The Handmaids Tale

Settings

Crucial to understanding the oppressive nature of the society of Gilead and the psychological impact on its characters.

The Rachel and Leah Center

Formerly a high school, the raining camp for handmaids symbolises the transformation of familiar safe spaces into places of control and indoctrination. The presence of the aunts with cattle prods highlights the loss of freedom and the imposition of fear.

The commanders house

Offreds residence represents the domestic sphere where women are confined and controlled. It is a place of surveillance and limited freedom, reflecting the broader societal constraints on women.

The wall

A public space where the bodies of executed men are displayed. It serves as a constant reminder of the regime's power and the consequences of rebellion, instilling fear in the populace.

Jezebel’s

A secretive club for the elite, illustrating the hypocrisy of Gilead’s leaders who indulge in forbidden pleasures while enforcing strict moral codes on others.

Harvard University

Now part of Gilead’s center, it symbolizes the regime’s disdain for intellectual freedom and its repurposing of educational institutions to serve its oppressive agenda.

Offred

The protagonist and narrator, Offred is a Handmaid whose primary role is to bear children for the ruling class. Her perspective provides insight into the oppressive nature of Gilead and the struggle to maintain identity and hope.

The commander

Offred's assigned Commander, who holds a high-ranking position in Gilead. He represents the patriarchal power structure and complicates Offred's life by seeking a personal connection with her.

Serena Joy

The Commander's wife, who is both a victim and enforcer of Gilead's rules. Her complex relationship with Offred highlights the tensions between women in the society.

Ofglen

Another Handmaid and Offred's shopping partner. Ofglen is involved in the resistance, offering a glimpse of hope and rebellion against the regime.

Aunt Lydia

A key figure in indoctrinating Handmaids at the Rachel and Leah Center. She embodies the regime's manipulation and control over women.

Moira

Offred's friend from before Gilead, known for her rebellious spirit. Moira's resistance and eventual fate underscore the harsh realities of Gilead's oppression.

Characters

reveal the complexities of life under a totalitarian regime, exploring themes of power, resistance, and identity.

themes

collectively underscore the novel's critique of totalitarianism and the resilience of the human spirit.

Love

a central theme, serving as both a source of strength and a means of resistance. Offred's love for her family and Nick provides her with emotional resilience and ultimately aids in her escape. Love is portrayed as a powerful force that can transcend the oppressive structures of Gilead.

Storytelling and Memory

play crucial roles in Offred's survival. The shifting tenses and Offred's imaginative storytelling highlight her need to maintain a sense of identity and sanity. By reconstructing memories and imagining different scenarios, she creates a mental escape from her grim reality.

Rebellion

depicted through both overt and subtle acts. Characters like the Commander and Serena Joy, despite their positions of power, engage in rebellious acts that reveal the cracks in Gilead's oppressive system. These acts underscore the inherent human desire for autonomy and connection.

Gender roles

rigidly enforced in Gilead, illustrating the extreme disempowerment of women. The society institutionalizes sexual violence and limits women's roles, highlighting the dangers of a patriarchal system taken to its extreme.

The eyes

symbolize surveillance, paranoia, and Gilead's oppressive authority. The Eyes are the secretive enforcers of Gilead's laws, instilling fear and suspicion. Offred encounters eyes everywhere, from badges to tattoos, representing the constant watchfulness of the regime. The plastered-over light socket in Offred’s room, imagined as a blinded eye, signifies death and freedom, as it was used by a previous Handmaid to hang herself.

The colour red

a dominant color associated with the Handmaids, symbolizing both shame and fertility. Offred uses red to describe blood, linking it to life and violence. The red tulips in Serena Joy’s garden symbolize fertility, yet their potential is cut short, reflecting the futility of the Handmaids' roles.

The wall

once part of Harvard’s campus, now serves as a prison barrier, symbolizing the violence and control of Gilead. The bodies of executed men hanging on the Wall highlight the regime's brutality and the suppression of rebellion.

offred: bearing witness

through first person narratives and flashbacks, Atwood gives a deeply personal account of Gilead’s regime, allowing the reader to witness systematic oppression through her eyes. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print.” - metaphor of blank white spaces critiques how women’s voices and experiences are historically marginalised. By giving Offred the narrative space to recall and record these events, Atwood protests this erasure and emphasised the importance of testimony as resistance.

