Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed

The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

1985

Novel

Dystopian

Margaret Atwood's most popular novel is a cautionary tale about a brutal theocracy that represents a closed, elitist belief system. The protagonist, Offred, is challenged daily with the choice to rebel against the systematic repression, and risk her life in joining an underground rebellion, or submit to an oppressive society where trust, even of one's closest allies, can get one killed.

In the post-U.S. nation of Gilead, birthrates are alarmingly low. Handmaids are both revered due to their ability to bear children, and castigated because of the acts they are forced to perform in order to become pregnant. Offred is one such woman, captured with her husband and daughter as they attempted to escape to Canada. They are separated, and Offred is sent to a handmaids' finishing school, run by brutal headmistresses known as “Aunts,” who use cattle prods to maintain discipline. Everything, from dress to a simple greeting, is proscribed and monitored. Stripped of her personal identity, the handmaid takes the name of her “commander.” The sex act is ritualized in a “ceremony” involving a husband, wife and their handmaid. The wife holds the powerless handmaid as the husband essentially rapes her. Any sign of a personal thought or emotion, or any act made outside of prescribed decorum, can get one punished or killed. Offred's descriptions of the fear, brutality, and isolation are reminiscent of life in Nazi Germany.

Serena-Joy, the wife in Offred's case, realizes that her husband is infertile and offers to make a deal in order to get her baby. (Offred knows it could be a trap.) She arranges for Offred to sleep with the chauffer, Nick, in exchange for a picture of Offred's daughter (thus revealing that she has always known both the identity and location of the child.) Offred begins an ongoing sexual relationship with Nick, a sharp contrast to the clandestine, nighttime Scrabble sessions with the Commander, who is also at risk engaging in a forbidden act. (Handmaids are not allowed to read or meet with anyone outside of social boundaries.)

Margaret Atwood imposed one rule on herself while composing The Handmaid's Tale, and that was to only use social characteristics that have a precedent in actual human history. Every societal characteristic, from strictures about clothing to identify one's function and class, to forced maternity and public executions, has actually occurred.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Atwood, Margaret. "The Handmaid's Tale." Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=6CR_0231.
APA 7th
Atwood, M. (2015). The Handmaid's Tale. In E. Salem Press (Ed.), Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Atwood, Margaret. "The Handmaid's Tale." Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.