Handmaid's tale - Margaret Atwood
Characters:
• Offred (Protagonist): Handmaid
• The Commander: Head of the household where Offred works as a Handmaid.
• Serena joy: The Commander’s Wife
• Moira: Offred’s best friend from college, she is a lesbian and a feminist.
• Aunt Lydia: She works at the “Red Center,” the re education center where Offred and other women go for
instruction before becoming Handmaids.
• Nick: He is a Guardian, a low-level officer of Gilead assigned to the Commander’s home, where he works as a
gardener and chauffeur.
• Ofglen: Another Handmaid who is Offred’s shopping partner and a member of the subversive “Mayday”
underground.
• Luke: Offred's husband pre-Gilead.
General Info:
• Genre: Speculative fiction (Fantasy, historical, horror)
• Dystopian literature
• Context & setting:
- Global events to recreate world of Gilead
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Aspects drawn from 1980 USA
- Evanglican Christianity: homosexuality, scientific research, religious beliefs
• Gilead: Government that emerged as a totalitarian (Take total control) , patriarchal (Run by men) theocracy
(Run by religion)
, • Characteristics of a dystopia:
- Propaganda
- Restrictions
- Figurehead/concept worship
- Under constant surveillance
- Fear of outside world
- Dehumanised state
- Natural world is banished/destroyed
- Own hierarchy, rituals & language
- Society is an illusion of perfect utopian world
• Epigraph (beginning of novel)
• Epilogue (end of novel)
• Legislation in Gilead:
- Women's bank accounts frozen
- Money transferred to husband
- Women can't have jobs
- Women can't own property
- Women lose the right to abortion and birth control
- Arranged marriage
- Women not allowed to read or write
Summary of novel:
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United
States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for
Characters:
• Offred (Protagonist): Handmaid
• The Commander: Head of the household where Offred works as a Handmaid.
• Serena joy: The Commander’s Wife
• Moira: Offred’s best friend from college, she is a lesbian and a feminist.
• Aunt Lydia: She works at the “Red Center,” the re education center where Offred and other women go for
instruction before becoming Handmaids.
• Nick: He is a Guardian, a low-level officer of Gilead assigned to the Commander’s home, where he works as a
gardener and chauffeur.
• Ofglen: Another Handmaid who is Offred’s shopping partner and a member of the subversive “Mayday”
underground.
• Luke: Offred's husband pre-Gilead.
General Info:
• Genre: Speculative fiction (Fantasy, historical, horror)
• Dystopian literature
• Context & setting:
- Global events to recreate world of Gilead
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Aspects drawn from 1980 USA
- Evanglican Christianity: homosexuality, scientific research, religious beliefs
• Gilead: Government that emerged as a totalitarian (Take total control) , patriarchal (Run by men) theocracy
(Run by religion)
, • Characteristics of a dystopia:
- Propaganda
- Restrictions
- Figurehead/concept worship
- Under constant surveillance
- Fear of outside world
- Dehumanised state
- Natural world is banished/destroyed
- Own hierarchy, rituals & language
- Society is an illusion of perfect utopian world
• Epigraph (beginning of novel)
• Epilogue (end of novel)
• Legislation in Gilead:
- Women's bank accounts frozen
- Money transferred to husband
- Women can't have jobs
- Women can't own property
- Women lose the right to abortion and birth control
- Arranged marriage
- Women not allowed to read or write
Summary of novel:
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United
States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for