Offred: Humanising oppression

Offred’s internal conflict through her internal monologue and characterisation reveals the psychological toll of totalitarianism. Atwood crafts a protagonist who is not a typical revolutionary but a woman trying to maintain her sanity and selfhood. The line “I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it.” blurs the boundary between fiction and reality, suggesting that story telling is a coping mechanism. Through Offred’s vulnerability and uncertainty, Atwood protests the dehumanising effects of authoritarianism by emphasising the emotional and mental suffering it causes.

Offred: resistance and protest

The latin phrase “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” translating to don’t let the bastards grind you down becomes a symbolic mantra for Offred. Atwood introduces it through the secret message left by a previous handmaid, using irony and dark humour to show that resistance survives in hidden forms. By embracing this phrase, Offred connects with others who resisted, turning the oppressive environment into one where solidarity and subversion still exist, even in whispers.

Offred: reclaiming voice

Offred’s act of narrating her story, knowing it may one day be found, is a reclamation of agency. “I will use the words to shape myself, define myself” Atwood uses metafictional techniques to draw attention to the power of language as a tool for identity and resistance. In a regime that censors and controls speech, Offred’s storytelling becomes a radical act. It protests the silencing of women by emphasising the enduring power of personal voice and memory.

Commander: moral ambiguity and evil

the cliché, “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs” spoken by the commander, reduces the horrors of gilead to a necessary inconvenience. Atwood uses his calm, detatched tone to highlight how oppressive systems are maintained not just by monsters, but by ordinary men rationalising cruelty. This ironic portrayal critiques how evil often hides behind politeness and civility. The commander protests nothing - his moral ambiguity embodies what Atwood warns against: complicity masked as pragmatism.

commander: gender inequality

Commander justifies Gilead, saying “We’ve given them more than we’ve taken away… They were giving too much, you see. They were letting themselves go.” Atwood uses the commander’s justification to satirise paternalistic rhetoric. His belief that woman are better off being protected is a direct critique of real world attitudes that infantilise and control women under the guise of care. Through this dialogue, Atwood protests misogyny and highlights how gender inequality is perpetuated by those who believe they are acting in others’ best interests.

commander: symbol of system’s hypocrisy

jezebels - “nature demands variety for men. It’s part of the procreational strategy”. This justification for visiting Jezebels, a secret brothel, exposes the commander’s double standards. While enforcing strict rules on women he indulges in the every behaviours the regime condemns. Atwood uses this moment to protest the selective morality of patriarchal power - where control, not virtue, is the real goal. The commander’s presence at Jezebels symbolised the underlying corruption of supposedly righteous system.

commander: vehicle for satire

He is known only as the commander. by refusing to give him a personal name, Atwood dehumanises the commander and makes him a symbol of institutional power. His generic title mocks the glorification of authority figures in totalitarian regimes. Atwood satirises how such figures believe they act for the greater good while benefitting from oppression. His anonymity emphasises the facelessness and replication of such authority, making him a stand in for many real world autocrats.

Serena Joy: victim and perpetrator duality

serena is both complicit in and oppressed by Gilead. Atwood constructs her as a woman with power over Handmaid’s but none over her own life. Her bitter tone often taken with Offred reveals resentment, not just for Offred’s role as a handmaid but because Offred symbolises Serena’s own loss of purpose. This dual role protests the way hierarchal systems pit women against one another, using limited power as a tool of division.

