Top 30 Modern Classics - XXIX

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, was first  published in 1985.

The Handmaid's Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, ruled by a military dictatorship. 

A terrorist attack kills the President and most of congress. A group calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" takes control of Gilead.They take away all of women's rights. In the new regime women are forbidden to read. A compulsorily christian regime based on religious fanaticism inspired by Old Testament is put in place.

The new regime has created a class of women called handmaids. The handmaids are used for bearing children. The story is told by Offred, a handmaid, in first person. She describes her life while in her third assignment as a handmaid to a high official, Fred, who is called the Commander. Offred describes the structure of Gilead's society, including the several different classes of women and their circumscribed lives in the new theocracy.

The Commander is a high-ranking official in Gilead. Although he is supposed to have sexual intercourse with Offred on defined ritual days and in presence of his wife, he begins an illegal relationship with her. He offers her hidden or contraband products, such as old fashion magazines and cosmetics, takes her to a secret brothel run by the government, and furtively meets with her in his study, where he allows her to read, an activity otherwise prohibited for women. The Commander's wife, Serena Joy, also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her secretly to have sex with Nick, Serena's driver, in an effort to get Offred pregnant. In exchange for Offred's cooperation, Serena Joy gives her news of her daughter, whom Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.

Offred's meets with Nick, illegally, more frequently. Offred discovers she enjoys sex with Nick, despite her indoctrination and her memories of her husband. She shares potentially dangerous information about her past with him. Through another handmaid, Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an underground network working to overthrow the regime in Gilead. The Commander's wife finds evidence of illegal relationship between Offred and the Commander. Offred contemplates suicide. As the novel concludes, she is being taken away by the secret police, the Eyes of God, under orders from Nick. Before she is put in the large black van, Nick tells her that the men are part of the Mayday resistance and that Offred must trust him. Offred does not know if Nick is a member of the Mayday resistance or a government agent posing as one, and she does not know if going with the men will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the van with her future uncertain.

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