Summary and Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale

torn the country, and nuclear power accidents along the San Andreas Fault have devastated the western seaboard. Fertility has been badly affected by pollution and disease. The president and the senate are dead, murde

horribly, the typical response is to feel that such things can’t happen to you. This is Offred’s explanation of that phenomenon. In The Handmaid’s Tale, there is a secondary meaning: The Handmaids are literally marginalia. They’re sidelined from everything except childbearing, and once they’re too old for that, they are discarded.
“Better never means better for everyone.

that of wife to a lower-class man; such women play all the female roles which are performed separately by Marthas, Wi

Prayvaganza: A mass marriage ceremony for eligible girls or a mass celebration for male veterans returning from the war. Attendance is segregated by gender

The red assigned to Handmaids serves a dual purpose: Red for blood, like menstrual blood, symbolizing fertility; scarlet to symbolize fallen women. Blue is for the Wives—it is the color of the Virgin Mary’s dress, symbolizing the purity, goodness, and power that the Wives are supposed to hold

ironically, although her tale is now taking center stage, she’s still being treated as property: a historical curiosity rather than a real person.

As a female character, she exemplifies the plight of the ordinary woman caught up in events beyond her control.

Offred wishes she had done something

fatal flaw is her early evangelism, which helped to bring this state about. She is described as a ty

Be careful what you wish for.”