
Understanding Margaret Atwood's narrative skills and her exceptional
facility with words and images will also help you to organise and
strengthen your own writing style, in poetry as well as prose.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section I: Night
SECTION I: NIGHT
Note:
Only one chapter comprises Section One. It is intended as
an introduction to a different world.
Margaret Atwood has written The Handmaid's Tale in the first person
narrative form through the character Offred, whose name we do not
learn immediately. In fact, we never learn the name that Offred was
born with and known by in the 'time before', in a free world, but we do
learn a great deal of this previous life of Offred through small snippets
of memory and other longer flashbacks that she indulges in.
Re-read Ch.1 (and each chapter as you come to it.)
Remember the quickly aroused curiosity of your first reading and
notice how Margaret Atwood builds up the reader's interest.
The opening setting is a gymnasium, no longer used for its intended
purposes. Curiosity starts here. Who, for instance, the reader wants to
know, does the 'we' refer to in the 'we slept'?
TASK 1
This short chapter, bearing in mind your reaction on your first reading,
poses several questions in your mind, rousing your curiosity. List these
questions, briefly.
The tantalising element of this novel is that your questions are only
answered bit by bit; certain information is withheld, to lure you on into
the story.
Notice the word 'palimpsest' in the first paragraph. It means: a piece of
writing material or manuscript on which later writing has been written
over the effaced original writing. (OED)
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section I: Night
Suggest why 'a palimpsest......' is a well chosen metaphor in this
chapter and, in general, is applicable to the whole novel.
TERMS
Aunts - Women like prison warders, who instruct the handmaids.
Later we will build up a picture of them, particularly Aunt Lydia.
Angels - outside, armed guards; we presume male; 'objects of fear'.
Possibly open to bribery: 'some trade-off, we still had our bodies'.
(This reference extends the lingering aura of past sexuality that Offred
sensed in the old gymnasium that has once been used as a dance hall.)
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section II: Shopping
SECTION II: SHOPPING
Chapter Two (Re-read the chapter)
Notice the Present Tense, to give a sense of immediacy, although this
scene is eventually revealed as memory. The use of this literary device,
sometimes known as the historic present, is worth noting as you read
and come to realise how cleverly Margaret Atwood manipulates time,
playing tricks with the reader. The discovery at the end of the book
that the whole of Offred's life is now an historic document, is a final
surprise for the reader.
A new setting. Offred is alone in a bedroom: 'Not my room, I refuse to
say my.' (These asides show Offred's determination not to submit
totally to the system. On p.17 she says: 'There's a lot that doesn't bear
thinking about. Thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last'.)
The bedroom is described in detail and, once again, clues are being
scattered for the reader. The atmosphere of the room is old-fashioned
and simple: white curtains, a rug of braided rags, a smell of polish.
TASK 2
What comparison does Offred make to herself and the rag rug?
So that her life will not be wasted 'they' have removed everything from
the room that could aid suicide. Later, of course, we learn that her
usefulness is as a breeder of children.
COLOURS OF RANKS
RED is the colour worn by Handmaids - the role which we are
discovering that Offred plays. She tells us that, because of her status in
the house, she may only 'stand or kneel' in the sitting room, which is
the sanctum of the Commander's Wife, the highest-ranking female.
The Commander's wife wears BLUE, whilst The Commander wears
BLACK. We learn this from the umbrellas in the hall umbrella stand.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
TASK 3
Section II: Shopping
Describe Offred's 'uniform' and compare it to the traditional habit of a
nun. How do her clothes reflect her feelings and her role? Similarly,
describe a Martha's uniform and its significance.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES (See, also, notes at the end of the
workbook)
In the New Testament, Martha is the sister of Mary and resents being
tied to household chores whilst Mary finds favour with Christ and
follows him. There are many Biblical references in the Handmaid's
Tale. Those who have set up the new strict regime believe that they are
serving God and are acting according to their interpretation of various
passages in The Old and New Testament.
The end of this chapter gives an insight into Offred's loneliness and
nostalgia for old times and simple friendships, though she used to
despise trivial chit-chat. Now she is so craving human warmth that she
'hungers to commit the act of touch' and wants to plunge her hands into
the warm bread dough. This thought brings memories of her husband,
Luke: his love of words; her teasing of him.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section II: Shopping
Further information is gleaned at the end of the chapter when Rita
suggests that Offred uses her Commander's status to get the best food
on her shopping expeditions. 'Tell them who it's for.' At this stage the
reader knows little about the Commander and here is another scrap of
detail quietly produced. He is, apparently, of high rank among the
Commanders.
Chapter Three (Re-read the chapter)
TASK 4
A picture begins to emerge of the Commander's Wife. Describe her
appearance and what you learn or infer about her life and attitude.
Quote telling phrases or lines so that you have them for reference.
An interesting light on the Handmaid's status is Aunt Lydia's opinion,
in contrast to Commander's Wife's. Aunt Lydia has lobbied for front
door status for her 'girls', not the servants' entrance at the back. 'Your's
is a position of honour,' she has taught the Handmaids.
Chapters Four, Five and Six (Re-read)
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section II: Shopping
These three chapters describe Offred's shopping trip in the company of
another Handmaid, Ofglen, with whom she has been newly paired. The
two women are in a position to act as spies on each other and they
exchange formula remarks for which there are set replies, each waiting
for the other to branch out with a true exchange of confidence.
The style of narrative continues to include glimpses, in flashback, to a
contrasting way of life that Offred once enjoyed, always introduced as
a subtle counterpoint to the present moment in her life as a Handmaid.
TASK 5
Write a short description of Offred's life before the uprising, drawing
on details you have picked up in these first six chapters. Include the
meeting with the Japanese tourists. What is interesting about Offred's
attitude to the women in the tourist group?
Margaret Atwood's writing is very controlled and skilfully planned.
The fact that Offred cannot even talk, at this stage, about her child, of
her memories of her little girl, makes the pain of her loss particularly
poignant when the reader eventually realises that Offred has lost not
only her husband, but a child as well, and also her mother and her
closest friend, Moira.
TASK 6
Find the poignant sentence (p.40) - 'We have learned to see the world
in gasps.' - and explain and illustrate its meaning, not just in the
context of the visual world but as applied to Offred's situation as a
whole.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section II: Shopping
In chapter 6, Offred and Ofglen, having finished their shopping, make
their way towards the church. It is a politically acceptable trip, as the
church is now a museum and those who rest in the graveyard pose no
threat to the regime: 'It is only the more recent history that offends
them.' (the Regime) Ofglen bows her head as if praying but Offred
feels that her companion is only acting a part. (But how can she be
sure? It is this lack of trust that causes the unease between the two
Handmaids.)
Having made a show of visiting the church, they turn their backs on it
and face the Wall. Behind the Wall is a prison and on the Wall hang
the bodies of the latest victims of the regime, men condemned or
betrayed by their fellows at the Salvaging - a barbaric sort of open
trial, we learn about later.
TASK 7
How do you explain the fact that the two women have pretended that
their real reason for walking in a certain direction was to see the
church, not the wall?
Analyse Offred's reaction to the dead bodies.
What are the implications of the paragraph on p.43 starting 'I look at
the one red smile...'?
continue over
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section II: Shopping
You may have suggestions to add to these about the red imagery.
Include these in your notebook.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section III: Night
SECTION III: NIGHT
Chapter 7 NIGHT (Re-read)
You will have noticed that Night recurs as a section heading. There are
seven such sections. Night time is Offred's own time, her escape time even from the 'plaster eye' above her bed. She talks of being 'out of
time,' echoing the idea of time travellers, in the previous section; but
she knows that she is not really 'out' of it: that the present, however
much she wishes otherwise, is real.
As you read on through the book, jot down in your own notes,
references to time, which is an important theme.
TASK 8
Night time, in this chapter, is spent in reminiscence. Describe Offred's
'escape', in its three parts, and explain her words, 'I would like to
believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it.'
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The Handmaid’s Tale
TASK 9
Section III: Night
The last section in this chapter may cause some difficulty. Who do you
think the 'you' is that Offred is talking or writing to? Give your reasons.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section IV: Waiting Room
SECTION IV: WAITING ROOM
Chapter 8
The section starts with snippets of information, filling the reader in
with more background to the current situation. A priest hangs on the
wall and there is a reference to the 'sect wars'. By this stage of the
book, with its many biblical references in the text, the reader has
gathered that there is some sort of religious basis to the strict Gilead
regime, with quotations from the bible being used to support, or
justify, the way of life. (See the notes on page 55 of this workbook.)
