Handmaids intro context Flashcards
Context to put in an introduction
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood builds upon the rise of the fundamentalist religious groups of the ‘Moral Majority’ in 1980s America, which influenced politics and, in particular, the 1980 election of Reagan. Inspired by this, Atwood created the totalitarian and theocratic State of Gilead, within which women, and in particular, the Handmaids are oppressed and undermined, stripped of their human rights by the patriarchal leaders. With regards to the treatment of the Handmaids within this state, some critics draw parallels to the concepts of Puritanism, something which is within Atwood’s heritage, in its treatment of women as inferior to men. The treatment of women, which we gain through Offred’s narrative illustrates to us the injustice and the cruelty of Gilead.
