History Literature / TheHandmaidsTale

Made into a 1990 film, written by Creator/HaroldPinter and starring the late Creator/NatashaRichardson, Robert Duvall, Creator/FayeDunaway and Aidan Quinn; and a 2017 Creator/{{Hulu}} [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale miniseries]] starring Creator/ElisabethMoss, Samira Wiley, Creator/JosephFiennes and Creator/YvonneStrahovski.

* FantasticUnderclass: Gilead is already the TropeCodifier for a NoWomanLand, with women being completely stripped of their civil rights, but Handmaids are the lowest of the low, being "unacceptable" but fertile women who are thus forced into being [[BabyFactory natal slaves]] for the Commanders and their Wives. They are stripped of their own names, instead given a patronymic of "Of-[Commander's name]", are ceremonially raped every month, forbidden to socialize, watched at almost all times, and their survival depends on whether they can rear a healthy baby for their owners—if not, they can be tortured or killed. They're also subject to constant Slut-Shaming. Even Jezebels (who are more standard Sex Slaves at brothels for the higher-level men) and Unwomen (who are sent to clean up nuclear waste) have more autonomy, and at least one character expresses that she'd rather be an Unwoman than a Handmaid, despite Handmaids being technically a step up.

* FantasticUnderclass: Gilead is already the TropeCodifier for a NoWomanLand, with women being completely stripped of their civil rights, but Handmaids are the lowest of the low, being "unacceptable" but fertile women who are thus forced into being Breeding Slaves for the upper class. They are ceremonially raped every month, forbidden to socialize, watched at almost all times, and their survival depends on whether they can rear a healthy baby for their owners—if not, they can be tortured or killed. They're also subject to constant Slut-Shaming. Even Jezebels (who are more standard Sex Slaves at brothels for the higher-level men) and Unwomen (who are sent to clean up nuclear waste) have more autonomy, and at least one character expresses that she'd rather be an Unwoman than a Handmaid, despite Handmaids being technically a step up.

* FutureImperfect: The epilogue. [[spoiler: Gilead is described in the past tense, so that's good. But whoever is speaking in the epilogue is dismissive and probably unconsciously misogynistic -- saying that the title must be a ''Canterbury Tales'' reference InUniverse, paying more attention to the motivations of Nick or the identity of the Commander than Offred's lived experience.]]

The setting is the new [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of Gilead]], a country which is at war, where the roles of society are firmly defined, and women have no rights -- especially not handmaids. Our protagonist is a woman who has been trained to be a handmaid, one who conceives and gives birth on behalf of those who are officially wives. A sharp-eyed reader might catch her name in the first chapter; the rest of us just know her as Offred, the name she uses as long as she's with Fred and his wife. Handmaids don't get permanent names.

She gives a portrait of the society. She can remember before, when women still had rights; her mother was a feminist. She was married, but her husband was married before, which became important. It was a cashless society, so when the US government was overthrown and Republic of Gilead set up, they simply wiped out jobs for women and money for women at the same time. When things started getting more oppressive, she and her fella tried to flee, but she got caught; since she had been "living in sin," as her husband divorced his first wife, hence invalidating his marriage with her according to Christian fundamentalists that took over, she was made a Handmaid, and her daughter was taken away from her and sent to a different family.

It has been about seven years since then, long enough for seven-year-olds not to remember how it was before. AIDS and R-Strain syphilis have made many people sterile; pregnancies are rare, healthy births even rarer. Women are forbidden to read or write; Handmaids must wear red dresses with a white bonnet that blocks their peripheral vision. It's a simple job; get pregnant, have a live and unmutated birth, try to get along with the family, repeat as necessary. Three failures without a success, and the Handmaid is killed or worse. Offred is with a tough family; the husband is a military man, and the wife (who must wear blue) is a former televangelist who used to crusade about women staying at home and being good wives. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor She is not enjoying her retirement]]. There are also two "Marthas" who do all the housekeeping. Offred eventually befriends another handmaid, Ofglen, and eventually learns that she belongs to [[LaResistance a resistance movement]] to fight or flee Gilead.

''Literature/TheTestaments'', a follow-up written by Atwood set fifteen years later, has been released in September 2019.

* ColorCodedCharacters: Women in Gilead are divided into castes and wear different-colored clothing to reflect their status.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The epilogue is the transcript of a presentation at an academic conference decades later where it is revealed that the novel you just read is a transcript of tapes Offred recorded as she was being smuggled out of the country.

* NoEnding: Subverted immediately by the LiteraryAgentHypothesis epilogue that follows on the next page, although Offred's ultimate fate is still ambiguous.

*** The sequel reveals that he [[spoiler:lived]].

* NoWomansLand: Probably the TropeCodifier for the modern Western audience. Even women who are seen as socially acceptable have no rights, and no say over what happens to them -- the narrator mentions one does not see any older women at all. Econowives have it hard and must take care of themselves and their families, should they be lucky to have some. Marthas are forced to serve for food and board only. Unwomen are sent to Colonies to clean toxic waste and die a slow, horrifying death; only the luckier ones get sent to work in agriculture. The prostitutes have at least ''some'' autonomy, but death is their only way out. Handmaids are monitored extremely closely and are basically sex slaves that must procreate in 6 years, or else they are declared Unwomen. Aunts have some power and privileges, but only over other Handmaids, and they have to ''torture'' and brainwash their charges. Even the Wives and Duaghters, members of the elite, are severely dissatisfied with their lack of agency and the paradise their husbands and fathers created.