There are two other male victims of a recent 'salvaging': Guardians
guilty of Gender Treachery, or homosexual practice.
Again there is the tension between Offred and her companion
handmaid Ofglen. It is, apparently, Offred who always has to suggests
they leave the wall and she doesn't know if the lingering Ofglen is
'mourning or gloating' at the dangling dead bodies. The gulf between
the women, unbridgeable because of the fear of taking the first step of
trust, causes Offred to think of the old Mayday call which Luke told
her meant 'm'aidez' in French: help me.
An Econowive's child's funeral is described. (p.54)
TASK 10
Note down any interesting features of the funeral and compare the
attitude of the Econowives with the Marthas' attitude to the
Handmaids.
The picture of the household is added to: Serena Joy's past is revealed,
an advocate of women staying at home, although, ironically, she left
the sanctity of her own home to convey her message. Now that she is
forced to stay at home she seems far from content: 'How furious she
must be now that she's been taken at her word.'
There is reference to Offred's Bath Day, which, at a first reading, may
be puzzling. It is the Marthas' indirect way of referring to Offred's
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section IV: Waiting Room
preparation for her sexual duties. Cora says she'll prepare the bath after
her dusting. 'To them I'm a household chore, one among many,' Offred
says, her words emphasising her sense of isolation.
The Commander makes his first appearance, a furtive figure lurking
outside Offred's room. He is out of his own territory and she feels her
precious scrap of privacy - 'her' room - has been violated. A sense of
expectancy is built up here and the animal imagery, together with the
war symbols adds to the secret possibilities: - 'Parley' or 'attack'?
Chapters 9-12
Offred talks of 'Attacks of the past' (p.62) and asks, 'How were we to
know we were happy?' She remembers meeting Luke in hotel rooms,
when he was still married to someone else, and she recalls Moira
again, vivacious and funny. There is no evidence that there is any
pleasure or fun in her present life.
Then, life was normal or 'as usual'. You read horrific things in
newspapers but you weren't part of them: 'We lived in the blank white
spaces at the edge of the print.' She knows but cannot accept that how
she is living now is a new version of 'as usual'.
She finds the scraped writing in the cupboard: Nolite te bastardes
carborundorum and, though she doesn't yet know what it means Don't let the bastards grind you down - she is pleased to think she is
communicating with a previous occupant of the room and that the
reading of the message is an illicit activity (a blow against the regime)
as is the act of writing.
Offred questions Rita about the previous occupant of 'her' room but
Rita clamps up and will only say, 'What you don't know wont hurt you',
treating her like a child.
The picture of Offred as a breeding machine is built up. She makes a
compulsory visit to the hospital to check her health and to find out
whether she is pregnant. An encounter with the doctor, who breaches
the normally impersonal role, unnerves her. He offers to make her
pregnant and suggests that an old man like her Commander is probably
sterile and she will never conceive by him. Sterile is a forbidden word.
'There is no such thing as a sterile man any more, not officially. There
are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that's the
law.' The doctor has her in his power and is enjoying it. He could fake
her tests if she displeases him and have her 'shipped to the Colonies
with the Unwomen' - Handmaids who can't produce a healthy child.
Here, Offred's powerlessness is emphasised.
She takes the ritual-cleansing bath, prior to her visit to the
Commander, and wants to linger in the water and enjoy it. She avoids
looking at her own nakedness, not because she has adopted the new
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section IV: Waiting Room
prudishness of society but because: 'I don't want to look at something
that determines me so completely.'
TASK 11
What do you think Offred means by this?
The smell of soap as she baths brings her daughter back vividly to her,
triggering a memory that she can not suppress. (p.73) She recalls how
the little girl was once snatched in the supermarket and how she
readily forgave the 'crazy' woman who took her, and claimed that the
Lord had given the child to her. But the event was a foreshadowing of
the child being taken from her a second time, again in the Lord's name.
She finishes her bath, eats her supper and composes herself.
TASK 12
Comment on her words at the end of this section: I wait. I compose
myself. Myself is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a
speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section V: Nap
SECTION V: NAP
Chapter 13
Offred describes Time as 'white sound', implying that there is nothing
peaceful about it, that it is an empty space, always impinging on her
senses. Her present role of a Handmaid gives her a new focus on
nineteenth century paintings of women in harems. She now decides
that those pictures were not so much erotic as about boredom: 'About
waiting, about objects not in use.' (p.80) Her only function in the new
society is as a procreator and she has nothing to do whilst waiting for
the Commander's monthly attempts at impregnating her. None of the
advantages of being a 'kept' women is attached to her role, which has
nothing to do with love or sexual pleasure. She feels like a 'prize pig'
or a rat in an experiment. She hasn't even got a ball to play with, like
breeders used to give to pigs to keep them from boredom.
TASK 13
Consider the nature of the humour of the above section.
She practises pelvic exercises on the floor, to fill in time, and drifts off
into memories. She recalls Moira's arrival at the gymnasium/Red
Centre and how it made her feel safe to have her friend near her,
though they had to hide their friendship.
Testifying is described: a time when members of the group are
encouraged to tell about previous 'crimes'.
TASK 14
Describe Janine's testifying and the purpose of it. Comment of Offred's
attitude to the scene.
continues over
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The Handmaid’s Tale
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Section V: Nap
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section VI: Household
SECTION VI: HOUSEHOLD
Chapters 14 - 17
The extended family - servants, master and mistress - assemble for
family prayers as in some former Victorian household. (Note who
stands, who sits, who kneels.) The prayers are preceded by television
as the Commander's wife, impatiently (or nervously?) awaits her
husband's arrival. He is always late and watching the news is an
unspoken ritual for those waiting.
Offred is aware that the news may be faked from old clips but hopes to
read between the lines:- The Angels of the Apocalypse are fighting a
pocket of Baptist guerrillas. Detroit has been destroyed. Two Quakers
have been captured. This news is filling in the picture for the reader of
the background fighting, all in the name of a new, fanatical religion.
When the news is switched off Offred drifts back into her past,
clutching her real name to herself 'like an amulet' or lucky charm.
Once again, her thoughts go back to her family: this time to their failed
escape attempt.
TASK 15
Describe Offred's memory of their flight, her fear and her sense of
inadequacy, picking out key words and phrases. (p94 -95)
The Commander reads from the Bible like a Victorian patriarch. This
adds to the picture so far built up of a carefully ordered Victorian
family, with everyone in the household having a well-defined part to
play. The passage quoted here is the crucial one on which the concept
of the Handmaid and her role is based, about the fruitless Rachel who
used her maid as a stand-in: 'Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear
upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.'
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section VI: Household
The text was 'stuff we had drummed into us', at the gymnasium centre
as the Handmaids ate their porridge, cream and brown sugar.
(Language: stuffed and drummed - a child's words, emphasising
their treatment as children, particularly by Aunt Lydia: spoiled girls,
she twinkled.)
Silent prayer supposedly follows the Commander's reading. Serena Joy
weeps as the Ceremony approaches. Offred thinks about Moira being
returned to the gymnasium after an escape attempt, tortured on the feet.
Her prayer is: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. (Handmaids
could be tortured on hands and feet because as the practical Aunt
Lydia remarked: 'For our purposes your feet and your hands are not
essential'.)
There has been a low key but carefully calculated dramatic build up to
the Ceremony. This is not intended as a salacious novel but the reader
is naturally curious to find out what exactly the Handmaids' duties are.
Anyone expecting a raunchy sex scene is to be disappointed. It is the
coldness of the ceremony that makes the impact on the reader: 'nothing
to do with passion, or love, or romance', and Offred even discards the
more animal terminology: 'copulation' because the word implies the
involvement of two people. The interesting part of the ceremony is
Serena, the Commander's wife's participation, in accordance with the
passage which has just been read from the Bible, so that the fiction that
it will be Serena's child, if Offred conceives, may be established from
the beginning.
Note Offred's comment on Serena's behaviour: 'The rings of her left
hand cut into my fingers. It may or may not be revenge.'
When the Commander leaves the room his 'duty' performed, Serena
tells Offred to 'get up and get out'.
Offred doesn't hate the Commander's wife and wonders for which of
them the Ceremony is worse. She doesn't hate the Commander either
and is grateful that he smells much better than her last Commander,
like mothballs, instead of picked teeth or nostrils!
TASK 16
Back in her room she 'butters' her skin with the hoarded butter and
then she sets out to steal something. Try and explain Offred's
behaviour after the Ceremony and her reactions on encountering Nick.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section VI: Household
The chapter ends with Nick's delivery of the message that the
Commander wants to see her, and the reader is left in a similar state of
curiosity to Offred's: What is behind this request? "What does he mean
by see?"
