historical notes significance

Takes place in

June 2195

two centuries after gilead’s takeover

Professor Wade calls the 30 tapes - ‘the handmaid’s tale’

found in an army footlocker in wade

Scientists and historians

are trying to construct story and gilead and who it affected

professor pieioxto

starts with a joke

word “enjoy” to euphemistically imply that he enjoys looking at Crescent Moon, the other (female) lecturer

• sexism and patriarchy did not disappear with Gilead, but are still perpetrated long afterwards.

• humour shows how history can often glaze over the very real realities of a time

• not consistent with amount of suffering women went through

intention

when we distance ourselves through time from a moment in history

less aware of suffering may have had

unsatisfying

ambiguity

not told what happens to offred - steps into van and light

readers feel should of had more sympathy → time separates us from a particular moment in history

“Men highly placed in the regime were thus able to pick and choose among women who had demonstrated their reproductive fitness having produced one or more healthy children, a desirable characteristic in an age of plummeting Caucasian birth rates, a phenomenon observable not only in Gilead but in most northern Caucasian societies of the time.”

• The Professor confirms to reader that Gilead based many of its governing principles on racism, and preserving Caucasian population

• . Later in his lecture, the Professor mentions that the racist policies of Gilead were directly drawn from the world before Gilead (1980s)

• Her complacency surrounding social issues before Gilead, it could be argued, was a result of her privilege. She did not feel the need to protest social issues because she did not feel they affected her directly, and she regrets this in her account.

Eurydice

“We may call Eurydice forth from the world of the dead, but we cannot make her answer; and when we turn to look at her we glimpse her only for a moment, before she slips from our grasp and flees.”

By making this reference, the Professor is making a comment about the futility of trying to find answers in Offred’s account. In doing so, however, he also erases her narrative.

Analysius

compares Offred to Eurydice, ( Greek mythology)

She is the wife of Orpheus, who travels to the Underworld when she dies to entreat the Gods to let her live.

Moved by his music, the Gods allow his wish to let her live.

They promise Eurydice will follow behind him out of the Underworld, on the condition that he does not look back as they make the journey

Orpheus cannot help but turn around to see his wife.

She has not yet crossed the threshold from the Underworld, and so disappears into the darkness forever.