Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)

Who is Margaret Atwood?

Margaret Atwood, a Canedian author, is known for her novels, poetry, and essays. In Ottawa, Canada, she was born on November 18, 1939. Atwood is known for her impactful narratives, as for example The Handmaid's Tale, which envisions a reality in which women have totally lost their rights. She often explores themes such as society, gender, and the environment in her work. Besides her writing career, she engages in public speaking and defends several social issues. Due to her numerous awards for writing, Atwood has established herself as one of today’s most significant authors.

What is the novel about?

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a deep analysis of female identity and oppression, enhancing its status as a foundational work of feminist literature. The narrative centers on Offred, the main character, who lives in a dystopian world where women's rights have been eliminated. Atwood explores the complexities of desire, grief, and defiance in the face of tyranny through the personal battles and reflections of the female protagonist. Atwood employs powerful language to illustrate Offred’s inner conflict, as she desires freedom while fighting with the identity imposed upon her. Love, control, and human resilience are among the themes examined in the novel, which makes the reader face the realities of women’s rights and autonomy in the middle of social oppression.

·I've just read the novel and I have to say that what I loved the most was the use of natural metaphors (specifically, flowers) that Margaret Atwood makes use of, to shed light on the themes of beauty, desire, and the contrasts between life and oppression. Flowers, traditionally seen as symbols of femininity and fertility, embody the Handmaids' diminished identities within a patriarchal society. The floral imagery evokes what has been lost—love, freedom, and humanity—while embodying the complex emotions experienced by women in a repressive and tyrannical world.

Important quotes from the novel:

- "There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh. We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability?": This quote illustrates Offred's profound yearning for independence and self-determination, emphasizing the innate human wish for having more than what a tyrannical society offers.

-"The tulips along the border are redder than ever, opening, no longer wine cups but chalices; thrusting themselves up, to what end? They are, after all, empty. When they are old they turn themselves inside out, then explode slowly, the petals thrown out like shards" (pg.37): With respect to tulips, this is a wonderful example of the language of flowers Atwood uses. In this case the tulips represent the duality between beauty and emptiness, reflecting Offred’s emotions of yearning and sadness in her imprisoned existence.

-"After a while it passes, like an epileptic fit. Here I am in the closet. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. I can'tsee it in the dark but I trace the tiny scratched writing with the ends of my fingers, as if it's a code in Braille. It sounds in my head now less like a prayer, more like a command; but to do what? Useless to me in any case, an ancient hieroglyph to which the key's been lost. Why did she write it, why did she bother? There's no way out of here." (pg.129) : This phrase left by an unknown woman that lived in the same room as the protagonist before and was subject to the same kind of oppression, symbolizes Offred’s rebellion and resistance since it embodies her hope and resolve to preserve her identity in the face of oppression.

- "We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories" (pg.49): This quote shows the suppressed voices of women within society, indicating that despite their historical erasure, they hold a unique freedom in their silent lives.

- "My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems outdated. Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it's shameful or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely" (pg.54): Offred’s dissatisfaction regarding her body shows the social objectification of women and demonstrates the degradation of her self-worth and identity, and also serves as a representation of how women view their own bodies when they are stripped of their identity and their autonomy. 

-"But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex, It's lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere. Who knows where they are or what their names are now? They might as well be nowhere, as I am for them. I too am a missing person" (pg.88): Offred recognizes that emotional connections are essential for survival and she highlights the lack of touch she has with loved ones, having to survive in her case without her daughter and Luke, her former husband. 

-"Temptation comes next. At the Center, temptation was anything much more than eating and sleeping. Knowing was a temptation. What you don't know won't tempt you, Aunt Lydia used to say. Maybe I don't really want to know what's going on. Maybe I'd rather not know. Maybe I couldn't bear to know. The Fall was a fall from innocence to knowledge" (pg.174): This recognizes the serious consequences of knowledge and awareness, suggesting that in a repressive system, ignorance is a safer option in order to not think about your condition and therefore not feel completely empty. 

-"I don't want pain. I don't want to be a dancer, my feet in the air, my head a faceless oblong of white cloth. I don't want to be a doll hung up on the Wall, I don't want to be a wingless angel. I want to keep on living, in any form. I resign my body freely, to the uses of others. They can do what they like with me. I am abject. I feel, for the first time, their true power" (pg.257) : This is clearly an affirmation of Offred's determination to keep living life despite the dehumanizing circumstances she is being subjected to, highlighting her fight for survival and selfhood in the middle of despair. 

-The importance of writing: In The Handmaid's Tale, we also see the importance of writing, which has always been a powerful form of resistance, highlighting the significance of voice in a society that seeks to silence it. Upon reflection, she says, "The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say" (pg. 167). Her recognition of the pen’s authority exposes her desire for self-governance and the creativity that Gilead’s repressive regulations inhibit. The pen represents her wish to control her own story and her jealousy of those who can use words without restriction, the Commander among them. Moreover, she demonstrates her awareness of her difficulties with storytelling when she says, “As for me, I was only running: away, away. I don’t want to be telling this story” (pg. 202). This acknowledgment highlights the internal struggle she faces: the impulse to stay silent versus the need to reveal her truth. She wished her narrative were more uplifting—"I wish it had more shape. I wish it were about love... so much whispering, so much speculation about others" (pg. 237)—highlighting the difficulty in expressing her true self in a chaotic environment. In the end, she does it through writing her life experience, to remind us that the act of retelling one’s experience is an essential method of resisting erasure and oppression, even in the worst situations.