The Handmaid's Tale

Have you ever seen the red outfits worn in protest of governments trying to control reproductive rights? They have swept through the world, from ‘Argentina to the US, the UK and Ireland’ to create a striking image that evokes Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985).¹ Through the narrative of Offred, the protagonist and narrator, Atwood explores themes such as patriarchy, reproduction, power, complacency, and retaliation, which continue to affect us today.

The Handmaid’s Tale: summary

The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the ruins of America in the Republic of Gilead, where a theocratic and totalitarian government has taken control. The narrative follows the daily life of a ‘Handmaid’ called Offred. In the novel, Handmaids are assigned the role of repopulating the country by moving from house to house and ceremoniously having intercourse with the ‘Commanders’, the ruling class of men.

As Offred narrates her day-to-day routines, the reader gradually learns more of this dystopian society and the restrictions imposed on its citizens. She explores her life in Gilead and in the household of Fred, her current Commander, where she begins to feel more and more rebellious. Partly as a coping mechanism, Offred also reveals more of her past as she slips into the memories of her former relationships with her husband, daughter, best friend, and mother.

The Handmaid's Tale: book structure and narrative

The Handmaid’s Tale is divided into 46 chapters and 15 sections, with some historical notes concluding the text. Each section contains multiple chapters and shifts between night sections and sections of the day. The night-time sections are often more introspective and focused on memories, while the daytime sections recount what happens in the narrator’s day-to-day life.

The novel has a singular narrator until we get to the historical notes, where the narrative is taken over by Professor Crescent Moon and Professor Pieixoto. The narrative is considered non-linear in that it shifts between the present day and the past, with breaks in the chronological recounting of events. This is because the whole narrative is written or recorded in retrospect on cassette tapes.

The Handmaid's Tale: section summaries

See below for brief summaries of the novel’s fifteen sections. There are 46 chapters in total in The Handmaid's Tale as well as a historical note at the end.

Night (chapter 1)

The first section explores the narrator’s memories of the beginning of her life in Gilead. She describes how she slept in a converted gymnasium surrounded by people patrolling with guns and cattle prods.

Shopping (chapters 2 – 6)

The narrator prepares to go out with her shopping partner, Ofglen. Before leaving, she picks up a shopping list from the ‘Marthas’, Rita and Cora. She begins to contemplate the Commander’s Wife and how she recognises her as Serena Joy.

As she meets Ofglen, she walks past Nick, the driver, who winks at her. The two Handmaids walk together, and the narrator reminisces about her best friend and husband. While in the shops, the narrator recognises a pregnant Handmaid as Janine. When returning home, they decide to take a different route and pass by the Wall, where dead criminals are publicly displayed as a warning.

Night (chapter 7)

When home, the narrator continues to recount her memories. She also begins to consider the purpose of her recording the events of her life and the fact that she tells this tale regardless of having a readership.

Waiting room (chapters 8 – 12)

The narrator and Ofglen go shopping again, passing the Wall, while Ofglen mentions a resistance group. Once the narrator is back home, she notices that the Commander is standing in her room.

She then describes an inscription which she found in the cupboard, presumably left by the last Handmaid, and which reads: ‘nolite te carborundorum est’. She begins to sing to herself, reflecting on the past.

The narrator then prepares for the ‘Ceremony’ where she will be forced to have sex with the Commander. She is taken to see a doctor to determine if she can still have children. While there, she is asked whether she wants to be impregnated by the Commander. She then takes a bath and contemplates Gilead.

Nap (chapter 13)

Offred recalls more memories to pass the time. She thinks of the Red Centre and remembers the people with her, such as Moira and Janine. She dreams of her former husband Luke and of their attempts to escape Gilead with her daughter.

Household (chapters 14 – 17)

The narrator waits in the living room for the household to gather while she contemplates names and reveals hers to be Offred. The radio is switched on, and she thinks of her time with her daughter and with Luke. The Commander finally arrives and reads from the biblical story of Rachel and Leah. As the household prays, Offred mutters ‘nolite te carborundorum est’.

The Ceremony begins, and Offred dissociates as she is raped by the Commander. When she finally goes to bed, she wishes to commit a small act of resistance and goes downstairs without authorisation. While there, she sees Nick, who tells her that the Commander wants to see her.

Night (chapter 18)

Offred is full of nervous energy afterwards and cannot sleep. She thinks of Luke and his present circumstances, whether dead, tortured, alive, or in the resistance.

Birth day (chapters 19 – 23)

Offred goes into the Birthmobile with the other Handmaids. They are both excited and fearful about the potential of giving birth to a child. As the birth begins, they recite from the Bible together. Offred recalls a video shown to her at the Red Centre, which featured her mother protesting. The birthing ceremony begins for the surrogacy of Janine’s child.

Offred returns from the birthing tired and numbed. She gradually begins to fantasise over Moira’s escape and reveals what happened during her first night with the Commander: Scrabble and a kiss.

Night (chapter 24)

When she returns to her room, she realises that her situation has changed. She lays down and looks at the Latin phrase written in the cupboard, dissolving into hysterical laughter.

Fig. 1 - Parallels between the speculative dystopian world of The Handmaid's Tale and our real world have been frequently drawn in recent years.

Soul scrolls (chapters 25 – 29)

Offred reveals that she visits the Commander more often to play Scrabble. He gives her a magazine and some moisturiser. However, this new relationship with the Commander makes the Ceremony harder.

Offred and Ofglen go shopping again and talk to each other. When heading home, they witness a man being taken away. Back home, Offred remembers how Gilead took control through a coup and how she lost her job and credit card within quick succession of the coup, shifting the dynamic of her relationship with Luke, on whom she was now dependent.

She visits the Commander again, and after a game of Scrabble, the two talk together. Offred asks him what the Latin phrase ‘nolite te carborundorum est’ means, to which he laughs and says that it isn’t real Latin but a schoolboy joke meaning don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Night (chapter 30)

Offred remembers the night before her attempted escape and how she had to kill their cat to cover their tracks. She worries about her memory fading and prays her own parody of the Lord’s prayer.

Jezebel’s (chapters 31 – 39)

Offred and Ofglen walk past the Wall again, talking again about resistance and the code term ‘mayday’. At home, Serena calls Offred to her and suggests Nick as another option for her to get pregnant if the Commander is infertile. Offred still visits the Commander that night, and they discuss Gilead.

Offred and Ofglen go to a Prayvaganza where they find Janine amid the audience and learn that her child has died. While she waits for the Prayvaganza to begin, Offred’s mind drifts until the group wedding begins. Ofglen tells Offred that she knows she’s been seeing the Commander.

When home again, Offred begins to remember events from the past but soon breaks off out of sadness. She is interrupted by the intrusion of Serena Joy, who offers her a polaroid of Offred’s daughter.

Offred goes to meet the Commander, who gives her a costume and takes her to the club Jezebel’s, where Offred sees Moira. The two talk and Moira explains how she ended up at the club. As Moira talks, her tone appears more and more pessimistic and hopeless, crushing Offred’s hopes.

Offred then returns to the Commander, who guides her to a private room. She feels embarrassed over her costume and makeup but returns to the Commander, who is waiting for her on the bed.

Night (chapter 40)

The next night comes, and Serena takes Offred to Nick. Offred describes how she knocks on the door before recounting multiple versions of what follows.

Salvaging (chapters 41 – 45)

Offred becomes self-conscious of her narration, wishing it was less selfish. She is embarrassed at how much of her resistance has disappeared.

Offred is taken to a Women’s Salvaging, where two Handmaids and a wife will be publicly executed. The audience and Offred are complicit in the murder as they hold the rope that hangs the women. Afterwards, a Particulation occurs, where the Handmaids murder a man accused of rape. Ofglen suggests that he was part of the resistance.

Offred returns home and prepares to go shopping with Ofglen, but a different woman is waiting for her. Offred tests the resistance code fearfully. The new Ofglen recognises the code but is not a part of the resistance. She tells Offred that the old Ofglen killed herself before being captured. Offred descends into a spiral of fear and paranoia and wishes to surrender fully to the regime. At home, she is confronted by Serena Joy, who has uncovered Offred’s affair with the Commander.

Night (chapter 46)

Offred awaits her death and seems quite passive as she ponders what she could do. She hears the black van and is brought downstairs by Nick, who tells her that it is May Day. Regardless of whether it is or isn’t, she goes into the van, and her narrative ends.

Historical notes

The historical notes elaborate on what happened at the end of the Gileadean regime. The narrative voice switches to Professor Pieixoto, who mentions Offred’s narrative, explaining that nobody knows what happened to her. Thus, the novel ends on a simultaneously positive (Gilead has ended) and negative (Offred’s fate is unclear) note.

The Handmaid's Tale: characters

Some of the main characters in The Handmaid's Tale are Offred, The Commander, The Commander's wife, Nick, and Ofglen.

There are several important minor characters in the novel.

Aunt Lydia

Aunt Lydia is one of the ‘Aunts’ who trained the Handmaids at the Red Centre. Offred and others feel a profound hatred towards her because of the way she treated them. As an Aunt, Aunt Lydia is allowed to read, and she displays this right during the Women’s Salvagings, which she holds.

Janine

Janine, also known as Ofwarren, is another Handmaid from the Red Centre. Janine is thought to suck up to the Aunts and to have subscribed to Gilead’s regime, despite the suffering she has undergone.

Luke and Offred's daughter

Offred experiences a distinct amount of pain when she thinks of them, but their particular situations are unknown to her. Because Luke was already married when he met Offred, the couple wanted to flee from Gilead with their daughter as remarriage was not approved by the regime, and they would have been split up anyway.

