Why should you read "The Handmaid's Tale"? - Naomi R. Mercer
Summary
TLDRMargaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' envisions a dystopian future where a theocratic regime, Gilead, seizes power in the United States, drastically restricting women's rights. Women are categorized into social classes and subjected to state-sanctioned abuse, reflecting a society where complacency leads to the erosion of individual freedoms. Atwood draws parallels with historical theocracies, using this backdrop to critique the dangers of unchecked power and societal regression.
Takeaways
- 📚 Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a speculative fiction novel set in a dystopian future where a theocratic government, the Republic of Gilead, has taken over the United States.
- 🛡 The regime in Gilead restricts everyone, but in practice, it gives a few men all the power, particularly over women, making them subservient.
- 🌐 The novel is a cautionary tale, not a prediction, warning about how societies can head towards destruction.
- 📈 It was published in 1985, during a time when conservative groups were challenging the progress of the second-wave feminist movement.
- 👥 Women in Gilead are divided into social classes based on their function and status for men, with their clothing color-coded.
- 🚫 Women are剥夺d of basic rights such as reading and free movement in public, and fertile women are subjected to state-sanctioned rape.
- 📜 Atwood's writing rule for 'The Handmaid's Tale' was to not use any event or practice that hadn't already occurred in human history.
- 🏰 The setting of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has historical ties to the Puritans, whose strict rules are mirrored in Gilead's society.
- 👩🎓 Atwood's personal connection to the Puritans is highlighted by her studies at Harvard and possible descent from Mary Webster, a woman accused of witchcraft.
- 👤 The protagonist, Offred, experiences the loss of her identity and human rights, reflecting the novel's exploration of state control over individuals.
- 🔍 The novel emphasizes the importance of resistance against political, intellectual, and sexual rules, which is central to its plot and message.
Q & A
What is the setting of Margaret Atwood's novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'?
-The novel is set in a near-future United States, where a Christian fundamentalist regime called the Republic of Gilead has established a theocratic government after staging a military coup.
How does the regime in Gilead control and categorize women?
-In Gilead, women are divided into distinct social classes based on their function as status symbols for men, and their clothing is color-coded. They are not allowed to read or move about freely in public.
What is the term for the type of fiction that 'The Handmaid's Tale' falls under, according to Atwood?
-Atwood refers to 'The Handmaid's Tale' as speculative fiction, which theorizes about possible futures, often negative or dystopian.
What was the historical context of 'The Handmaid's Tale' when it was published in 1985?
-The novel was published during a time when conservative groups were attacking the gains made by the second-wave feminist movement, which had been advocating for greater social and legal equality for women since the early 1960s.
How does the regime in Gilead treat fertile women?
-Fertile women in Gilead are subject to state-engineered rape to give birth to children for the regime, highlighting the extreme control and subjugation of women.
What rule did Atwood impose on herself while writing 'The Handmaid's Tale'?
-Atwood imposed a rule that she wouldn't use any event or practice in the novel that hadn't already happened in human history, making the dystopian setting feel more plausible and rooted in reality.
How does the Republic of Gilead resemble the Puritan society of Massachusetts?
-The Republic of Gilead resembles the Puritan society in Massachusetts with its strict moral codes, modest clothing, banishment of dissenters, and regulation of every aspect of people's lives and relationships.
What is the significance of the novel being set in Cambridge, Massachusetts?
-Cambridge, Massachusetts, had been ruled by the theocratic Puritans during the American colonial period, which provides a historical parallel to the theocratic rule of Gilead.
Who is the protagonist of 'The Handmaid's Tale' and what is her role in Gilead?
-The protagonist is Offred, a handmaid in the household of a commander. She had a normal, middle-class American life before the coup, but in Gilead, she is reduced to being a 'two-legged womb' for the regime.
How does Offred initially react to the loss of her human rights under the new regime?
-Offred initially accepts the loss of her fundamental human rights in the name of stabilizing the new government, but she soon realizes the extent of state control over her language, behavior, and thoughts.
What does the novel explore through its portrayal of resistance within the dystopian regime?
-The novel explores the consequences of complacency and how power can be wielded unfairly, with resistance being the actions of people who dare to break the political, intellectual, and sexual rules of the regime.
Outlines
📚 Dystopian Vision of 'The Handmaid's Tale'
Margaret Atwood's novel 'The Handmaid's Tale' presents a dystopian future where a Christian fundamentalist regime, the Republic of Gilead, seizes power in the United States through a military coup. This regime, while theoretically restricting everyone, in practice concentrates power in the hands of a few men, particularly subjugating women. The novel, classified as speculative fiction, explores negative potential futures where society is destroyed by a small group's actions. Atwood's work reflects political trends, with dystopian narratives serving as warnings against societal self-destruction. Published in 1985 amidst conservative backlash against feminist gains, the novel imagines a future where women's progress toward equality is reversed, and they are made subservient to men. Gilead's society is structured with women divided into classes based on their function for men, with color-coded clothing and severe restrictions on their freedoms. The novel draws parallels with the historical Puritan society of Massachusetts, reflecting Atwood's personal and theoretical connections to this past. The protagonist, Offred, narrates her life before and after the coup, detailing her loss of identity and rights, and the regime's attempts to control language and thought. The novel underscores the importance of resistance against oppressive rule and the dangers of complacency.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Theocratic government
💡Speculative fiction
💡Dystopia
💡Second-wave feminist movement
💡Subservience
💡Color-coded clothing
💡State-engineered rape
💡Puritans
💡Protagonist
💡Resistance
💡Complacency
Highlights
Margaret Atwood's novel 'The Handmaid's Tale' envisions a future where a Christian fundamentalist regime, the Republic of Gilead, has taken over the United States.
