Published 1985 / Length 324 pages
Set following violent wars between religious factions horrified at society’s declining moral values, The Handmaid’s Tale superbly illustrates the ways in which religious extremism might so easily turn the world upside down. Perhaps even more pertinent today than when it was written, Atwood’s stark novel is set in the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, where, in a desperate attempt to increase the population, those women who are still fertile are enlisted as ‘handmaids’ and given to wealthy couples as surrogate mothers for their children. Each month, a ceremony is held between husband, wife and handmaid, literally interpreting a passage from the Bible in which the maid ‘shall bear upon [the wife’s] knees, that [she] may also have children by her’. Our heroine is the handmaid Offred – ‘of Fred’, named for the head of the household she is assigned to. In Gilead, the blame for infertility rests entirely with women. Offred must conceive this time, or face extradition and a certain death in the colonies. Although there is a degree of detachment from Atwood in developing her characters’ personalities, she avoids leaving the reader cold by creating a gripping and nerve-racking narrative. She switches easily between Offred’s present predicament and her memories, keeping the reader on edge until the very last page.
‘Margaret Atwood’s terrain is sexual politics only, and within it, she strikes out on a broad front, not just against right-to-lifers, anti-ERA campaigners, born-again Christians, and Stepford Wives, but also against feminist puritans (Offred remembers make-up with forlorn longing), and essentialists who hymn childbirth, menarche [the first occurrence of menstruation] and sisterhood.’ – The Guardian
• How does losing the right to use their own names affect the handmaids’ sense of identity – existing only in terms of the man to whom they belong?
• Although Offred was once quite liberal herself, she now feels differently about her previous behaviour. How does the Gileadean regime so easily undo decades of progress in women’s emancipation?
• Given the choice between the limited roles available to the female characters in The Handmaid’s Tale, which route do you feel would be the best to take?
• In the novel, religious doctrine is taken from very specific passages of the Bible, and access to all literature is limited to the male head of each household. How does control over the written word change the balance of power between Offred and the Commander?
• Atwood is a Canadian author well known for her feminist writing. She won the 2000 Booker Prize for her novel The Blind Assassin.
• The Handmaid’s Tale was the winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by GEORGE ORWELL (see here) – a love story set in a totalitarian future state in which people are controlled by the original ‘Big Brother’.
• Brave New World by ALDOUS HUXLEY (see here) – another dystopian future society imagined.
• Mermaids in the Basement by MARINA WARNER – another example of feminist literature, this short-story collection reworks folklore and legend.