Context Flashcards
what are several trends in THT that are still with us today?
the rise of right wing fundamentalism as a political force
the decline of birth rate in North America
rise of infertility and birth defect rates, which some argue is due to increased chemical pollutant and radiation levels
what did Atwood say about the context of THT?
there is nothing in THT that has not already been done by somebody — it can be seen as a social critique of the 1980s
the book was influenced by real life events (Atwood kept clippings from newspapers and magazines which contributed directly to her writing)
how is THT still as relevant today as it was in the 1980s?
there are still issues relating to….
- feminism
- ethics around methods of reproduction
- abortion
- pornography
- violence against women
- environmental issues
- militant nationalism
- racism
- extreme right wing political movements
- religious fanaticism
- threat to women’s rights — Trump proposing to repeal Roe v Wade
why is Gilead so frightening?
it presents a mirror image of what is happening in the world around us — aspects of the regime are very familiar
events are only distorted slightly to invent a more nightmarish future, but the book still takes events from both the past and the present and uses them
the novel first appears to be describing an extreme and unthinkable totalitarian state but if we look back in history, similar oppressive regimes have taken place and we realise Gilead is not so farfetched
“fiction is one of the few forms left through which we may examine our society” — Atwood
significance of the setting
Atwood stated that it is no coincidence that the book is set in Massachusetts, home of the Salem Witch Trials and Harvard University
the wall in the novel where corpses hang recalls the wall around Harvard Yard as well as the Berlin Wall, which was still standing when Atwood began writing THT
who does Pieixoto, in the Historical Notes, liken Offred to?
likens her to Eurydice, who was the wife of Orpheus in Greek mythology
Orpheus rescued her from Hades but when he looked back to see if she was following, she vanished forever
the professor is therefore consigning her, like Eurydice, to the world of the dead and the world of mythology
where does Pieixoto’s name come from?
his name comes from a novel where one of the character’s names was Pieixoto
this character kept being reincarnated in the same form century after century, exemplifying how the attitudes and ideologies of Gilead keep resurfacing
just like how Gilead is nothing new or original, it is simply a resurfacing of attitudes that have been displayed numerous times throughout the course of history
in the Historical Notes, Pieixoto displays misogyny and makes sexist jokes about “tail” and the “Underground Frailroads” — the sexist attitudes underlying Gilead have not changed much in 200 years, despite the regime falling
shows that Gilead is not truly gone, it will inevitably resurface unless action is taken now
the book therefore functions as a warning against letting a regime like Gilead exist again in the future and shows the danger of slipping back into such a mindset and not learning from history
the fragility and anxieties over women’s rights in 1980s America
the novel reflects the anxieties over the fragility of women’s rights, which had been threatened by the rise of the American New Right which attained its maximum political force under Ronald Reagan’s presidency after 1980
the feminist movement had rapidly gained strength in the US before this — it win Congressional endorsement of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972 and the Supreme Court made abortion legal in Roe v Wade (1973)
however, lobbying by the New Right meant that the ERA failed to be ratified in 1982, which represented a bitter defeat as well as a threat to feminism and all that it had worked so hard to achieve for women
what is Serena Joy a satirical portrait of?
she is a satirical portrait, based on the Christian Right wives who were media personalities in the 1980s and advocated for women to return to the home like Serena did
Tammy Faye Bakker, who with her husband ran a gospel television show; Phyllis Schlafly, a lawyer who campaigned for women’s return to the home; and Beverly LaHaye, who organised demonstrations against abortions and the Equal Rights Amendment
such women played a major role in Congress’s withdrawal of support for the proposed ERA, which aimed to achieve equal rights for all women but failed to become American law
what fears does THT reflect?