Serena Joy: symbol of hypocrisy

serena joy’s background as a Christian television figure alludes to real-world religious figures who promote conservative gender roles. “Her speeches were about the sanctity of the home, and how women should stay home.” Atwood sues her fall from a powerful public figure to a silenced domestic figure as a critique of religious extremism. Serena’s blue clothing - a symbol of purity and wifely virtue - masks the cruelty she inflicts on others. Her character protests the danger of ideological rigidity, especially when enforced by those who no longer benefit from it.

serena joy: desire for agency

“Maybe you should try another man… Maybe he can make you pregnant.” This moment, where Serena urges Offred to sleep with Nick exposes the desperation and powerlessness even the Wives experience in Gilead. Atwood uses this act - an informal violation of Gilead’s rules - as an ironic protest of a system that denies women control over reproduction. Serena’s cold pragmatism and her manipulation of Offred highlight how the regime commodifies women’s bodies. Her actions are both submissive and subversive, protesting the denial of female agency.

serena joy: female complicity

“She’s made of wood, or iron.” This metaphor illustrates Serena Joy’s rigidity and emotional detachment. Atwood positions her as a gatekeeper of the domestic space - a symbol of the Gileadean ideal of womanhood. Yet, she is cold and joyless. Through Serena, Atwood protests the myth that woman can thrive in systems designed to suppress them. She is not empowered by Gilead’s structure but hardened by it - another product of its cruelty.

Nick: resistance within the system

“He puts his hand on my arm, pulls me against him, whispers, It’s all right. It’s mayday. Go with them.” - If Nick is indeed part of mayday, the underground resistance, he becomes a vehicle for subtle protest. His position inside Gilead machinery allows him to subvert it from within. Atwood uses Nick to suggest that resistance does not always come in grand gestures - it often comes from insiders quietly working against the system. His character represents the possibility of change, however uncertain or compromised.

Nick: challenge to control of sexuality

Offred’s relationship with Nick is a rare source of agency and mutuality in a world where sex is regulated and dehumanised. “I went back to Nick. Time after time, on my own.” Atwood uses their forbidden intimacy to protest the way Gilead reduces sex to a state-sanctioned ritual. In contrast, Offred’s connection with Nick, whether based on love, rebellion or desperation - reasserts her bodily autonomy. Their relationship defies Gilead’s control and affirms Offred’s desire as a form of resistance.

Nick: masculine complicity and silence

Nick often remains silent or expressionless. Even in moments of tension “he doesn’t say anything.” Atwood uses this silence to critique male complicity in oppressive systems - not through active cruelty but through passive compliance. While Nick may be helping Offred, his silence also mirrors the broader failure of men to speak out against injustice. This protest is subtle: Atwood shows that doing nothing can be as dangerous as open endorsement of oppression.

Nick: hope and uncertainty

When Nick uses Offred’s real name, which is never revealed to readers, it becomes a small but powerful act of recognition and humanity. Atwood uses this moment to inject a sliver of hope in a bleak world. However, Nick’s true intentions remain unclear - does he save Offred, betray her, or both? This ambiguity protests the way dystopias erase certainty, identity and control, even over one’s own fate. Atwood denies the readers closure to emphasise how such regime destabilise all sense of truth.

Luke: male complacency

“He doesn’t mind it at all… Maybe he even likes it.” - in this flashback Offred reflect on Luke’s reaction when women’s access to money and work is revoked. His lack of outrage unsettles her - and the reader. Atwood uses this to critique how even well-meaning men can accept, and benefit from, shifts in power that marginalise women. Luke’s passive reaction protests the dangers of complacency: by failing to act when the system first turns he becomes complicit in its rise.

Luke: idealised memory vs reality

“He might be dead, he might be alive, he might be a traitor.” Offred’s uncertain, shifting recollection of Luke reflects how trauma affects memory. Atwood deliberately keeps his fate unknown, using narrative ambiguity to explore how people cling to imagined versions of lost loved ones in order to survive. Luke’s ambiguity protests the psychological impact of oppressive systems - not only do they control the present, they destabilise the past and future. This blurring reflects how truth and identity and erased under Gilead.

Luke: emotional dependency and power imbalance

“I relied on him, I said. I’m sorry.” Offred’s apology for rellying on Luke signals her internalised guilt for emotional dependency, a product of gender expectations. Atwood uses this reflection to critique traditional heterosexual dynamics where women often deter to men for protection and decision-making. In the context of Gilead, this reliance becomes a trap. through this, Atwood protests societal norms that encourage women to place their security in men rather than themselves or collective systems.

