Reading The Handmaid’s Tale: Power, Surveillance, and Survival in a Speculative Dystopia

Aug 23, 2025

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is a milestone of modern dystopian literature. While Atwood herself resists calling it “science fiction,” preferring the term speculative fiction, the novel holds an important place in our course because it asks the central sci-fi question: What if?—and answers it by building a world out of historical precedent rather than futuristic gadgets.

Gilead is not an alien planet, nor is it powered by flying cars—it’s a frighteningly possible version of America, grounded in political extremism, environmental collapse, and centuries of patriarchal control. The novel warns us that totalitarianism does not have to invent entirely new tools—it can simply recycle old ones.

Context and Genre

Written: Early 1980s

Published: 1985

Author’s Note: Atwood famously declared, “I didn’t put anything in that hasn’t happened.” This means every form of oppression depicted in the novel—forced surrogacy, book burnings, purges—has historical precedent.

Historical Influences:

The rise of U.S. Christian fundamentalism during the Reagan era.

Real-world policies restricting women’s reproductive rights.

Puritan theocracy in colonial New England.

20th-century regimes (Nazi Germany, Soviet purges, the Iranian Revolution of 1979).

Genre Placement: Speculative fiction, feminist dystopia, political allegory.

Setting: The Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that replaces the United States.

Narrative Structure:

First-person, retrospective narration by Offred.

Fragmented and nonlinear, reflecting trauma and memory gaps.

Framed as a recovered historical document in the “Historical Notes” epilogue—placing the story in the past but reminding us that interpretation is never neutral.

 Major Themes

1. Control Through Reproduction

State Ownership of Fertility: In Gilead, a woman’s worth is measured by her ability to bear children in an era of plummeting birth rates caused by environmental toxins and disease.

Caste System for Women:

Handmaids – fertile women forced into surrogacy for elite couples.

Wives – infertile or post-reproductive women married to powerful Commanders.

Aunts – indoctrinators and enforcers of regime ideology.

Marthas – domestic workers, largely invisible in political life.

Econowives – poorer women, performing all roles without status.

Historical Parallels: Enslaved African women in the Americas forced to bear children for economic gain; Nazi “Lebensborn” program encouraging Aryan births.

2. Language, Censorship, and Thought Control

Banned Literacy for Women: To sever women from independent thought and history.

Religious Phrases as Surveillance: “Blessed be the fruit” and “Under His Eye” operate like verbal checkpoints—performing loyalty while reminding citizens of constant observation.

Scriptural Distortion: Biblical passages like Genesis 30 are selectively quoted to justify state-sanctioned sexual coercion.

Resistance through Language: Offred’s puns, Latin phrases (nolite te bastardes carborundorum), and storytelling preserve a sense of mental autonomy.

3. Surveillance and Internalized Policing

The Eyes: Secret police who can be anyone, fostering paranoia.

Public Hangings & Salvagings: Serve as both punishment and public theater of fear.

Peer Surveillance: Citizens—especially women—are encouraged to spy on each other, eroding solidarity.

Friendship as Risk: Trusting Ofglen or Nick could lead to salvation or betrayal.

4. Resistance, Memory, and the Fragility of Truth

Quiet Acts of Defiance: Hoarding butter as lotion, recalling her child, stealing moments of intimacy.

Mayday Network: Underground resistance that operates in whispers and code.

Storytelling as Survival: Offred’s narrative is itself a rebellion against erasure.

Historical Notes as a Caution: Even after Gilead falls, male academics in the future trivialize her testimony—reminding us that history can be rewritten by those in power.

Symbols and Metaphors

Symbol Meaning

Red Dress Fertility, visibility, and danger; marks Handmaids as reproductive property.

The Eyes Omnipresent surveillance; evokes divine omniscience twisted into authoritarian control.

Serena Joy’s Garden Nurturing without reproduction; a cultivated but sterile beauty.

Butter Bodily autonomy in secret; reclaiming self-care from deprivation.

Broken Mirrors Loss of identity; denial of self-reflection.

Key Literary Devices

Fragmented Narrative – mirrors trauma, uncertainty, and suppressed truths.

Irony – “protection” of women becomes the justification for their imprisonment.

Biblical Allusions – reveal how sacred texts can be weaponized.

Stream-of-Consciousness – captures Offred’s shifting thoughts, fear, and suppressed anger.

Intertextuality – echoes of other dystopias like Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World.

Relevance Today:

The novel’s resurgence—especially post-2017 with the Hulu series—is tied to ongoing debates over reproductive rights, surveillance, and authoritarian politics. Across the world, laws restricting bodily autonomy and freedom of expression echo Gilead’s logic. Atwood’s warning remains urgent: rights can vanish faster than we expect, and often under the guise of protection.

Closing Thought :

Atwood leaves us without a definitive ending—not to frustrate, but to remind us that the struggle against authoritarian control is ongoing. Resistance in Gilead isn’t about overthrowing the system overnight—it begins with the smallest acts: remembering your name, your body, your truth.

“When we think of the past, it’s the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.” — Offred

10 Quick Learning Points:

Published: 1985 by Margaret Atwood.

Genre: Speculative fiction, feminist dystopia.

Setting: Theocratic Republic of Gilead, post-U.S. collapse.

Narrative: First-person, fragmented, retrospective.

Structure: Framed as a recovered historical transcript (Historical Notes).

Form: Nonlinear storytelling reflecting trauma.

Themes: Power, gender control, surveillance, resistance, language.

Symbols: Red dress, Eyes, Serena’s garden, butter, broken mirrors.

Plot Core: Fertility crisis leads to female subjugation via rigid caste system.

Ending: Open, reframed by future academic interpretation.

Check: https://youtu.be/WY6ErbqcmbM