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section VII: Night
SECTION VII: NIGHT
Chapter Eighteen
A very short chapter in which Offred lies in bed, trembling after her
encounter with Nick. She feels that she has been unfaithful to Luke but
tries to reassure herself that Luke is alive and forgiving. He is a
member of a resistance group. One day he will send her a message
saying 'he loves me anyway, he knows it isn't my fault'. It is a belief in
messages that may arrive that keeps her alive.
TASK 17
Describe, briefly, the other two scenarios in her head of what has
happened to Luke since they were parted. Why do you think Offred
says, 'But I believe in all of them, all three versions of Luke, at one and
the same time'?
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section VIII: Birth Day
SECTION VIII: BIRTH DAY
Chapters nineteen - twenty-one
These chapters describe the great celebration of birth: a new soul for
the regime; a new citizen uncontaminated by the decadence of the past.
Offred has been dreaming about her daughter but crying in her dream
because she is aware it is only a dream and does not want to wake up.
When she does wake up she feels drugged and the idea appeals to her
that she may be under the influence of narcotics and 'living is a
paranoid delusion'; but this hope is soon banished. Courageously, she
grasps at her returning sanity, her awareness of her surroundings and
knows that she must hoard her sanity, 'so I will have enough when the
time comes.' This statement is a reminder to the reader that Offred's
spirit is not crushed and it adds to the anticipation of some sort of
escape or release for her.
At breakfast - the healthy vitamin balanced meal delivered, as usual,
on a tray in her room - she takes pleasure in small things like the
sunlight on the egg-shell and starts thinking about 'the minimalist life',
pleasure in small things, which is all that is left to her.
The red Birthmobile - red proclaiming celebration, in this case: 'Joy to
the world.' Ofwarren - the despised Janine - is giving birth and all the
Handmaids in the district, about thirty, plus all the wives attend the
birth and turn the event into a party. A blue Birthmobile conveys the
wives and an Emerge van is parked outside the house of the birth, full
of equipment and doctors, who play cards and are unlikely to be called
in except for a full emergency. In this field, the women reign supreme.
A description follows of the extraordinary birth ritual whereby the
Handmaids, directed by Aunt Elizabeth, minister to the woman in
labour, (and risk whispering among themselves), whilst the wives
celebrate downstairs and prepare the wife of Ofwarren's Commander 'in her ridiculous, white cotton nightgown'- to take the upper seat on
the birthing stool and pretend that she is giving birth.
The writing here cleverly depicts the rising hysteria of the birthing
group, which Offred confesses to being caught up in, but, at the same
time, her detached, ironical humour creates a different picture.
The great fear of Ofwarren and the whole group is of bearing an
Unbaby, a defective baby that would be quickly disposed of. No prenatal scanning - as in the materialistic world that has been rejected was permitted, and all babies had to be carried to full term. The reward
for Ofwarren, if she produced a healthy baby, was that she would
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section VIII: Birth Day
never be sent to the colonies, though she would not be allowed to rear
her own baby once she had breast-fed it for six weeks. Ofwarren would
then be moved to a new Commander.
TASK 18
The flashbacks in this section fill the reader in on Offred's background.
What do we learn about her mother and Luke?
This ends Ch.20. Ch.21. and takes us back to the birth room.
This section adds to our picture of Aunt Lydia. Make notes on her
attitude to a woman's role and record her most memorable sayings.
(Don't confuse her with Aunt Elizabeth who is in charge of the birth.)
Chapter twenty-two
This chapter is interesting in its narrative approach. When Offred
returns to her bedroom after the birthing, she is exhausted by the
shared emotion of the day. 'I am too tired to go on with this story,' she
says, (p.138) and proceeds to tell a 'better' story, the story of Moira's
escape from the gymnasium/Red Centre by overcoming Aunt
Elizabeth. When the story of Moira's escape gets round among the
Handmaids, they wait for Moira to be recaptured and dragged back as
she was once before. 'But nothing happened. Moira didn't reappear.
She hasn't yet.'
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The Handmaid’s Tale
TASK 19
Section VIII: Birth Day
Write briefly about Moira's exploits - from the beginning - and explain
the meaning of, 'Moira was our fantasy. We hugged her to us...'
Chapter twenty-three
After remembering Moira, Offred thinks about human beings
controlling each other and the concept of power. She decides that
bestowing or withholding forgiveness is a kind of power.
She is then taken from her solitary thoughts by Cora who, not having
been allowed at the birth party, hopes there will be a birth in their own
household soon, with guests and food. With a switch of mood Offred
sees herself as a queen ant. 'It's up to me to repay the team, justify my
food and keep, like a queen ant with eggs.'
This reflective chapter ends with her prearranged visit to the
Commander, which she has forgotten about in her focus on the birth. It
is forbidden for a Handmaid to be alone with a Commander but his
power is stronger than hers, so to refuse is also dangerous. Besides, she
is curious to discover what he wants from her, because to want is a
weakness. She is prepared to barter but not to give anything away.
The visit is bizarre, in the setting of an old-fashioned, book-lined
study. The Commander even says 'hello' - an old-fashioned greeting.
The tension in the scene is in the expectation of something happening,
probably physical. Scrabble is an amusing anticlimax, though it is,
under the regime, a dangerous, forbidden game. A kiss ends the
chapter but the reader suspects that there is unfinished business
between Offred and the Commander.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section IX: Night
SECTION IX: NIGHT
Chapter twenty-four
Back in her room, Offred tries to assess her visit to the Commander but
fails to be serious as she finds the encounter so 'hilarious'. This
reasserts in the reader the idea of a likeable person, with spirit, even if
she falls short of Moira's daring.
But Offred pulls herself up short from warming to the gentle
Commander and remembers an old film of the mistress of a man who
had put Jews into death camps. The mistress denied that the man had
been a monster and Offred reflects on how easy it is to 'invent a
humanity for anyone'. The chapter ends with Offred becoming
hysterical after the stress of the day and she has to climb into the
cupboard to stifle her laughter and panic. She wonders about the girl
who wrote her defiant message in the cupboard. Her spirits have
plummeted again: she knows there is no way out.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section X: Soul Scrolls
SECTION X: SOUL SCROLLS
Chapters Twenty-five and twenty-six
In retrospective narrative - (a device for giving variety to the story) Offred describes how Cora found her half in the cupboard the next
morning, screamed and dropped the breakfast tray. Cora colluded with
Offred to say, in the kitchen, that breakfast had already been eaten
before the accident and she didn't waste the egg. Offred relished this
small link of deceit between herself and Cora. (Later we learn that
Cora screamed because she thought that Offred had committed suicide,
like her predecessor.)
It is spring and back to the present tense narrative. All the unspent
energy of growth and fecundity are pent up in Offred. Then the
ripening of the seeds and fruit of summer follows, heavy with symbols
of reproduction. She reflects that winter is a less dangerous time: 'I
need harness, cold, rigidity; not this heaviness, as if I'm a melon on a
stem, this liquid ripeness.' She envies Serena Joy her garden shears,
without saying what she would do with them.
Prompted by signals from Nick, Offred is now visiting the Commander
two or three times a week. On her second visit, after more scrabble, he
gave her a magazine as a 'little present'. It was a harmless enough
woman's magazine from the old times, but totally forbidden under the
regime. She had to look at it in the Commander's study. She asked why
he didn't share it with his wife and he produced the 'old story' that his
wife didn't understand him any more. She realised that this was why
she was there; it was almost 'too banal to be true', a part of the old
world of unfaithfulness in marriage. Once Offred understood
something of her position, she decided to extract little favours from the
Commander and started with hand cream.
The next time Offred visits the Commander, she describes herself as
sitting opposite him as his desk with her legs curled up under her. He
allows her the word 'ZILCH' in the scrabble game like a benign father.
She also compares herself to 'an attentive pet, prick-eared and eager to
perform'. She does not really like herself in the role she is playing. Nor
does she want, this time, to sit and have the Commander watching her
whilst she reads, so she encourages him to talk and takes the
opportunity to ask him the meaning of the latin inscription she has
found in her cupboard, which she writes down for him, saying it's
something she remembers from somewhere. Nolite te bastardes
carborundorum. He tells her it is schoolboy latin and shows it to her
written in his old school latin book, translating it as, 'Don't let the
bastards grind you down.'