* PatchedTogetherFromTheHeadlines: The novel essentially imagines that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution the Iranian revolution]] took place in Reagan-era America, and features {{expy}}s of Phyllis Schafly and the religious right during that period.

* StrawMisogynist: The Republic of Gilead are entirely run by these, who have abolished all women's rights and made them wifes, servants or {{breeding slave}}s, aside from the Aunts (female enforcers of their policies). One part of the backstory is that they actually got into power by allying with StrawFeminist groups on [[TheHorseshoeEffect the many issues they agreed on]], then backstabbing them.

** Wives (married to high-ranking Commanders) wear blue. After a Commander dies, his Wife becomes a Widow and has to dress in black.

** Econowives (married to lower-ranking military/government officers) wear red/blue/green-striped dresses to show that they play multiple roles.

* OneWordTitle: Nearly every section title fits this ("Household," "Shopping," etc.) Every other section is titled "Night."

* OneWordTitle: The section titles, some of which are ''Household'' and ''Shopping''.

* CatchPhrase: In the Handmaids' Dormitory, at least in front of their supervisors:

* TheConspiracy: We can assume it's of the Group variety. Why? Well, how else did a group formed by Fundamentalist Christians, [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic The Far Right]] and [[MoralGuardians anti-pornography activists]] manage to infiltrate the highest echelons of the [[TheFederation pre-Gilead]] government and military? Confirmed in the book with a far-right cabal in the US government known as the Sons of Jacob that plots its takeover. The fruits of their plan? ''The President's Day Massacre'', in which [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] was assassinated, Congress massacred, the Constitution suspended and martial law declared. In other words, nothing less than the ''total collapse of the government''. Goodbye United States of America, hello Gilead. They [[FalseFlagOperation blamed it on Muslim terrorists]] - predating 9/11 and resulting conspiracy theories of an "inside job" by 16 years.
* ColorCodedCharacters: Women in Gilead are divided into castes, reflected by the color of robes they wear. Wives (the elite top class, wives to Commanders) wear blue, Daughters wear white, Aunts (train Handmaids and have ceremonial roles in Salvagings or Prayvaganzas) wear brown, Marthas (servants and cooks) wear green, and Handmaids (fertile women who "sinned") wear red. Econowives wear garish red/blue/green-striped dresses to show that they play multiple roles.
* TheConspiracy: A very far-right fundamentalist Christian faction called the Sons of Jacob with members within the government plotted to seize control over the US, which they then did by massacring Congress and murdering the President (acts blamed on Islamic terrorists). After this the US was reformed into the Republic of Gilead.

* ColorCodedCharacters: Women in Gilead are divided into castes, reflected by the color of robes they wear. Wives (the elite top class, wives to Commanders) wear blue, Daughters wear white, Aunts (train Handmaids and have ceremonial roles in Salvagings or Prayvaganzas) wear brown, Marthas (servants and cooks) wear green, and Handmaids (fertile women who "sinned") wear red. Econowives wear garish multi-color robes to show that they play multiple roles.

* SecretPolice: The Republic's secret police are called the Eyes of God, or simply Eyes. The historical notes section does mention that lots of them were double or triple agents who spied for the Commanders but were also required to spy on them, and lots of them were also members of the Resistance group Mayday.

* PoliceBrutality: The Eyes of God simply take people who defect, and nobody can do anything.

* SecretPolice: The Republic's Secret Police are called the Eyes of God, or simply Eyes. The Historical notes section does mention that lots of them were double or triple agents who spied for the Commanders but were also required to spy on them, and lots of them were also members of the Resistance group Mayday.

''Literature/TheTestaments'', a follow-up written by Atwood set fifteen years later, is set to be released in September 2019.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Serena Joy, who preached of how a woman should stay at home. Now she's forced to, and doesn't like it one bit.

* ReleasedToElsewhere: Possibly, with the TV report about the Children of Ham being "resettled" to "national homelands" (a la apartheid South Africa) in North Dakota.

* DeathByAdaptation: Offred's ([[spoiler:Kate]] in the movie) husband is shot to death by the soldiers while the family stops during their escape from Gilead. This is in contrast to the novel where there is still a 50% chance of him being alive.

* IWillPunishYourFriendsForYourFailure: True to totalitarian regimes, Offred is scared to join the resistance against the fundamentalist Gilead even though she hates her monitored life without freedom and would love to fight against it. She fears pain and torture and possible execution, but even more she fears that if she is arrested, something bad might happen to her daughter (who she knows lives and still is in Gilead) or her husband (who might or might not be alive). It's also mentioned in the epilogue and historical notes: the scholars mention that the Gileadean regime was not above such drastic measures and actually used them to discourage adverse publicity in foreign countries from refugees.

** Serena Joy spent most of her pre-Gilead career as a televangelist promoting "traditional family values" (i.e. women should StayInTheKitchen and aspire to be [[BabyFactory Baby-Factories]], etc). But now that everything she preached for has been instituted by the Republic of Gilead, [[VictoryIsBoring she is not so pleased with the new situation,]] or with having to share her husband and engage in the humiliating ceremony where he has sex with his Handmaid. Offred alludes to this while musing about Serena during a monologue: