FORM STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE IN ‘THE HANDMAIDS TALE’
FORM AND GENRE
Dystopian ction:
Context:
• The word ‘dystopia’ comes from the Greek, meaning ‘not a good place’ and is the direct
inversion of the word ‘utopia’.
• Typical motives include: totalitarian governments, a disregard among the ruling elite for the
human rights of an individual, the aftermath of some kind of epic environmental disaster: ‘the
Handmaid’s tale’ employs all three of these core dystopian themes.
• Coral Ann Howells: sees Atwood’s use of a female protagonist as a ‘satiric function and on
the themes of patriarchal tyranny and absolute social control.’
• Atwood as in fact described ‘the Handmaids tale’ as a ‘negative utopia.’
Parallel novels:
• George Orwell’s ‘1984’: explores the political, military and institutional horrors of a
dysfunctional future society, whilst Atwood describes: sex, shopping, childbirth and clothes.
Speculative ction:
Context:
• In 1987, ‘the Handmaids tale’ won the rst Arthur C. Clarke award for the best science ction
novel published in the UK that year.
• Atwood: ‘nothing inconceivable takes place… so I think of The Handmaids Tale not as a
science ction but as a speculative ction.’
• Atwood: ‘nothing happens that the human race has not already done at some time in the
past, or that it is not doing now.’
Slave narrative:
Contextual parallels:
• Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for
testifying to the oppressive in uence of the Taliban in Pakistan.
• Similar to O red, Malala’s struggle to tell her story of misogyny, repression and religious
injustice represents the struggle that many women have experienced, especially those such as
O red who is, too, oppressed under a theocratical and patriarchal regime.
Romance ction:
Within the novel:
• There a three key males within the novel which are all a love interest of O red’s…
1. Luke: O red’s supposed ‘real love’; her husband, and father to their daughter.
2. The Commander Fred: O red’s distant romance, whom has a powerful control over her and
her future.
3. Nick: O red’s illicit love, and communion in crime whom is speculated to have saved her at
the end of the novel.
ff
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FORM AND GENRE
Dystopian ction:
Context:
• The word ‘dystopia’ comes from the Greek, meaning ‘not a good place’ and is the direct
inversion of the word ‘utopia’.
• Typical motives include: totalitarian governments, a disregard among the ruling elite for the
human rights of an individual, the aftermath of some kind of epic environmental disaster: ‘the
Handmaid’s tale’ employs all three of these core dystopian themes.
• Coral Ann Howells: sees Atwood’s use of a female protagonist as a ‘satiric function and on
the themes of patriarchal tyranny and absolute social control.’
• Atwood as in fact described ‘the Handmaids tale’ as a ‘negative utopia.’
Parallel novels:
• George Orwell’s ‘1984’: explores the political, military and institutional horrors of a
dysfunctional future society, whilst Atwood describes: sex, shopping, childbirth and clothes.
Speculative ction:
Context:
• In 1987, ‘the Handmaids tale’ won the rst Arthur C. Clarke award for the best science ction
novel published in the UK that year.
• Atwood: ‘nothing inconceivable takes place… so I think of The Handmaids Tale not as a
science ction but as a speculative ction.’
• Atwood: ‘nothing happens that the human race has not already done at some time in the
past, or that it is not doing now.’
Slave narrative:
Contextual parallels:
• Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for
testifying to the oppressive in uence of the Taliban in Pakistan.
• Similar to O red, Malala’s struggle to tell her story of misogyny, repression and religious
injustice represents the struggle that many women have experienced, especially those such as
O red who is, too, oppressed under a theocratical and patriarchal regime.
Romance ction:
Within the novel:
• There a three key males within the novel which are all a love interest of O red’s…
1. Luke: O red’s supposed ‘real love’; her husband, and father to their daughter.
2. The Commander Fred: O red’s distant romance, whom has a powerful control over her and
her future.
3. Nick: O red’s illicit love, and communion in crime whom is speculated to have saved her at
the end of the novel.
ff
fffffi fififffi ff fl fifi ff fi
