The Handmaid's Tale

Atwood's uses the pun "Pen is envy," which mirrors the Freudian term “penis envy,” to underscore that people who can freely use and control the pen are envied by others who are controlled themselves...

Gilead is a miserable place for everyone, but men do not suffer as much as women. Men retain autonomy over their bodies, while women are reproductive slaves. Men are deprived of emotional expression...

The garden in The Handmaid's Tale symbolizes the restricted roles of women in Gilead, where even influential women like Serena Joy are reduced to tending flowers. It represents a false façade of...

In "The Handmaid's Tale," fear is a crucial tool for social and political control in Gilead. Offred, the protagonist, constantly fears punishment, execution, and exile to the colonies. The lack of...

The novel argues that freedoms can be lost quickly if individuals become complacent, emphasizing vigilance in political matters to prevent such loss. It also illustrates the soul-crushing nature of...

Two motifs in The Handmaid's Tale are the manner of walking and the Wall. Walking, especially for handmaids, is constrained by heavy clothing, symbolizing women's subordination and loss of freedom,...

Gilead is a colonizer of the bodies of women, much like the West was in control of many other countries' land, resources, and people. A postcolonial lens allows for this comparison to be made.

Offred’s mother has a lot of knowledge and beliefs that are representative of the main idea in A Handmaid’s Tale. She also is the one who tells Offred about how easily society can be changed and how...

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 dystopian novel exploring themes of women's oppression and identity.