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section X: Soul Scrolls
Offred realises then, that her predecessor must have learnt the words
from the Commander, and that she must have visited this room just as
Offred is doing. She asks him outright what happened to the Handmaid
before her. Offred records that he answered 'thoughtfully not sadly',
telling her that the girl hanged herself.
Despite her discovery, the Commander still wants Offred to visit him
and she concludes that it makes him feel less guilty about the life of a
Handmaid if he is able to give one of them a little pleasure.
Now that she knows about his guilt feelings, his weakness, she has
something on him and is prepared to bargain with him. She asks for
knowledge - a big jump from handcream; to find out what is going on.
This is the bravest step she has taken so far.
Write down anything new that you have learnt about Offred in these
three chapters.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XI: Night
SECTION XI: NIGHT
Chapter Thirty
Offred sees Nick beneath her window but there is no way she can go to
him, though she sees him in the image of some romantic lover. 'I have
no rose to toss, he has no lute. But it's the same kind of hunger..(they
share). Which I can't indulge.'
She draws the curtain and shuts Nick out.
Then she thinks of Luke and their last night in their home. They were
to leave secretly in the morning and pretend that they were going over
the border on a day trip. They couldn't take the cat, nor leave it in the
garden to mew at the door and give their absence away. Luke said he
would take care of the cat, meaning kill it, and she feels that she should
have gone with him to the garage and supported him in the unpleasant
deed. She implies that she had acted like the 'fragile little woman' she
had become since losing her job. Then she remembers being caught as
they fled in the car, and the knowledge that they had been betrayed,
'That some human being had wished you that much evil.'
She tries to bring the faces of her family to her mind but can't and is
distressed. She decides to pray and her prayer is her own ironic version
of The Lord's Prayer.
If you do not know The Lord's Prayer, you need to find a copy of it to
understand fully Offred's version and the turmoil in her mind. Compare
the versions line by line. She ends with, 'Oh God, Oh God. How can I
keep on living?' which is her own anguished addition to the prayer.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XII: Jezebel’s
SECTION XII: JEZEBEL'S
Chapters Thirty-One - Thirty-Five
Every night, Offred says, she hopes to wake up with everything as it
once was - the
implication being that her current existence is the dream. 'It hasn't
happened this morning, either,' she says at the beginning of the
chapter, with what seems like wry resignation. Then comes the idea of
uncountable, endless time. Summer seems to be going on for ever. But
there is no point in crossing off the days with marks on the wall, like
prisoners do, because there is no finite length to her sentence: 'There's
no time here that can be done and finished with'. The idea that this life
as a Handmaid is now her real life, haunts and depresses her. 'I tell
time by the moon,' she says, emphasising her monthly cycle as a fertile
woman, her purpose of existence.
As she gets dressed, she misses the normality of fights with Luke about
household chores and says that she sometimes scripts whole fights in
her head. She stares at the plaster wreath on the ceiling and thinks of
the weary, 'geometrical days, which go around and around'.
The whole opening to this chapter (pp.209-210) elicits carefully
crafted pathos, with the heavy hanging of time and in the craving for
the normality of fights or bickering. The reader wants something better
for Offred.
By now Offred and Ofgen are secretly exchanging news on their
shopping trips: 'in clipped whispers' through the white wings of their
headdress. You can't really call it talking, Offred says: 'It's more like a
telegram, a verbal semaphore. Amputated speech.'
Note the power of Margaret Atwood's imagery.
Ofgen gives Offred the password of the network of resistance:
'Mayday'. Again Offred feels that she is caught up in some sort of
children's game: that this can't be real life.
Returning from the shopping trip, Ofred is called to where Serena Joy
is sitting in the garden and forced to hold her knitting yarn. She is
'manacled; cobwebbed' by the skein and cannot escape. Serena Joy,
who's desperate for Offred to get pregnant, proposes that she arranges
for Offred to liaise with Nick and try and get pregnant by him.
TASK 20
Serena Joy's character emerges more fully in this scene in the garden.
What do you learn about her and her relationship with Offred? Also
note down important descriptive details. (p.213 - 217)
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XII: Jezebel’s
At the Prayvaganza we learn more about the workings of the regime.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XII: Jezebel’s
Offred, with her companion Ofglen, glides along the street with other
pairs of Handmaids. Offred's description is ironical and shows her
loathing of her role. (You will have noticed how she sends up
everything and everyone that she can because to laugh at people and
life, to see them as ridiculous, makes them less fearful) The
Handmaids are like: 'Dutch milkmaids on a wallpaper frieze, like a
shelf full of period-costume, ceramic salt and pepper shakers, like a
flotilla of swans or anything that repeats itself.......We are off to the
Prayvaganza to demonstrate how obedient and pious we are.'
The Prayvaganza is held in a covered courtyard with tiers of seating,
the entranceway guarded by two pairs of Guardians on each side, 'with
plaster-hard young faces'. The lower rank women, the Marthas and the
Econowives, occupy the galleries above. They are not compelled to
attend but it is a form of entertainment for them. The Wives, dressed in
their 'best embroidered blue' are seated on the opposite side of the
courtyard to the Handmaids. The Handmaids are cordoned off 'in a
corral or pen' - (like animals, is the implication.) Ofglen is urged to the
back by Offred where they are able to whisper to each other as they
kneel on the hard concrete. Janine, the one who gave birth appears,
looking terrible and Ofglen tells Offred that her baby was a Shredder,
after all, and had to be destroyed. Offred remembers how Janine once
went to pieces in the Red Centre and how Moira slapped her and
brought her back to reality.
The Commander in charge of the ceremonies arrives and is described
with suitable irony. He looks like an aging football coach but is
dressed in uniform with rows of decorations: 'It's hard not to be
impressed but I make an effort: I try to imagine him in bed with his
wife and his Handmaid, fertilising away like mad, like a rutting
salmon...' The ceremony they are to watch is of twenty Angels, newly
returned from the battle fronts, decorated with medals, being married
off to twenty Commanders' daughters dressed in white. Offred wonders
how much these young girls/women remember of another life in jeans
and sneakers.
Offred's Commander has told her how these girls have been rescued
from the terrible lives of young women of the previous generation: the
blind dates, the starvation slimming, the cosmetic surgery, husbands
who beat them up etc. Offred asked him about falling in love but the
Commander assured her that arranged marriages had always worked
best. Aunt Lydia has said, 'No mooning and Jun-ing around here,
girls... Love is no the point.'
The message of the Commander in charge of the wedding ceremony is
that women must be subject to men and must dress soberly. Women
were sinful but would be saved by childbearing.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XII: Jezebel’s
Ofglen whispers to Offred when they are leaving the ceremony than
her secret group knows that Offred is meeting her Commander
privately. She asks Offred to find out anything she can about what's
going on behind the scenes.
Waiting, once more, in her room, Offred continues with her family's
escape story (p.236): how the three of them drove off as if for a family
picnic and stopped at the border and presented their fake passports. But
Luke saw the guard, through the window of the immigration building,
pick up the phone and ran back to the car in a panic and reversed and
drove the three of them away. Then they left the car and started to run
with no real plan.
Offred abandons the story. She doesn't want to tell it. She then muses
on the nature of falling in love and on how you fell out of it, too, and
changed partners. There were no boundaries then: you were free to
shape and re-shape your life. Luke was not her first man and perhaps
he would not have been the last: 'if he hadn't been frozen that way.
Stopped dead in time, in mid-air, among the trees back there'. She
realises that she is thinking of Luke in the past and corrects herself
angrily.
Then there's a knock at the door and it's not Cora, as expected, but
Serena Joy with the promised photo of Offred's child. She can only
look, not keep it.
TASK 21
Describe and explain Offred's feelings on seeing her child's picture, as
well as her later reflection on the situation. Margaret Atwood's choice
of language depicts the strongest emotions. Note down the images.
continue over
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XII: Jezebel’s
Chapters Thirty-six - Thirty-nine
At last, the Commander's trust of Offred leads to the stage where he
wants to take her out for the evening. Whether he is thinking of a treat
for her as well as himself is not clear. There is always the feeling - in
Offred, in the reader - that perhaps he is just using her. But she
continues to play the role of indulged child in his presence - her form
of escapism - and, after some initial hesitation, enters into the idea of
dressing up in the absurd costume he procures of mauve and pink
feathers and sequins. She will do almost anything that 'breaks the
monotony' and 'perverts the perceived, respectable order of things.'
Going out together is risky for both of them, since it is forbidden, but
she shows some of Moira's rebellion. When she has dressed up and put
on make-up, that the Commander has also provided, he takes her to a
secret club, Jezebel's, and puts a label on her arm that shows she's on
rental for the evening.
