The Handmaids Tale

• Freedom to and freedom from
• Better never means better for everyone, it always means worse for some
• We still had our bodies. That was our fantasy
• We were losing the taste for freedom
• Young ones are often the most dangerous
• God allowed such things to happen - teach her a lesson
• Fear is a powerful stimulant
• We are for breeding purposes
• The eyes of God run over all the Earth
• Language is highlighted as the main instrument of idealogical and social control

  Stokwisz
• Iran and Gilead: two late 20th century monotheocracies

  Moon
• Offred's power is in language


  Beran
• Grotesque parallel of biblical values

  Simons
• Offred's narrative is revealed to have been undertaken by men

  Greenwood
• Reduces people to their functions

  Wisker
• Offred's narrative transcends time and space

  Madrigal
• A nation formed by a backlash of feminism


  NYT 1986