Women and their roles in society

This is the largest area of study, really; it informs the others, and is an all-pervasive theme in the novel. Some knowledge of the feminist movement, its history and arguments would be useful in approaching the novel and the themes that it explores.It is only recently that women have been allowed to vote, own property and work on an equal level to men. The status of women in The Handmaid's Tale is not that different from how they were viewed in England during the Victorian era. The novel itself points out the similarities between Gilead and Islam in their treatment of women. Offred has taken her freedom and supposed equality for granted, and now suffers for knowing that. The (rather lame) justification for dispossessing women again is that it is for their own good - to rescue them from the objectification of their bodies and the potential for unhappiness in life. These reasons are fundamentally oppressive as they deny women the right to choose and live their own lives. Protection becomes oppression very quickly. The subtext of this reasoning is that men felt threatened and redundant as women moved into the public arena. (Think about the reactions to girls achieving slightly better than boys at exams this year.) As well as this, there seems little sense of unity between women. What chance there is for solidarity is quashed by the regime at the Red Centre and when officially a Handmaid. Also, Offred is friendly with Moira, who betrays her to all intents and purposes when she settles into Jezebel's, and loses Ofglen. This is an echo of how she herself 'stole' Luke off another woman, and how she could be seen to be a traitor to her gender.

Control

The Handmaids are ordered to tear apart a man at a 'salvaging', effectively doing the state's dirty business for it. This has the added bonus for the authorities of showing how traitors are dealt with. They use the populace as police, implementing them in the crimes that are committed in the name of law and order.

Identity

Atwood’s central concern is how women are defined by their traditional roles in society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, people, and women in particular, are reduced to serving a function in society rather than living as free thinking individuals with an identity. Offred clearly shines through as an individual in the text. Her narrative voice is often humorous (albeit in a sardonic way) and she is able to reflect some optimism about the good things she finds around her. Clearly, she is more of an individual than simply the contribution of her ovaries! We are given a sense of individuality through Offred’s referral to those in authority as ‘they’ or ‘them’. We do not know much more about them but this gives us the sense that they are the faceless, nameless ones and that they should be feared.
Identity is thus addressed as a key theme of the text and also through the narrative voice of Offred.