Nick drops them off and is told to pick them up as usual, so Offred
knows he has done this with other women, (Wives are not allowed in
the club.) The Commander steers her along by the arm and she wishes
there were a mirror so that she could see if she looks all right. She
hears Moira's voice in her head calling her an idiot for caring about her
appearance under such circumstances. And she hears a man and a
woman laughing and realises that it is a long time since she has heard
such a sound.
Offred realises that this is the hotel where she used to meet Luke
secretly when he was still married to someone else. This adds extra
pathos and irony to the scene, especially when the Commander takes
her up to a bedroom such as she has been in before, to make love to
her.
Offred cannot respond to his attempt at lovemaking at all, not only
because of the unattractiveness of the Commander and the memories of
the room but because she has met Moira downstairs, living at the club
as one of the professional prostitutes. Offred has heard not only
Moira's gruesome story of her escape and recapture, but has also been
told by Moira that her (Offred's) mother has been sent to the Colonies,
where they clear up toxic waste and last no more than three years.
Offred sits in the bathroom, whilst the Commander waits for her, and
mourns her mother and Moira, who seems to have lost the sense of
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XII: Jezebel’s
fight, lost the indomitable spirit that the less brave Offred depended on
in her friend.
TASK 22
Describe the part the Commander plays in this section. What do you
think his motives are?
The section ends on a wistful note with Offred wishing that she could
tell a story with a happy ending for her friend, either escaping for
good, or dying in a glorious act of defiance such as blowing up the
club, Jezebel's, with fifty Commanders in it.
N.B.
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Jezebel, wife of Ahab, was a wicked, wanton woman in the
Bible.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XIII: Night
SECTION XIII: NIGHT
Chapter Forty
That same night, back in her room, having taken off her feathers and
make-up, Offred waits for Serena Joy to summon her secretly to visit
Nick. Serena Joy takes her down to the kitchen. She will wait for
Offred there whilst she visits Nick, which emphasises the impossibility
of romance: this is strictly a business deal. The Guards have probably
been bribed and Nick rewarded in some way. She notes the detail of
Serena Joy whispering instructions, 'as if she is one of us'. Wives are
confident and do not usually lower their voices.
Offred gives three different versions of her encounter with Nick but
reminds us that all this is written in retrospect and she can't remember
exactly how it was but she knows that she felt that she had betrayed
Luke, that she had gone beyond the line of duty.
•
In the first version there are no preliminaries but she comes alive in
lovemaking: 'I'm alive in my skin again.'
•
In the second version she is more in control of her emotions and
she and Nick have an ironic conversation quoting old clichés from
films. But it is sad, she feels, talking like people from the past, a
past that has vanished and was, probably never real anyway.
•
In the third version she say: 'All I can hope for is a reconstruction:
the way love feels is always only approximate'. She feels ashamed
as she thinks of Luke but doesn't know if she would feel any
different if she knew for sure that he was dead.
Stylistically, we see the device of reconstructing a story at its most
complex so far.
Make appropriate notes on the chapter in your notebook.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XIX: Salvaging
SECTION XIV: SALVAGING
Chapter Forty-one
The above visit continues into the next chapter where she tells how she
went back to Nick again and again, without Serena Joy knowing,
seeking his creature comfort and taking huge risks of being discovered.
Her times with Nick are 'like explosions, on streets otherwise decorous
and matronly'. Between her visits to him there is so much time to be
endured, 'Time heavy as fried food or thick as fog'.
(p. 279) She is still wrestling with her guilt and she wants Luke to hear
the story if he is still alive, and she, in her turn, will listen to his story so that they can mutually forgive, presumably. But it is also more
complex than this: if she makes the effort to communicate with him
through her writing, she is both believing him to be alive and willing
him to be alive. She is troubled by the fact that Luke's physical features
are fading from her mind and she makes a mental effort to remember
every physical detail of Nick to store up for a future without him
because she knows the present, with Nick, cannot last.
'Being here with him is safety; it's a cave, where we huddle together
while the storm goes on outside.' She knows that she makes of Nick
more than he is because of the false sense of security she has with him:
'I make him an idol, a cardboard cutout'.
She is ashamed that she no longer dreams of escaping, that she has
given in, as it were and even tells Nick her real name. The reader
realises the enormity of this revelation as a secrecy about her name in
the 'time before' has been maintained between Offred and her reader.
Ofglen pesters Offred to try and get information from her Commander
but Offred is not prepared to taking the risk, or even interested in the
information. She is living recklessly in the present and for the present.
She says that she is ashamed as she looks back on this part of the story,
although, in a way proud of such commitment to a man - almost as if
rebelling against her upbringing, against the two feminists: her mother
and Moira.
Chapter Forty-two
The Salvaging is the subject of this chapter. Three women, two
Handmaids and one a Wife have been condemned to hanging and the
Handmaids are not only to witness but to take a symbolic part by
holding the long, tarred rope that stretches past their kneeling rows.
The Salvaging takes place in the former university, on a lawn in front
of the old library. The fact that books are now forbidden to most ranks,
adds an extra symbolism. It is an all women audience, with
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XIX: Salvaging
Econowives, Marthas, Commanders' Wives and Daughters all present,
beside the Handmaids. The culprits have already been sentenced and
the custom has been dropped of reading out their crimes in public as
this has, in the past, let to 'copycat' crimes. (This precludes any sense
of a fair trial and a democratic assessment of the crime.)
Aunt Lydia is officiating, an older Aunt Lydia, which gives us some
idea of the passing of time. ('How many years since I've seen her?')
After the Salvaging there is more to come and the Handmaids are told
to form a circle. The Handmaids know what to expect and an excited
energy starts to build up in the group. Offred wants to hide in the
middle, not too eager, but not obviously hanging back. But, Ofglen
urges her forward to the second rank.
Particution is about to take place. Margaret Atwood adds horror by
making it into a game with rules and a whistle. A beaten up Guardian
is dragged in, accused of the rape of two women, one of whom was
pregnant, and lost the baby. The mention of a dead child is calculated
to inflame such an audience and Offred's hands clench despite herself.
But she is shocked when Ofglen joins the brutality of the attacking
crowd and kicks the victim three times in the head.
When Offred later expresses her shock at Ofglen's behaviour, she
explains that he was a 'political', one of her own membership and she
was putting him out of misery. When Aunt Lydia blows her whistle
some on the attackers can't stop - which shows the power of
indoctrination and mass hysteria.
Offred goes home. All she wants to do is to forget the horror: to wash,
eat, make love.
Describe Aunt Lydia's part in the proceedings and Offred's reaction to
her. What kind of woman do you think Margaret Atwood is intending
to portray?
Chapters Forty-four - Forty-six
After the Salvaging and the Particution the day returns to its routine,
lunch then shopping. But Ofglen looks strange as she comes to meet
her partner and it isn't the Ofglen that Offred knows, but a new
Handmaid. Offred desperately wants to know what has happened to
her companion and risks snippets of conversation, knowing that she
should be cautious for several weeks until she knows the new partner
but being unable to wait.
We learn, here, that Offred will take the initiative if there is no one else
to do so. She says, 'Now that Ofglen is gone I am alert again, my
sluggishness has fallen away, my body is no longer for pleasure only
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XIX: Salvaging
but senses its jeopardy'. Then she realises that if Ofglen has been
caught and tortured, she may talk and give Offred's name as a
conspirator. Offred immediately thinks of her child, or one of her loved
ones, being threatened, in their turn, to make her talk.
As the new Ofglen is parting from her, she tells her that the old Ofglen
saw the van coming for her and hanged herself. Offred feels great
relief. But this moment is followed by doubt in case she has been told a
lie.
Offred vows to herself to submit to the Regime, to become abject, to
do what she has always resisted, in order to stay alive. It is as if THEY
have finally won.
Serena Joy meets her on the doorstep and starts accusing her - 'I
trusted you'. Offred doesn't know which of her crimes has been found
out and keeps quiet. It turns out that Serena Joy has found the evidence
of her night out, lipstick on the blue cloak, the feather costume. 'You
could have left me something,' she says to Offred, which suggests she
loved the Commander despite his coldness towards her.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XV: Night
SECTION XV : NIGHT
Chapter Forty-six
Offred sits in her room, numb, considering possibilities of escape or
suicide, but in a detached way. She feels too tired for action and does
not care much about anything, though the ghost of the girl who had the
room before her seems to be urging her on to make an end to her life.
Offred keeps repeating to herself, 'Don't let the bastards grind you
down' and takes no decision. Then it is too late and the black van is
arriving. Nick comes into her room first and she thinks he is a traitor
but he whispers to her that it is Mayday, the secret rescue service.
She goes with the two men who have followed Nick upstairs: she has
no option but to trust Nick. In the hall stand the Commander and his
Wife, neither of who seem to have called the van, since they do not
know what she is accused of. The men say it is 'Violation of State
secrets', and the Commander appears to shrink as he thinks of his own
skin. Cora and Rita are there, Cora crying. Offred is helped into the
van by the two strange men and does not know whether she is
stepping, 'into the darkness within; or else the light,' - the end or
rescue.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XVI: Historical Notes
SECTION XVI: HISTORICAL NOTES
This end section comes as something of a surprise to the reader and the
immediate reaction may be a feeling of anti-climax, since the whole of
the story seemed to have been building up to some sort of escape for
Offred, or a reuniting with her family. Even her death would have
provided a clear-cut ending. But this was not to be. We are left with
loose strands and no definite conclusion.
But there is in this ending an optimism: perhaps not for Offred but for
the human race. History has absorbed her story and its immediacy has
receded for those gathered at the symposium. The reader need to stand
back, now, from the story of an individual - as these historians are
doing - and to assess the novel, including this end section, as a
skilfully crafted work of art.
These text notes have attempted to show The Handmaid's Tale as not
only a carefully plotted story that keeps the reader searching for clues
and wondering about what will happen to the heroine, but also, at a
second dimension, a comment on the state of the world as it is and how
it could become if the more fanatical elements of the few should
triumph over the steady common sense of the majority.
Read this section through carefully, making notes on all the subtle
details that make the Handmaid's Tale seem like a genuine historical
document.
The Historical Notes seem to serve two purposes.
•
First: the Notes add to the realism of the story, continuing the
fiction that Offred really lived and suffered in this restricted regime
of Gilead. One of the comparisons Professor Pieixoto has made in
his writings is between Iran and Gilead: Two Late-TwentiethCentury Monotheocracies, as Seen Through Diaries. Iran, as we
know, was (and is) an intensely oppressive religious regime and
this supposed comparative study adds to the credibility of the
existence of Gilead.
•
Secondly: Margaret Atwood seems to be saying that what
happened in Gilead can happen in any part of the world when some
form of fanaticism takes over. The hopeful note that she gives to
the reader is that the Gilead has not only ceased to exist, but the
free world goes on much as before, with academics still delighting
in dissecting the lives of people in the past and writing and talking
earnestly about the strengths, weaknesses, and foibles of previous
societies.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XVI: Historical Notes
Note:
At the same time as making a serious point, Margaret
Atwood is poking fun at such conferences as the Twelfth
Symposium of Gileadian Studies. We suspect that she has
attended many such symposiums and suffered the ritual
tedious jokes about the weather and meals, as well as the
sexual innuendoes of the speakers, introduced to make the
audience laugh and draw it together as a group of,
supposedly, broad-minded people. E.g. the pun on Tale/tail
(p.313.), with a comment about, 'The archaic vulgar
signification of the word tail.'
But Margaret Atwood is also taking a long view of humanity, in part
optimistic, in part satirical, in which violent regimes come and go and
the world, two hundred years on returns to a recognisable, humdrum
normality.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Section XVI: Historical Notes
The Dramatic Impact of the
Marginalisation of Offred (in the Historical
Notes)
The details of the facilities for guests at the Symposium on Gilead
Studies, such as the arrangements made for recreation: fishing and the
Outdoor Period Costume Sing-Song; the joke about the lecture not
running late so that people do not miss lunch again, and the detached
analysis of the finding of the tapes and their documentary values, all
contribute to diminishing the plight of Offred in whom the reader has
so recently been involved.
What pushes Offred's story still further from us, although the reader
may feel like resisting consigning her to a fragment of documentation,
(and this is the power of the story and the author) is the fact that her
sufferings did not lead to the beginning of some new enlightened age.
The world, it seems, has not changed much since the 'time before' and
all Offred's suffering in the Commanders household and the heroism of
Moira, were of no lasting value. She has become simply part of a
jigsaw by which historians are building up a picture of a particular
period of history: 'Our author, then, was one of many and must be seen
within the broad outlines of the moment in history of which she was a
part.'
The detachment of the academic approach of the speaker, Professor
Pieixoto also takes the warm-blooded emotion away from Offred. She
is de-personalised: just some woman who left a record, that is of
limited impotence, since there are other diaries and records, of an
historically interesting regime. The suggestion that the tapes could be a
fake: 'As you know there have been several instances of such forgeries'
- further diminishes Offred. The Professor even refers to his talk as a
'little chat' which further reduces the dignity of Offred's recorded diary.
The dramatic impact lies in the sense of anti-climax. A conventional
'happy ending' would have been too easy for a book of such force and
intelligence.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Themes
THEMES
The two main themes are political and feminist. These two themes
interlink throughout the book, since the subjugation of women is party
policy. All political behaviour and official creeds are upheld by
religious principles, broadly substantiated by reference to the Bible.
But the workings of the government are secretive and insidious. Fear
tends to rule the citizens and ensure obedience to the rules.
As Offred explains, you never see the government as a whole - it's
viewed in segments like the world outside the wings of her headdress and you have no way of finding out how the system works. You are
told just as much as you need to know to fulfil your function and no
more, and anyone may be a spy, ready to inform on you at an
infringement of the rules.
This state of affairs epitomises the suppression of information typical
of any totalitarian regime. In Gilead it is not simply a matter of the
press and other media being censored: no reading material is allowed
at all, except in a limited form to people of the Commander's status.
Even the Bible is not available to the ordinary citizens since some of
the laws of Gilead that purport to come from the Bible could be
challenged at a closer reading. And Serena Joy guards the television
button!
When the original government was overthrown, people remained calm,
waiting to be told what to do. They were unsuspicious and open to any
directions that came to them. 'Keep calm, they said on television.
Everything is under control.' But nobody learnt who they were.
In all political coups an important move is to take over the means of
communication: television, radio and newspapers, which means that
propaganda can be disseminated and the grouping of any opposition
deterred. Gilead remained calm under false propaganda.
Offred and her colleagues were taken totally by surprise when they
were told to leave their jobs in the library. Even when her credit card
had failed to function that morning, Offred had been unsuspicious. It
took some time for her to realise that the withholding of credit was not
an accidental error but a policy of reducing women's power. She felt
this loss of power and identity as a personal thing when Luke told her
that he would take care of her.
In the new regime even the top women have no real power, only a
limited control over other women such as the Commanders' Wives
have over Handmaids and servants, and the Aunts have over moulding
the Handmaids. Even then, the Commanders Wives' and Aunts' main
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Themes
contribution to society is connected with procreation and the rearing of
children, putting women right back in the dark ages.
(The fact that the children produced must be healthy, and fit to be
citizens, or they will be shredded is reminiscent of Hitler's breeding
programme for a master race.)
There is no mention of a single woman holding authority over both
men and women. Thedoctors are all male, as are the Commanders, the
Angels and the Guards. 'All those women having jobs: hard to imagine,
now, but thousands of them had jobs, millions. It was considered the
normal thing.' (p.182. Offred.)
Handmaids who fail to produce healthy children are dispensed with.
Find quotations that portray the lot of women under the Gilead regime.
Make your own notes on the themes in the novel. Find your own
quotes to support your ideas.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
References to Time
REFERENCES TO TIME
The question of time, of how to pass the interminable hours, has been a
recurrent theme in The Handmaid's Tale. Offred spends many hours in
her room waiting for time to pass but she will not allow herself to
ignore time because this would be a sort of defeat. "I make a point of
keeping track. I should scratch marks on the wall, one for each day of
the week, and run a line through them when I have seven. But what
would be the use, this isn't a jail sentence; there's no time here that can
be done and finished with."
But Offred does allow herself to step sideways out of time and travel in
her mind back to happier times. (p.49) 'Step sideways out of my own
time. Out of time.' Yet she knows it is only a pretence: 'Though this is
time, nor am I out of it.'
She describes time as 'a white sound' (Ch.13) implying that there is
nothing peaceful about the emptiness of her life.
The hours that seems interminable between her visits to Nick are:
'Time heavy as fried food or thick as fog.'
The playing around with time in Offred's narrative is always apparent.
She tells a story and then tells it in a different way, changing from
present to the recent past and then again, further back to her life before
the new regime. This is particularly noticeable with the story of the
attempted escape of Offred, Luke and their child, and with Offred's
encounters with Nick. This literary time device adds depth, interest and
realism.
