context

• The Moral Majority

  American political organisation that advocated for conservative, Christian beliefs

  • founded by Falwell
  • helped Reagan win presidential election (similar beliefs)
  • THT published during his presidency, response to arise of Christian right (reader given insight on society ruled by organisations like them)
• 2011 interview with Narrative Magazine 


  'I'm a strict agnostic' 'You can present it as faith, you can present it as a belief, but you can’t present it as a fact.’

  • Atwood against politics being determined by religion - can lead to corruption
• THT written during height of AIDS epidemic

  • people feared it came from sex outside of marriage and homosexuality (crimes in Gilead - would be sent to colonies or publicly executed)
• Low fertility rate in Gilead

  • system is attempt to rise fertility rate
  • In the historical notes Pieixoto mentions the banning of birth control in Romania
• Offred's mother as a feminist 


  • burned pornographic magazines
  • attended rallies
• Common characteristics of Dystopians

  • Undesirable vision of society
  • Dehumanisation and Objectification
  • Oppressive environment or government
  • Criticism or reflection of society
  • Individual resistance or rebellion
  • Extreme interpretation of laws
  • Paranoid citizens
• Theocracy


  Gilead run using religious rules, religious teachings are a justification for actions
• Misogynistic societies 


  Men are in positions of control, women stripped of power
• Electric cattle prods


  • carried by the Aunts
  • used originally during the American civil rights demonstrations of the 60s
• 'Shredders'


  • many babies in Gilead born with deformities/birth defects due to nuclear disaster
  • Chernobyl disaster
• Story of Rachel and Leah


  • From Book of Genesis
  • Rachel & Leah (wives of Jacob) compete on who can bear the most children, Rachel unable to, uses handmaid to gain child
  • Red centre named after the wives and not the handmaid, ironic as it highlights Gilead's strict, social hierarchy
• ' Anatomy is destiny ' - Sigmund Freud 


  • function of women to reproduce, embedded in Gileadean ideologies