Luke: representation of what was and what wasn’t enough

“We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?” - Atwood frames Luke as part of a past that felt flawed but was, in retrospect, free. His absence in the present serves as a powerful contrast to the restrictions of Gilead. By showing how ordinary men like Luke failed to recognised or act on early warning signs, Atwood protests how freedoms can disappear quietly when not actively defended. Luke’s character warns that love, passivity and personal goodness are not enough to prevent systematic injustice.

Moira: embodiment of defiance and rebellion

“Moira was like a rebellion, an act of defiance.” - Moira is portrayed as a stark contrast to the other women in Gilead, consistently challenging the regime and refusing to conform, Atwood uses her boldness to symbolise resistance. Her strength, independence and refusal to submit to Gilead’s rules make her a key vehicle for protest. In the novel, she represents an idealised form of resistance, demonstrating that defiance can be an act of survival in a totalitarian society. Her character critiques the docility that oppressive regimes try to enforce.

Moira: tragic consequences of resistance

Moira’s eventual capture and transformation into a compliant jezebel is a tragic commentary on the limits of rebellion within an oppressive system. Atwood’s use to Moira’s fate as a cautionary tale critiques the idea that resistance alone is enough to overcome a totalitarian regime. The irony of her transformation - once a symbol of resistance now reduced to a pawn - serves as a protest against the suffocating reach of authoritarian control. It shows that, while resistance is vital, it can be met with overwhelming consequences in such a system.

Moira: representation of female empowerment

“Moria was my fantasy of freedom… I loved her.” - Moira represents the possibility of female solidarity and empowerment in a repressive society. Her bond with Offred, especially in their earlier days, is a source of strength for both characters. Atwood uses Moira to challenge the idea that women in oppressive society’s must be divided; instead Moira and Offred’s friendship suggests the importance of solidarity and mutual support. Moira’s character protests the isolation that Gilead attempts to impose on women, showing that there is power in community.

Moira: dehumanising effect of gilead

“Moira’s defiance had been like a flame, but now it was gone, extinguished.” Atwood’s portrayal of Moira’s eventual submission to the regime after her capture highlights the dehumanising effects of Gilead’s power. Moira’s transformation from a fierce rebel to a compliant figure in the Jezebel brothel illustrates the erosion of the human spirit under such oppressive control. Atwood uses Moira’s downfall to protest the capacity of authoritarian regimes to crush even the strongest forms of resistance, emphasising the psychological and emotional toll of living under constant surveillance and control.

Ofglen: secret rebel

“She is my spy, as I am hers” Atwood uses Ofglen’s dual identity as both a Handmaid and a member of Mayday to highlight the theme of hidden resistance. The phrase “my spy” creates ambiguity and suggests mutual surveillance, but it also hints as solidarity beneath oppression. This secret alliance introduces tension and shows that beneath the regime’s enforced conformity there exists a network if dissenters, subtly subverting the state’s control.

Ofglen: encouraging offred’s awakening

“You didn’t think I was the only one?” This moment of revelation uses dialogue to shock both Offred and the reader, puncturing the isolation Gilead imposes. Atwood uses Ofglen’s question to suggest that resistance is more widespread than it appears, challenging Offred’s sense of helplessness. This rhetorical questions plants the seed of hope and community, which is a quiet form of protest against the regime’s tactic of psychological isolation.

Ofglen: humanising rebellion

“She was crying. She put her face against my shoulder, her tears wetting the cloth.” - Ofglen’s emotional breakdown during this Particicution contrasts with the dehumanising violence of the ritual. Atwood uses this moment to show that even within the strictest confines of Gilead, empathy and grief endure. The tactile imagery of “tears wetting the cloth” humanises Ofglen and emphasises her inner resistance to the brutality she is forced to witness. Her grief is a powerful, if silent, protest.

Ofglen: martyrdom and the consequences of dissent

“She hanged herself… when she saw the van coming for her.” - Atwood reveals Ofglen’s suicide is both an act of self-preservation to protect others and ultimate resistance. By choosing death over betrayal, Ofglen becomes a martyr figure. Atwood critiques the oppressive cost of rebellion under totalitarianism while also affirming the power of sacrifice and courage.