The bodies hanging on the wall (p.43) have probably been punished
for crimes that were not considered crimes at the time they were
committed. 'What we are supposed to feel towards these bodies is
hatred and scorn,' Offred says, but this is not what she feels. To her the
bodies belong to 'time travellers, anachronisms. They've come here
from the past.'
It has perplexed the reader as to how Offred managed to write down
her story, how she remembered things in such detail when time has
obviously passed. Now we find that her story was, in fact, put on to
tape, presumably after she had escaped from the Commander's home
and reached some sort of safety. It was necessary to disguise the tapes
under song titles.
However, not only is the authenticity of Offred's existence thrown into
doubt by the suggestion (End Section) that the tapes could be fakes,
but the sequence of her life, as we have followed it, may have been
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The Handmaid’s Tale
References to Time
rearranged by the professor and his colleague, Wade. The professor
and Wade have transcribed some thirty, unnumbered tapes and
arranged them in what they thought was a logical sequence of events.
But, because of the monotony of Offred's life, the lack of an ongoing
purpose, some events could have been interchanged with others, out of
sequence.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Biblical and Other Religious References
BIBLICAL AND OTHER RELIGIOUS
REFERENCES
(O.T. = Old Testament; N.T. = New Testament - the main sections of
the Bible – also referred to as Scripture.)
All regimes have philosophies to back up their rules of behaviour,
whether it's the Communist Manifesto, the supremacy invested in the
king or ruler, or the hand of some god directing operations, through the
writings of his prophets. In Gilead the Bible is quoted to justify, if not
dictate, certain actions.
The founders of the republic of Gilead wanted to return to a purer and
simpler way of life such as that supposedly led in the world of the
Bible. But, the Bible is such an extensive body of work that
justification for almost any form of behaviour can be backed up by an
apt quotation - carefully chosen and, if necessary, taken out of context
or slightly distorted. It is particularly easy in a regime where books and
other written material have been suppressed, to blind the population
with quotations from sources which bear the power of the written word
but which cannot be checked or responded to in kind.
•
In the Commander's house 'The Bible is kept locked up, the way
people once kept tea locked up, so the servants won't steal it. It is
an incendiary device: who knows what we'd make of it, if we ever
got out hands on it?' (p.98)
•
BAPTISTS p.29. A reference to the defeat of a group of Baptist
rebels in the Blue Hills. p.92. A further reference to Baptist
guerrillas. The Baptists are a well-established religious
organisation of today, whose members have obviously resisted the
Gilead regime.
•
At her first interview with the Wife, Offred answer's like a
mechanical doll and thinks that the Wife would probably like to hit
her. She comments: 'They can hit us, there's Scriptural precedent.
But not with any implement. Only with their hands.'
•
The Commander's wife makes it clear that the Commander belongs
to her, quoting 'Till death do us part,' from the Christian marriage
service.
•
The core philosophy of Gilead, and the justification for the
Handmaids, is in the Bible O.T. quotation on p.99. 'Be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth,' followed by the story of the maid
who bears a child for her barren mistress, Rachel: 'Behold my maid
Bilhah. She shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Biblical and Other Religious References
children by her.' (Rachel , in the Bible was married to Jacob, son of
Isaac. She was very jealous of her sister Leah, Jacob's first wife,
who had many children by him. Bilhah had two children by Jacob,
for Rachel and Rachel later produced two of her own. Altogether,
Jacob had twelve sons and they were the founders of the twelve
tribes of Israel.)
•
In the same way the Handmaids bear children for their
Commander's wife, as Bilhah bore children by Rachel's husband,
keeping up a pretence, through the conception and birth that it is
the Commander's wife who is having the child. The children the
are foundation of a new era.
•
Lilies of the Field, the name of the shop where the Handmaids buy
their dresses, is also from the N.T. The Lilies are for adornment in
the field, do no work, and have no ambitions.
•
The Children of Ham p.93. Offred hears on the television news that
the Children of Ham are being re-settled. 'Three thousand have
arrived this week in the National Homeland.' One of the
Homelands is in North Dakota. It is inferred that these are people
who want to be part of the regime but have been split off by the
new divisions of territory. (Ham was one of Noah's four sons who
colonised new areas after the Flood. O.T.)
•
p.176. The idea of prayers being offered on the computerised Soul
Scrolls and debited to the subscriber's account is amusing, and is
mocking the pseudo-religion of the regime. The prayer paper being
constantly recycled is another example of sardonic humour on
Margaret Atwood's part and the 'waste not, want not,' of the
regime.
•
Martha, in the New Testament, sister of Mary, worked in the house
while Mary had a more exciting role following Christ. Thus the
name Marthas for the servants.
•
Offred's version of The Lord's Prayer (p.204 - 205) has already
been mentioned at the end of Section X1. Later, P. 298, Offred
prays in hysterical thanksgiving to God when she learns that
Ofglen is dead and cannot betray her: 'I'll do anything you like...
I'll give up Nick... I'll stop complaining... etc.'
N.B.
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Further Biblical references in notes on Aunt Lydia.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
The Social Structure
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Angels: p.14 'The Angels stood outside ... with their backs to us. They
were objects of fear to us.' Their full name: Angels of the Apocalypse.
(The Apocalypse being the last book of the N.T. and a time of turmoil
and revelation.) They guarded the home front and also fought to
maintain the borders of Gilead. They were rewarded for good service
by marriage to a Commander's daughter.
Guards: p.14. The Guards full name is Guardians of the Faith. They
are not real soldiers. (p.30) 'They're used for routine policing and other
menial function: digging up the Commander's Wife's garden, for
instance. In Offred's opinion they are 'either stupid or older or disabled
or very young, apart from the ones that are Eyes incognito'. Their
ambition is to be promoted to Angels and on up the hierarchy.
Eyes people from any group set to spy on others. At the beginning
Nick, the chauffeur, winks at Offred and she's afraid he may be an Eye
testing her discretion.
Commanders are the administrators of the regime. Some are more
powerful than others and we learn that Offred's Commander (Fred) is
high ranking. Domestically, they are heads of households, in large, old
houses, run, with servants, on the lines of Victorian and Edwardian,
upper and middle-class homes. The husband and wives have their own
separate areas (study or sitting-room, in the case of Offred's
household) and share a bed-chamber.
Commanders' Wives. We do not really know where they come from
but presume they were married to the Commanders in the time before.
It would be unsuitable for them to work and they are portrayed as
bored, idle and prone to gossip among themselves. They are also prone
to illnesses in the same way that Victorian ladies, of a certain type and
class, suffered from what we might now consider psychosomatic
illnesses.
Econowives were the wives of poor men. They were distinguished by
their skimpy, striped dresses of red, blue and green.
Marthas: Servants. In the New Testament Martha, sister of Mary, who
followed Christ, worked at home in the kitchen.
Aunts: In charge of the education of girls, at the gymnasium or Red
Centre, who were chosen to be Handmaids. They continued to control
and direct them after they had been placed with Commanders, at the
births and Salvagings etc.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
The First Person Narrative Style
THE FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE
STYLE
Margaret Atwood keeps strictly to the conventions of the first person
narrative, seeing everything exclusively through the eyes of her chosen
narrative character, who is, in this case, though not always, the central
figure. Everything is seen from Offred's point of view and Atwood
resists the temptation to explore other people's minds through any of
the props of this limited form of narrative, such as the reading of other
people's diaries and letters, or the overhearing of conversations.
Moira's recorded account of her escape is the nearest we get to entering
another mind.
But the reader feels no lack of variety to the story, in this first person
form, because of the rich range in tone, pace and time. Many sections
start with Offred quietly reflective in her room but the arena is then
broadened out by her mental escapes into the distant or recent past.
Sometimes Offred passes in and out of these three time zones within a
few pages and superimposes one on the other, which, as in a painting
or photo-montage gives depth to the whole.
Further interest is aroused and sustained in the reader by Offred's
reflections and comments. She is not simply a recording camera but an
emotional and intelligent commentator, often dryly humorous about
other characters. Nobody escapes her deep scrutiny and exploration;
nor her irony.
The device of keeping the most painful of Offred's memories in the
background also has a strong dramatic impact. The little snippets of
information she reveals about her family make the reader hungry for
more. What has happened to her close family, we want to know, to her
mother, to Luke and to the little girl who is kept hidden from us in
Offred's mind longer than the other characters.
