Key Facts
full title · The Handmaid's Tale
author · Margaret Atwood
type of work · Novel
genre · Anti-utopian (or “dystopian”) novel; science fiction;
feminist political novel
language · English
time and place written · Early 1980s, West Berlin and
Alabama
date of first publication · 1986
publisher · McClelland & Stewart in Canada, Houghton Mifflin
in the United States
narrator · Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead
point of view · The Handmaid's Tale is told from Offred's
point of view. She tells the story in the immediate present tense
but frequently shifts to past tense for flashbacks to life before
Gilead and to her time in the Red Center. Much of her narration
is concerned not with events or action, but with her emotional state,
which is often affected by the memories that well up from her
happier past.
tone · The novel's tone is dark, and at times elegiac for
the lost world before Gilead. Consistently unhappy, Offred finds
both refuge and pain in her memories. A sense of fear and paranoia
also pervades the novel, since all the characters live under a ruthless, totalitarian
government.
tense · Offred describes her life in the Commander's home in
the present tense but frequently shifts to the past tense to describe
flashbacks and memories.
setting (time) · The not-too-distant future
setting (place) · Cambridge, Massachusetts
protagonist · Offred
major conflict · The Republic of Gilead has subjugated women and reduced Handmaids
like Offred to sexual slavery. Offred desires happiness and freedom,
and finds herself struggling against the totalitarian restrictions
of her society.
rising action · Offred's evenings with the Commander; her shopping
trips with Ofglen; her visit to Jezebel's
climax · After learning that Ofglen committed suicide to avoid
arrest, Offred returns home and Serena confronts her about her trip
to Jezebel's.
falling action · Offred's arrest or escape at the end of the novel
themes · Women's bodies as political instruments; language as
a tool of power; the causes of complacency
motifs · Rape and sexual violence; religious terms used for
political purposes; similarities between reactionary and
feminist ideologies
symbols · Cambridge, Massachusetts; Harvard University; the Handmaids'
red habits; a palimpsest; the Eyes
foreshadowing · Offred's kiss with Nick foreshadows their eventual
affair; the attempted kidnapping of Offred's daughter foreshadows Offred's
eventual loss of her child; Ofglen's arrest foreshadows Offred's
own arrest.
