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Summary Handmaid's Tale Context
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- English (7711)
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Handmaid's Tale Context - All the context you'll need to write an A* Essay on the Handmaid's Tale
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Context of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’General Margaret Atwood Context
- Born in Ottawa, Canada in 1939
- Spent half of each year (until age 11) in the wilderness with her father, who was an Entomologist (insect
scientist). She spent the majority of this time away focusing on writing.
- At age six, she was writing morality plays, poems and comic books, and had started a novel.
- Was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (famous for his dark mystery stories), during her teenage years.
- Studied writing full time, and even went to Harvard.
- Invented a robot (the LongPen) as a remote signing device, so one can write in ink remotely, anywhere in the
world.
- Studied at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where she received a bachelor’s degree in English
Literature in 1961.
- Completed her master’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts (where Gilead is supposed to be) at Radcliffe College
in 1962.
- Then studied at Harvard University from 1962-63, and then 1965-67.
- Writes with focus and vividity, and is usually unflinching when writing about pain and unfairness.
- Her novels are described as “sarcastic jabs at society as well as identity quests”, with her heroines usually
being modern urban women always with “some social-professional commitment”.
- Atwood has looked at dystopian futures in her trilogy; ‘Oryx and Crake’, ‘The Year of the Flood’ and
‘MaddAddam’, and in the prequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, ‘The Testaments’.
- She takes a more historical approach with her novels ‘Alias Grace’, ‘The Blind Assassin’ and ‘Cat’s Eye’. In
all of them Atwood writes about real figures in history that caused controversy at the time.
- ‘The Edible Woman’ is the novel that gave Atwood prominence. It explores the restrictions of gender and
ends with the protagonist, Marion, literally (in 1st person) taking back her narrative after detaching from her
body mentally (3rd person) because of her association with food.
- Atwood’s perhaps most renowned poetry collection is ‘Morning in the Burned House’, where she draws on
history and myth.
- ‘The Circle Game’ is another of Atwood’s acclaimed anthologies, and won the 1966 Governor General’s
Award.
Margaret Atwood Context Relating to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- Atwood was living in West Berlin when she started writing ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in 1984. She talks about
how the constant sonic booms from East Germany, “to remind us of how close they were”, created a wary
society of suspicion, and “the feeling of being spied on”.
- The phrase “the oblique ways in which people might convey information” which Atwood experienced in the
society of West Germany links well to the book through ‘Offred’s’ euphemistic language due to fear of being
watched, and being controlled.
- Atwood was born in 1939 and experienced WW2, saying that she “knew that established orders could vanish
overnight” and “Change could also be as fast as lightning.” Again this links to the theme of time in the book
and could be inspiration for any rebellion to take down the order of Gilead.
- Growing up post and during WW2, Atwood was fascinated with Authoritarian Dictatorships and Regimes.
- The book’s society is based upon “the seventeenth-century Puritan roots” of America, which links to
Atwood’s possible relation and fascination with ‘witch’ Mary Webster. The “biblical precedent” of the book is
the story of Jacob and his two wives, Rachel and Leah, with their two handmaids.
- The Handmaid's Tale was published amidst Religious Conservative movements after Ronald Reagan was
elected. There were stark warnings about the Environment and climate change (which were ignored), and
rampant sexism, Pollution, Sexism and lack of autonomy in women’s daily lives.
The Inspiration for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- “....when I was in West Berlin—I also visited Czechoslovakia and East Germany and Poland. They weren’t
revelations, because being as old as I am I knew about life behind the Iron Curtain, but it was very interesting
to be right inside, to sense the atmosphere. East Germany was the most repressed, Czechoslovakia the
second, and Poland was relatively wide open, which explains why Poland was where the Cold War wall first
cracked. So it was very interesting to be there, but it wasn’t the primary inspiration.”
- “ I left Berlin in June of 1984, returned to Canada, spent a month on Galiano Island in British Columbia, wrote
, through the fall, then spent four months in early 1985 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where I held an MFA Chair. I
finished the book there; the first person to read it was fellow writer Valerie Martin, who was also there at that
time. I recall her saying, “I think you’ve got something here.” She herself remembers more enthusiasm. “
- Tuscaloosa Alabama links to the theocratic society in the sense of the governing body being highly
Christian driven in their ruling. Also links to present happenings such as in 2020 medical director of
the West Alabama Women’s Center for abortion - Dr Leah Torres being denied the application to
practice medicine for making statements related to the practice of medicine which violate the high
standards of honesty, diligence, prudence, and ethical integrity.
- How Religion inspired ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- The concept of using Handmaid’s to battle infertility is biblically inspired
- The center is a direct reference to the Old Testament story of Rachel and her sister Leah, both of
whom married Jacob. While Leah had no trouble conceiving children, Rachel was unable to get
pregnant. Frustrated, Rachel offered up her handmaid, Bilhah, to Jacob as a "vessel" through which
she could have children. Bilhah gave birth to two sons, both of whom were named by Rachel
- "Blessed be the fruit." "May the Lord Open." - The phrases are found in Deuteronomy 28 as part of
the Blessings of Obedience and are meant to encourage plentitude to faithful followers. Those who
"heed the voice of the Lord, your God" will receive blessings, the passage states.
- Dystopian Fiction in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- Atwood uses many elements of dystopian fiction such as restricted lifestyle, constant surveillance,
undercover rebellion and lack of freedom.
- In an interview with Berkeley news, Atwood recalls there being a different response when the novel
was first published in 1985 as “people thought time always moved forward, but that has never been
true” therefore”people called it impossible to happen”. This is compared to “now” 2018 when a lot
more people are not -”totalitarians always seize control of the communication systems eg. free press”.
“Do away with any regulations over environmental control”
- Theocratic Society in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- The fictional society Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale mirrors christian fundamentalism. Although The
Handmaid’s Tale is presented as a dystopian society which is fictional and imaginary, its
characteristics resemble the goals of some Christian Fundamentalist movements today. It is a
fictional tale with a real, non-fictional substance.
- In The Handmaid’s Tale, the language used in daily conversation consists of biblical phrases:
“blessed day”, “blessed be the fruit”, “may the lord open”, “praise be” and “under his eye”. The phrase
“under his eye” is taken in the most literal sense; God and His servants are always watching.
- The Gilead operates under strict rules and follows an extremist Christian theology where the order of
life is based on a literal fundamentalist interpretation of the Old Testament (Atwood, 1985). Malise
Ruthvan (2005) states that “fundamentalism … may be described as a religious way of being where
beleaguered believers attempt to preserve their distinctive identity as people or group in the face of
modernity and secularization”
- Examples of Theocratic Societies in History
- Ancient Egypt (Theocratic Monarchy)
- Tibetan Government Pre-1959 (Dalai Lama)
- America Massachusetts Puritan Theocracy 1600’s
- Politics in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- The government of Gilead was inspired by Reagan's government in the 1980s. Attwood drew upon
history to convey a 17th century theocracy. In 1981 Reagan became the first president to propose a
constitutional amendment seeking to restore organised prayer in schools. Reagan also closely
aligned himself with religious political organisations like the moral majority and focused on the family.
The temporary rise in power of these groups caused a feared crackdown in women's access to
abortion.
- It's worth noting that this particular aspect of "The Handmaid's Tale" continues to resonate in modern-
day society. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the increased control of conservatives under
his administration have led to a resurgence in concern about the preservation of Roe v. Wade and
other abortion-related legislation.
- The Inspiration of ‘The Salem Witch Trials’ in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
- Atwood has made it abundantly clear that the novel was inspired by the Salem witch trials and the
demonizing, threatening, and even killing of innocent women that took place during that time.
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