Moira, too, is treated adeptly. She is the only character who crosses
over from Offred's past into her present. She is a free spirit and retains
something in her character of that longed for, carefree past that makes
Offred think of her often and hope for her survival.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Characters
CHARACTERS
THE HOUSEHOLD
The Commander: head of Offred's household. The Commander is
something of an enigma to Offred and therefore a puzzle to the reader.
He offers a sort of friendship to Offred but she wonders about his
ulterior motives. Though he seems kindly, and is sometimes full of
boyish fun, he appears unmoved by the suicide of Offred's predecessor.
Offred does not know whether he has any genuine humanity towards
her or is simply amusing himself and assuaging his own loneliness.
Commander's Wife: (to Offred) 'I want to see as little of you as
possible... I expect you feel the same way about me.' 'Don't call me
ma'am...You're not a Martha.' Time lies heavily on her hands. She
gardens and knits despite her arthritis and seems a strong woman,
trying to hold on, with dignity, to her difficult position in the
household. Her anger, at the end, at Offred's betrayal with the
Commander, show the suffering and unhappiness behind her facade.
Offred: only a brief inclusion here, since the whole book is the story
of her character - of one woman's struggle to hold on to her
independence, humour and sanity against all the odds.
Rita: maid and cook. 'Her face might be kindly if she would smile'. She
disapproves of Offred's red dress and what her way of life stands for.
'She thinks I may be catching like a disease or any form of bad luck.'
She offers Offred an ice cube to suck in a moment of grudging
friendliness.
Cora: the second maid, is more friendly towards Offred. Younger that
Rita, she must have been pretty 'quite recently' and you can see the
marks in her ears where she wore earrings. She seems to stick up for
Offred when Rita complains that the chicken Offred has brought is
scrawny but in no time they are both talking about Offred, as though
she can't hear them, discussing running her bath. 'To them I'm a
household chore, one of many.' But later Offred enjoys the small
complicity with Cora over the broken egg.
Nick: seems careless of the rules, whistles, winks and wears his cap at
a jaunty angle. He seems to be trusted by the Commander and liaises
with Offred for him. He also chauffeurs the pair of them to Jezebel's. It
does not become clear what his real feelings towards Offred are, since
she gives us different versions of that story, but he does arrange her
escape.
OFFRED'S OTHER LIFE
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Characters
Moira: the bold and brave; the free spirit; someone Offred looks up to
and is ashamed that she is not more like her. Moira will not submit.
She will not give in to the regime and even at the end, recaptured,
tortured and forced to work at Jezebel's, she still commands the respect
of the others and flaunts the rules to talk privately to Offred. But
Offred feels that something in her spirit is broken.
Offred's mother: another free spirit; an active feminist in an age
where women had many issues, with regard to their personal freedom,
to fight for. She fought that women should not be sexually exploited in
magazines and films, and she fought for a woman's right to abortion.
Sometimes she embarrassed Offred with her frankness and free
expression of views.
Luke: supportive of Offred, humorous, fond of bandying words,
enjoys good-natured arguing with her mother. He cooks and shares
household tasks but the balance of his and Offred's relationship is not
the same after she loses her job and her money and he says he'll take
care of her. She resents this patronage and he does not seem to
understand her feelings.
The Child: we learn about the child through the absence of details: she
was so loved and cherished by Offred that she cannot bear to
remember her except in short snatches. We know that she was a
planned child, that Offred and Luke had often talked of the children
they would have. We are given a picture of her sitting drawing at her
own little table in the kitchen, with life revolving round her.
THE AUNTS
p.13. 'Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle
prods slung on thongs from their leather belts. No guns though, even
they could not be trusted with guns.'
Aunt Elizabeth is described as playing an important part at The Birth
but it is Lydia who comes most frequently into Offred's mind, haunting
her with her little sayings.
AUNT LYDIA
p.23. Aunt Lydia holds old-fashioned ideas of status and wants her
Handmaids to be able to enter their Commanders' houses through the
front door and not the rear door which is traditionally the servants and
tradesmen's entrance. 'Yours is a position of honour.'
p 24 . Full of kindly instructions to her Handmaids; teaching them tact
for dealing with their Commander's wife. 'Try to think of it from their
point of view, she said, her hands clasped and wrung together, her
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Characters
nervous pleading smile.' Later, Offred says, 'Aunt Lydia thought she
was very good at feeling for other people.' (p.56)
p.28 'They also serve who only stand and wait'. Lydia quoting John
Milton's religious sentiments. (A 17th Century poet.) 'She made us
memorise it.'
p.28. Aunt Lydia referring to the New Testament parable about the
sowing of seeds and some flourishing and others falling on stony
ground and dying. Not all of her girls 'will make it through'.
p.35. 'We were a society dying of too much choice.' - against the
materialism of the 'time before'.
p.39. 'Modesty is invisibility... never forget it. To be seen - to be seen is to be - her voice trembled - penetrated.' Lydia's Puritanism (narrowmindedness) is such that almost any human contact has sexual
connotations.
p.43. Aunt Lydia defines ordinary: 'Ordinary is what you are used to.
This (The Handmaids' training) may not seem ordinary now, but after a
time it will.'
p.54. She has a pioneering spirit towards the new regime, despite the
fact that she holds on to old-fashioned values. She says about the
Econowives, the lowest in the system, 'When times improve...no one
will have to be an Econowife'.
p.55. Aunt Lydia has views on men who whistle at and try to speak to
girls despite the prohibition: 'All flesh is weak...They can't help it...God
made them that way but he did not make you that way. He made you
different. It's up to you to set the boundaries.'
Aunt Lydia is like the Headmistress at some exclusive girls school who
believes that her girls are a cut above ordinary mortals.
The Handmaids' habitual greeting is: 'Blessed be the fruit...' The
remaining words, based on the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary,
telling her she is to be the mother of Jesus (Gospels: N.T.) are 'of thy
womb' - the total emphasis being on reproduction.
p.65. A longer section on Aunt Lydia worth re-reading. Here we find
her horror of exposed flesh (sunbathing) and men and women lying
together on blankets in the park. The idea of sexual encounters or
'things' makes her cry and press her hand over 'her mouth of a dead
rodent'. Here we see her moral values and her double standards with
regard to sex - often a Victorian stance - since she is training up the
Handmaids to prostitute themselves. But Aunt Lydia would maintain
that sex should be strictly limited to procreation.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Characters
p.74. 'Blessed are the meek'. This reference comes from the eight
beatitudes, or blessings, given by Jesus (St. Matthew's Gospel. N.T.) It
ends by saying that the meek 'will inherit the earth,' but this
completion of the quotation is conveniently dropped, as Offred notes,
for the Handmaids have nothing good to look forward to.
p.171. Aunt Lydia believes that the future will be better for the
Handmaids when the population has been built up again. They will no
longer have to be moved on to new households, and women 'will be
united for a common end'. She gets sentimental and breathy, thinking
of this golden future.
p.204. Aunt Lydia liked uniformity, neat rows, straight backs when the
Handmaids are kneeling and would administer, 'a flick, a tap with her
wooden pointer if we slouch or slacken'.
You can add to the above quotations which pepper Offred's memory.
To sum up Aunt Lydia's character: she is a strong woman, convinced
of the rightness of her own actions and unstinting in her work. She
does believe that she is working towards a better future and wants to
raise the status of the Handmaid. She looks forward to the eventual
abolition of Econowives, whose lives she sees as wasteful and
undignified for women. She dislikes men and is frightened of
sexuality. She is seen at her worst when she is officiating at the
Salvaging and treating the punishing of offenders as a whistle-blowing
game.
The innate cruelty of this dedicated woman is offered as an example of
the sadism induced by fanaticism. She believes that the end justifies
the means.
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The Handmaid’s Tale
Essay and Revision Questions
ESSAY AND REVISION QUESTIONS
1. Describe the structure of the Gilead regime and comment on any
pros and cons of its benefits to humanity.
2. To what extent do you think that The Handmaid's Tale is a
cautionary story?
3. Give examples of imagery and other descriptive language that you
find particularly powerful. What indications are there that Margaret
Atwood is a distinguished poet as well as a novelist?
4. Examine the many references to time and explain the significant
use of time in the novel.
5. Compare the 'time before' with the Gilead regime. What do you
consider to be the most significant changes in life style?
6. A good or bad woman? What is your opinion of Aunt Lydia?
7. To what extent does fear dominate Offred's life? How does it affect
her behaviour?
8. Compare Offred's attitude and spirit with Moira's? To what extent
is Moira more of the ideal fictional heroine?
9. Describe three minor characters in the regime and assess the part
they play in building up background and atmosphere.
10. Do you consider The Handmaid's Tale to be a feminist novel?
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