focus on pre-Gilead (pornography, artificial insemination) and the moral decay associated to such a period.flashbacks, sudden jumps backwards in time.Yet, she resists the all-powerful patriarchal laws based on the Bible to tell her story of the silenced female servants.įrom the opening line, we are presented a survival narrative and a female resistance : She’s a “national resource”.Ī lire : Historical figures and fictional characters in Regeneration As a handmaid, Offred’s body is at the service of a Commander, “for reproductive purposes” (p316). Men do not escape characterization either: They are called Handmaids and have to bear the children of the elite. Infertile women (the result of pollution and nuclear plants accidents leading to a rise in birth defects) are sent to the colonies as well.įertile women are indoctrinated by the “Rachel and Leah Centre”, also known as the “Red Centre” and parcelled out to “Commanders”. Homosexuals, old women and non-white people are sent to the colonies because they are unwanted. Women became slaves and homosexuals “gender traitors” (p53). They established a new republic called Gilead, on patriarchal lines, derived from the Old Testament in the Bible, 17th century American puritanism and the American New Right from the 1980’s. A group of the right-wing fundamentalists has assassinated the American President, over-thrown the elected Congress and denied both jobs and education to women.Īll this was facilitated by technological progress:Īll they needed to do is to push few buttons. The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a near future in the USA. The Handmaid’s Tale encourages a wider view and is set in no specific space and time. Margaret AtwoodĪmerica is a starting point to denounce politics. In the States, the machinery of government is out of control, it’s too big, it runs right over your great democratic ideals. She takes side to protest : The Handmaid’s Tale is a protest, a denunciation of the American way of life and imperialism : fundamentalism and excess of puritanism.She takes an interest in social and political issues : She challenges the limits of traditional genres. She takes an interest in the narrative form and draws on different literary genres : Gothic romance, fairy tale, spy thriller, science fiction and history. Margaret Atwood is a very prolific artist, involved in the feminist movement and human rights issues on the international scene. She was a well-known poet with The Edible Woman (1969), Surfacing (1972), Life before man (1979), The Robber Bride (1993). In the 1960s, she was a graduate specialist in Harvard and then came back to Canada to teach literature. Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer born in 1931, who studied literature in Toronto.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood