“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow
will be better, we can bear hardship today.” In light of this quotation examine the presentation of hope in 'The
Handmaid's Tale'
Throughout this essay, I will consider how Atwood presents hope through; the governance of Offred’s own
narrative retelling, the assertion of sexuality and female bodily autonomy and the preservation of the past. In
light of the statement, I agree to a large extent as a result of Offred’s reliance on hope as a method of
escapism from her current reality, the belief in a ‘better tomorrow’ allows Offred to be optimistic about her own
survival.
In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Atwood presents hope through the creation and governance of Offred’s own
narrative re-telling and allusions to ‘fairy tales’ as a method of disconnection from reality. This account is most
likely a post-oral transcription of her narrative as a result of the eradication of the allowance to read or write.
The end of chapter 7 concludes with a message of hope; “I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I
need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better
chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story,
and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.”. The act of recounting this “story” is a rebellion in
itself against Gileadean society. The regime seeks to silence women, alluding to the treatment of women in
Extremist Islamic regimes, but Offred contravenes this ‘eradication of basic human rights’. Atwood presents
and emulates the idea that literature and ‘free thought’ is a tool of emancipation and subversion of
authoritarian power. Thus, Offred’s control over her own “story” as she denies the regime authority over her
inner thoughts, and belittles the control of Gilead and emphasises the hope she experiences for a post-
Gileadean future. Furthermore, the declaration of this as a “story”, with an “ending”, is used by Atwood to
distance the protagonist from the present, it suggests an ability to control the future and almost influence her
reality, allowing her to hope for a liberated future. Atwood also mirrors this concept in Chapter 2, through the
allusions to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Red Shoes'', and to the Brothers Grimm fairy tale
‘Little Red Riding Hood’; “some fairy-tale figure in a red cloak” “in their red shoes”. The insinuation of this ‘tale’
as a “fairytale” or a “story” allows Offred to psychologically remove herself from her current situation and
fabricate her reality as something that will “end”, there will be a definite end to her suffering and thus the form
of her narrative emphasises her hope for the future. Despite this, the allusions despondent suggest a sinister
ending with “The Red Shoes” and “Little Red Riding Hood” exploring emancipation and release from suffering
as death. Therefore, in spite of the hope that is inspired by Offred herself through the reconstruction of her
narration, the subtle allusions suggest that liberation from Gilead is more sinister than contented.
In 'The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood presents hope through the retention and assertion of sexuality, and female
bodily autonomy. Atwood uses Offred’s private admissions of sexual desire to convey the extent of both sexual
and psychological repression in Gilead, but also how Offred has retained governance and control over herself
and her thoughts, this is implied through the statements; “we still had our bodies. That was our fantasy.” and
“we will be touched again, in love or desire”. The noun “bodies” is implicit in Gilead’s autonomous control of
women through political subjugation and the dehumanisation and objectification of female identity and worth,
and pertains to the idea of women being reduced to their fertility. The control and accentuation of the
importance of fertility could be Atwood’s allusion to Romania’s Decree 770, where abortion and contraception
were criminalised in Romania in 1966 due to a rapidly falling birth rate. Despite this, the possessive pronoun
“our”, and the collective pronoun “we”, highlights the assertion of control, and the concept that physical
autonomy can not be indoctrinated with Gileadean ideals, Offred has sovereignty over herself. Furthermore,
Atwood could also be suggesting the assertion of liberation through sexual liberation, a reference to the sexual
revolution of the 1960s, and the perversion of this event by the Gileadean regime. There is a sense in which
the phrases “we still had” and “we will be”, suggest personal control of sexuality and identity, only one person
could possess ‘Offred’s’ body, she had governance over her thoughts and her being. This coupled with the
noun “fantasy” allows Offred to remove herself from the present and fantasise about her emancipation and
liberation from the Gileadean regime. Therefore she asserts the power of her mind and propels her survival
through her optimistic and hopeful outlook on the future her hope to over-rule the potency of the indoctrination
of Gilead’s ideals. This is further reinforced by the voyeuristic rhetorical question; “What if I were to peel off my
red shroud and show myself to him, to them[...]?”, which suggests a desire to expose her true identity, June,
and hope for this to become her tangible reality. The verb “peel” suggests a painful, slow process,
metaphorically and literally shredding the layer of herself which represents her prescribed role and ideals of
