Structure

• Atwood blurs the boundary of real and fiction, a common trope of postmodern speculative fiction, by making Offred aknowlege herself as an unreliable narrator "this is all a reconstruction" as well as drawing inspiration from the real world for the republic of Gilead such as the Salem Witch trials inspiring the "hanging" that those who go against the totalitarian state face as punishment
• The novel is packed with biblical references such as the epigraph quoting the old testament about Jacob's wife Rachel asking him to impregnate her maid Bilhah as she is infertile which is reflective of the handmaid's role as the only fertile women in society the have children for the infertile wives
• Aunt Lydia employs religious epithets in her practice encouraging the handmaids to "cultivate poverty of spirit. Blessed are the meek" encouraging them to remain weak and submissive women that are easily ruled by the men around them
• The novel takes place in Gilead, a totalitarian state run by a theocratic regime
• Within Handmaids environmental decline due to nuclear war has led to a drop in fertility rates causing the last few fertile women (the handmaids) to be ascribed to upper class couples to bear children for them to continue their lineage
• The novel uses a non-linear narrative including flashbacks and repetitions weaving the past and present to create a sense of disorientation in the reader similar to what offred feels in the strange world she inhabits
• the novel explores themes of patriarchy, class, and religious extremism
• The speculative fiction novel centres on many fears and anxieties surrounding the 1980s including nuclear war and issues around womens rights which have led to the formation of Gilead