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The Handmaid's Tale: Difference between revisions
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Very popular in Anglophone high school English classes, although the confronting adult subject matter leads to a [[Moral Guardians|crusade to ban the book every five years or so]].
Made into [[The Handmaid's Tale (film)|a film]] in 1990 starring the late Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway; and a [[The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)|web TV series]] in 2017 available on [[Hulu]]. It also has an opera adaptation.
Ms. Atwood has announced that she's working on a sequel to ''The Handmaid's Tale'', titled ''The Testaments'' and set 15 years after the original novel. It
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Mandatory Motherhood]]: Played straight in Gilead, because of the fact many high-ranking women are infertile or too old to get pregnant, so going on the Biblical precedent of Rachel and Jacob, they force "handmaids" to bear a child in their place.
* [[No Ending]]: Subverted immediately by the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] epilogue that follows on the next page.
* [[No Name Given]]: Our protagonist, and all other handmaids, but if you really read between the lines, her first name is probably {{spoiler|June, implied by a line in the first chapter: "We learned to lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June". Everyone in the list appears later in the story, except June. "June" is also the name used in the Hulu adaptation for the character}}.
** Subverted in the 1990 film adaption, Offred's name is {{spoiler|Kate}}
* [[No-Paper Future]]
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** Also, Jews are officially "repatriated" to Israel. (Unofficially, many of the ships carrying them are scuttled at sea.)
* [[Rule 34]]: Or at least evidence it exists inside Gilead.
* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]]: Despite knowing it could end up with the death sentence since Offerd was assigned to have sex with the Commander in the house, Serena Joy tries to convince Offred to have sex with another man in order to get pregnant. Handmaids risks exile if they failed to produce children during their assignments, so Joy in effect is trying save Offred when it become clear the Commander of the home, {{spoiler|
* [[State Sec]]: <s> None</s> [[Blatant Lies|All are safe]] under ''[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The]] [[Faceless Eye|Eyes]] [[Secret Police|of]] [[Corrupt Church|God]]''.
* [[Stealth Parody]]: Very few people seem to get the digs Atwood puts in at certain aspects of radical feminism.
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** She even says "This is a reconstruction. All of it is a reconstruction." There's some initial ambiguity as to whether this refers solely to the following scene or to the entire tale, but she goes on to explain in general terms why her recollections can't possibly be complete and accurate.
* [[The Un-Reveal]]: Offred's name.
** A few subtle hints in the book lead some to believe it's {{spoiler|June}}, which the TV series confirms.
** Oddly enough, in the film adaption Offred is called {{spoiler|Kate}}.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: For a society to be as it is in the book everyone who didn't belong to a particular sect of Christianity would have to be killed/deported/enslaved, it would also require everyone of that sect of Christianity to be fine with the killing/deporting/enslavement it would also require a lot of corpses because there would be no way in hell for this to go easily, scare or not.
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