Rita and Cora

Rita and Cora are the Marthas in Offred’s house who fulfil servant duties. The name Martha comes from the biblical story in which Jesus visited the sisters Mary and Martha, who spent the whole time of his visit working and serving him. Rita is often depicted as an aggressive and frustrated woman, while Cora seems more hopeful, especially for having a child in the house.

The narrator’s mother

Offred has complicated emotions towards her mother. She contemplates her lack of a maternal figure owing to the fact that her mother spent most of her childhood protesting in the second wave of feminism. Offred learns, from Moira, that her mother is still alive but is likely to be sent to the Colonies.

The Econowives

The Econowives are the wives of lower-class men. They are not given Handmaids or Marthas but must fulfil roles such as domestic chores and reproduction themselves. They feel a distinct sense of hatred towards the Commander’s household members because they deem them to have an easier life.

The Handmaid's Tale: themes

The main themes of The Handmaid's Tale are reproductive rights, oppression and power, gender roles, rebellion, and memory.

• Reproductive rights and control: The novel explores the idea of controlling women's reproductive rights, both through governmental policies and cultural beliefs. Women's bodies are seen as a commodity to be controlled and regulated, rather than as autonomous beings with agency over their own bodies.
• Oppression and power: The society in the novel is highly oppressive, with a rigid social hierarchy and strict rules and regulations. The ruling class holds all the power, and this power is maintained through the subjugation of women and other marginalized groups.
• Gender roles and identity: The novel challenges traditional gender roles and explores the fluidity of gender identity. The handmaids, for example, are stripped of their previous identities and forced to adopt a new role solely based on their ability to reproduce.
• Resistance and rebellion: Despite the oppressive nature of the society depicted in the novel, there are moments of resistance and rebellion. The protagonist, Offred, engages in small acts of rebellion, such as forming relationships and seeking out forbidden knowledge.
• Memory and storytelling: The novel highlights the importance of memory and storytelling in preserving the past and resisting oppression. Offred's narrative serves as a way of documenting and preserving the experiences of those who came before her, and of resisting the erasure of history and the suppression of personal narratives.

The Handmaid's Tale: key quotes

The following quotes reflect the main themes of the novel such as reproductive rights, oppression, and gender roles.

In this quote, Offred discusses the importance of names while revealing the name Offred by which she is known. The name isn’t even a permanent one but only applies for as long as she lives in Fred’s household. She is thus denied any form of consistent identity. This highlights how the Handmaids are reduced to a job and denied any form of individuality.

Here, Offred confronts her mother, with whom she has a complex and dysfunctional relationship, about the issue of a women’s culture. However, there is a sense of irony in the fact that women throughout Gilead continue to be cruel to one another despite the shared suffering under the regime’s rule.

Offred here expresses how she believes Gilead views the Handmaids. She previously elaborated on how they are no longer thought of as geishas or courtesans but are instead objectified as resources for pregnancy.

While describing Serena Joy’s garden, Offred compares the flowers to the Handmaids. Yet, despite the flowers and Handmaids being silenced, Offred highlights how they still find ways to retaliate under the harsh regime of Gilead. Offred also comments on how feminine the flowers appear, focusing especially on the irises.

Fig. 2 - Irises are an important symbol of femininity and fragility.

The Handmaid's Tale: criticism

Since the release of The Handmaid's Tale, there have been varied receptions and criticism of the novel across the academic sphere.

Offred's character is often discussed in terms of how heroic she really is. Some critics argue that her narration is a form of rebellion and subversion to Gilead's restrictive regime (like Coral Ann Howells and Michele Lacombe).^{2, 3} Other critics, like J. Brooks Bouson, however, take the stance that Offred's resistance is ineffectual because she does not outwardly cross the regime like the others in Mayday.⁴

Some critics also choose to analyse the novel through different political lenses, such as feminism and marxism. Roohollah Roozbeh, for example, disagrees that the novel presents a battle between ideas of patriarchy (a system that favours the power of men) and matriarchy (a system that favours the power of women). Instead, Roozeh argues that the novel is about the extreme subjugation to slavery committed by the bourgeoisie in society.⁵ Within Gilead, there are definite class divides with Commander's and Commander's Wives at the top of the hierarchy and Marthas, Handmaids and Econowives at the bottom.

¹ Peter Beaumont et al., 'How The Handmaid’s Tale Dressed Protests across the World', 2018.

² Carol Ann Howells, 'Margaret Atwood', 1996.

³ Michele Lacombe, 'The Writing on the Wall: Amputated Speech in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale', 1986.

⁴J Brooks Bouson, 'The Critical Insights into Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale', 2009.

⁵ Roohollah Roozbeh, 'The Handmaid's Tale: Through the Lens of Marxism', 2018.