THT reflects fears about women’s rights, religious fundamentalism and the state of the planet
these were all cultural concerns of the time of writing and are still key concerns today — e.g. the position of women under extreme theocratic regimes like the Taliban, the widespread dissemination of violent hardcore pornography detailing violence against women, the use of surveillance spyware by major governments to spy on their own citizens and the impact of pollution and global warming
THT offers not so much a glimpse of a possible terrible future, but more so a reflection of a far more frightening present
women’s surnames and marriage
in today’s society, many women do not take their husband’s surname upon marriage, suggesting a wish to resist having their identity subsumed into that of another person
it is also a recognition that names are symbolic markers of one’s personal and social identity
during the slave trade, slaves were forced to take their masters’ names and were thus dehumanised and denied an individual identity of their own — Offred’s patronymic name suggests possession by her Commander, she is essentially a slave to the regime
Angel in the House by Coventry Patmore
the lives of the Commanders’ Wives parody those of the stereotypical submissive ‘Angel in the House’ immortalised in Coventry Patmore’s famous Victorian poem of the same name
“Man must be pleased; but him to please / Is woman’s pleasure”
this encapsulates the idealised wifely role of women like Serena and the submissiveness and subservience expected of women in Gilead in general
Roe v Wade (1973)
in the landmark Roe v Wade case (1973), the US Supreme Court ruled to legalise abortion and therefore enforce a woman’s right to have an abortion up to the point when a foetus might be viable outside the womb
it overturned many existing legal restrictions on abortion and is an iconic example of the hard-won reproductive rights achieved by first wave feminists
this would have been one of first pieces of legislation thrown out by Gilead for being anathema to its moral values
pornographic book burning
Offred has a childhood memory of seeing a public bonfire of pornographic magazines which reminds us of the dangers of censorship
the irony of both radical feminists and extreme religious conservatives wanting to ban pornography suggests that any attempts to manage, control and supervise female sexuality should be viewed with caution
censorship should be avoided, no matter who it comes from and no matter what their intentions
immense restrictions placed on women in Saudi Arabia
there are still immense restrictions placed on women today — in Saudi Arabia, women were banned from driving up until the ban was lifted in 2018
prominent Saudi religious leader, Sheikh Saleh Al-Loheidan, warned that women who drives cars risk damaged themselves and may give birth to deformed children
these remarks suggest that the sole purpose of women is to reproduce and the need to protect this purpose has been used as a justification for the oppression of women — similar to how in THT, Offred recognises that she has become nothing more than a “two legged womb”
even though the ban has been lifted, women in Saudi Arabia still have to adhere to strict dress codes, must not associate with unrelated men and if they wish to travel, work or access healthcare they must be accompanied by a male guardian or have their written permission
dividing women because when they are together, they are a powerful force of resistance
Gilead seems to recognise that women are powerful when they come together, and they do tend to come together in acts of resistance
this has been demonstrated throughout history by organisations such as the Suffragettes and the achievement of landmark cases such as Roe v Wade by female activists
this has led Gilead to create and perpetuate a ‘woman beware woman’ culture in which women despise, envy and cannot trust eachother
keeping them divided means they cannot form loyalties and band together to resist their oppression — destruction of female solidarity
the oppressed coming together
the oppressed have a tendency to come together to resist, which has been seen throughout history….