In Gilead, power is concentrated in the hands of a few men, and women are subjugated, particularly through the control of their reproductive rights.
The novel is categorized as speculative fiction, which explores potential futures by extrapolating from current trends and historical events.
Atwood's work is dystopian, often depicting negative futures as a warning against certain societal developments.
The novel was published in 1985, a time when conservative groups were pushing back against the advancements of the second-wave feminist movement.
Gilead is portrayed as a society where women are divided into social classes based on their function and status as symbols for men.
Women in Gilead are not allowed to read, move freely in public, and fertile women are subjected to state-sanctioned rape.
Atwood's narrative rule for 'The Handmaid's Tale' was to not include any event or practice that hadn't occurred in human history.
The setting of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is significant as it was once ruled by theocratic Puritans, mirroring Gilead's strict moral codes.
Atwood's personal connection to the Puritans is highlighted by her studies at Harvard and possible descent from a woman accused of witchcraft.
The protagonist, Offred, is a handmaid whose experiences reveal the oppressive details of life in Gilead.
Offred's life before Gilead included a husband, child, job, and a middle-class existence, all of which are stripped away by the regime.
The novel explores the theme of resistance, as Offred and others challenge the political, intellectual, and sexual rules of Gilead.
Atwood uses language as a tool to express identity and resistance in the face of state control over individual thoughts and behaviors.
The novel serves as a critique of complacency and an examination of the dangers of power being wielded unjustly.
Despite being set in a future dystopia, 'The Handmaid's Tale' remains relevant as a cautionary tale about the consequences of societal complacency and the abuse of power.
Transcripts
In Margaret Atwood's near-future novel, "The Handmaid's Tale,"
a Christian fundamentalist regime called the Republic of Gilead
has staged a military coup and established a theocratic government
in the United States.
The regime theoretically restricts everyone,
but in practice a few men have structured Gilead so they have all the power,
especially over women.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is what Atwood calls speculative fiction,
meaning it theorizes about possible futures.
This is a fundamental characteristic
shared by both utopian and dystopian texts.
The possible futures in Atwood's novels are usually negative, or dystopian,
where the actions of a small group have destroyed society as we know it.
Utopian and dystopian writing tends to parallel political trends.
Utopian writing frequently depicts an idealized society
that the author puts forth as a blueprint to strive toward.
Dystopias, on the other hand,
are not necessarily predictions of apocalyptic futures,
but rather warnings about the ways in which societies can set themselves
on the path to destruction.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” was published in 1985,
when many conservative groups attacked the gains
made by the second-wave feminist movement.
This movement had been advocating greater social and legal equality for women
since the early 1960s.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” imagines a future in which the conservative
counter-movement gains the upper hand
and not only demolishes the progress women had made toward equality,
but makes women completely subservient to men.
Gilead divides women in the regime into distinct social classes
based upon their function as status symbols for men.
Even their clothing is color-coded.
Women are no longer allowed to read
or move about freely in public,
and fertile women are subject to state-engineered rape
in order to give birth to children for the regime.
Although “The Handmaid’s Tale” is set in the future,
one of Atwood's self-imposed rules in writing it
was that she wouldn't use any event
or practice that hadn't already happened in human history.
The book is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
a city that during the American colonial period
had been ruled by the theocratic Puritans.
In many ways, the Republic of Gilead resembles the strict rules
that were present in Puritan society:
rigid moral codes,
modest clothing,
banishment of dissenters,
and regulation of every aspect of people's lives and relationships.
For Atwood, the parallels to Massachusett's Puritans
were personal as well as theoretical.
She spent several years studying the Puritans at Harvard
and she’s possibly descended from Mary Webster,
a Puritan woman accused of witchcraft who survived her hanging.
Atwood is a master storyteller.
The details of Gilead, which we've only skimmed the surface of,
slowly come into focus through the eyes of its characters,
mainly the novel's protagonist Offred,
a handmaid in the household of a commander.
Before the coup that established Gilead,
Offred had a husband, a child, a job, and a normal, middle-class American life.
But when the fundamentalist regime comes into power,
Offred is denied her identity,
separated from her family,
and reduced to being, in Offred's words,
"a two-legged womb for increasing Gilead's waning population."
She initially accepts the loss of her fundamental human rights
in the name of stabilizing the new government.
But state control soon extends into attempts to control the language,
behavior,
and thoughts of herself and other individuals.
Early on, Offred says,
"I wait. I compose myself.
My self is a thing I must compose, as one composes a speech."
She likens language to the formulation of identity.
Her words also acknowledge the possibility of resistance,
and it's resistance, the actions of people who dare to break the political,
intellectual,
and sexual rules,
that drives the plot of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Ultimately, the novel's exploration of the consequences of complacency,
and how power can be wielded unfairly,
makes Atwood's chilling vision of a dystopian regime ever relevant.
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