- the civil rights movement
- the Black Panthers
- the women’s liberation movement
- the Suffragettes
1986 New York Times interview
in a 1986 New York Times interview, Atwood made it plain which of these two endings is the true one, stating that the book “isn’t totally bleak and pessimistic” and that Offred “gets out… the possibility of escape exists”
purges throughout history: the Reign of Terror
like all totalitarian regimes, Gilead undertakes periodic purges to remove undesirables and sentence them to exile or death
Maximilien Robespierre, a key figure in the French Revolution, had many of his political opponents executed during the Reign of Terror
a law was passed that a citizen could be executed for just the “suspicion” of being anti-revolutionary
during the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial
purges throughout history: Stalin
Joseph Stalin, former leader of the Soviet Union, also committed similar acts but on a much larger scale
the Great Purge was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union in which anywhere between 600,000 and 1.2 million people were killed
these people were mainly political opponents, especially Trotskyists
these cases show the historic silencing of opposition and gives a chilling insight into how a political regime that begins with high ideals can rapidly descend into a reign of terror and death in order to maintain itself
Atwood: her problem as a writer
“My problem as a writer was, given that my society has stuffed all women back into their homes, how did they go about it?…. You just close your eyes and take several giant steps back, into the not so very distant past…. deprive them of the right to vote, own property or hold jobs… and there they are, back in the home”
Atwood contesting widely held liberal assumptions and challenging the reader
most would say that humans are instinctively against censorship or restrictions on freedom of speech, but these very freedoms can permit the publication and dissemination of violent hardcore pornography that show women being abused, degraded, tortured and even killed
burning this kind of misogynistic material, as Offred’s mother does during a feminist rally, is clearly meant as an act of female empowerment
yet burning books is the classic act of censorship enacted by oppressive regimes, from the Renaissance monk Savonarola’s Florentine Bonfire of the Vanities to the Nazis of the 1930s
Bonfire of the Vanities
the Bonfire of the Vanities was a public destruction of a huge range of allegedly sinful artefacts by the hard-line Catholic priest Girolamo Savonarola in Florence in 1497
Savonarola and his followers rounded up and burned items such as mirrors, make up, clothes, artworks, playing cards and musical instruments, which were seen as frivolous trivialities that could tempt the unwary into evil
Reclaim The Night / Take Back The Night
feminist campaigners like Offred’s mother argued fiercely that women should feel safe on the streets, many ‘Reclaim the Night’ marches took place during the 1970s and 1980s, when there was widespread fear of rape
in Gilead, these streets have been made perfectly safe for women, who no longer have to fear sexual assault or rape, but at the price of personal freedom and control
as Aunt Lydia says, in the “days on anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it” and the reader is encouraged to think about which freedom is more important
feminist ideas about sisterhood and female solidarity
many feminists claim that women support each other in a kind of global sisterhood and such solidarity is natural to them, but Atwood strongly critiques this notion and instead shows that women can be hateful and cruel to one another
the women of Gilead are generally bitter, resentful and envious, constantly bickering, betraying, jealously watching one another or completely mistrusting each other
they are deeply divided and the Commander’s household is a perfect microcosm of this
Gilead has purposefully created a ‘woman beware woman’ culture of hate and envy to prevent them from banding together
Andrea Dworkin
radical feminist writer Andrea Dworkin gained national fame for favouring the anti-pornography movement
in Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981), she argued that porn leads to violence against women by encouraging men to consume media that presents the abuse of women as erotic entertainment
like Offred’s mother, she was prominent in the Reclaim the Night protest marches of the late 1970s and 80s, which highlighted the increased violence against women that made many frightened to go out after dark
symbolic clothing of the Handmaids linking to the debate about the veiling of Muslim women
by wearing the hijab or niqab, women can prevent themselves from being sexually objectified by complete strangers, while retaining the right to unveil at home in private and at a time of their own choosing
but what happens when women have no choice but to wear the veil and when they are forced to do so by men, as in The Handmaid’s Tale
the veil may, therefore, become a symbol of oppression
single-sex communities
in the 1970s, some feminists advocated living in single-sex communities, in which the diverse roles and responsibilities of women were chunked up to spread the load and share the pressure
the fragmentation and division of women in Gilead in their colour-coded uniforms is an extreme extension of this concept
the Handmaid’s robes were partly inspired by the faceless woman on the Old Dutch Cleanser box, but also partly from the chador Atwood acquired in Afghanistan and its conflicting associations
“Would I have written the book if I’d never visited Afghanistan? Possibly. Would it have been the same? Unlikely”
development of technology
Atwood explains that “every modern scientific innovation was ‘progress’ or ‘development’, and progress and development were always desirable… to question that belief was to question goodness, beauty and truth”
she may be pointing out the dangers of readily accepting such developments without questioning what they could be used for or the consequences of such progress on the human species
for example, computer developments that allowed for money to be held on cards was eagerly accepted as making life much easier, but what was not considered was how having everything on one card would make it extremely easy to a totalitarian government to strip people of their material possessions
as was the case in Gilead, when women were denied access to their cards, almost overnight
Atwood being influenced by her own society
“There is, as I have said, nothing in the book without a precedent”
