The Handmaid’s Tale – Context (OCR A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes

The Handmaid's Tale – Context

Understanding the historical, political and social context of The Handmaid's Tale is essential for appreciating Atwood's dystopian vision. This novel, published in 1985, reflects the anxieties and tensions of the 1980s whilst drawing on deeper historical patterns of oppression.

Margaret Atwood: life and influences

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. Her childhood shaped many of the themes that would later appear in her writing. Her father worked as an entomologist (a scientist who studies insects), which meant the family spent considerable time in rural Canada. This early exposure to nature fostered Atwood's lifelong commitment to environmentalism, a concern that surfaces throughout her work.

As an adult, Atwood established herself as a respected academic, teaching at universities across the United States. Her body of work spans multiple genres including poetry, prose, essays and literary criticism, though she is best known for her fiction. Throughout her career, she has been a vocal advocate for women's rights, free speech, LGBTQ+ rights, and climate change activism. Her writing consistently engages with current affairs and social justice issues.

Atwood's approach to power and oppression

A central concern in Atwood's work is the dynamics of power. She is particularly interested in how women experience oppression under patriarchy (a system where men hold power and women are largely excluded from it). Rather than focusing solely on dramatic acts of resistance, Atwood explores how power operates through everyday, mundane interactions. This approach makes her work feel immediate and recognisable.

In The Handmaid's Tale, we see this principle at work in how Gilead rises to power. The regime's growing strength goes unnoticed because people are complacent. They assume that political upheaval happens elsewhere, to other people. As Atwood wrote in her 2017 introduction to the novel, established social and political orders could "vanish overnight". Her work serves as a warning against complacency and a reminder that civil stability should never be taken for granted.

Writing The Handmaid's Tale in 1984

Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale in 1984 whilst living in West Berlin, Germany. This timing and location are crucial to understanding the novel's atmosphere of paranoia and surveillance.

The Cold War context

The Cold War was a period of intense political tension and psychological warfare between the Soviet Union and the United States (along with NATO allies). It lasted from 1947 to 1991, ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The conflict was termed "cold" because it did not involve large-scale direct military combat between the superpowers. Instead, the warfare was predominantly psychological, involving propaganda campaigns, economic embargos, support for proxy governments, and demonstrations of technological superiority such as the Space Race.

By 1984, the Cold War had been ongoing for nearly all of Atwood's life. The 1980s represented a particularly intense period of tension. Born in 1939, Atwood grew up during World War Two and witnessed the United States drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This established a terrifying precedent for nuclear warfare. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, both Eastern and Western powers raced to develop increasingly powerful nuclear weapons to maintain their position on the global political stage.

Berlin and the constant threat

West Berlin, where Atwood wrote the novel, sat at the heart of Cold War tensions. The Berlin Wall divided the city into the US-controlled West and the Soviet-controlled East. Atwood found herself physically encircled by the Berlin Wall and metaphorically surrounded by the threat of Soviet attack. In her 2017 introduction, she reflected that "Change could be as fast as lightning. 'It can't happen here' could not be depended on: Anything could happen anywhere, given the circumstances."

Nuclear science fiction

The threat of nuclear war inspired a wave of science fiction exploring post-apocalyptic scenarios. Examples include The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (1955), the Mad Max film series (1979), and the Japanese manga and film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982). Whilst The Handmaid's Tale does not directly depict nuclear apocalypse, radioactive contamination lurks in the background, particularly through references to the Colonies.

Much speculative fiction inspired by nuclear war focuses on the struggle for resources in a devastated world. The Handmaid's Tale follows this pattern, with the declining birth rate creating a crisis that leads to the sexual enslavement of fertile women.

Environmentalism and ecological crisis

Atwood's environmental consciousness stems from her childhood experiences in rural Canada. Her father's work as an entomologist meant the family spent extended periods in natural settings, fostering her appreciation for wildlife and ecosystems. She remains a committed environmentalist and frequently discusses how climate change will worsen existing social inequalities. The relationship between society and the environment appears throughout her work.

The effects of pesticides proved detrimental not only to natural ecosystems but to human health as well. This growing environmental consciousness appears in The Handmaid's Tale through small but significant details. Offred mentions that grocery stores like Loaves and Fishes (a biblical reference) rarely open because the seas are so polluted that fish populations have collapsed. Such details ground Gilead's dystopia in recognisable environmental concerns.

Feminism and women's rights

Feminism encompasses various movements and ideologies concerned with women's rights and advocating for gender equality. The Western feminist movement is generally understood through four distinct waves, each with its own focus and historical context.

The four waves of feminism

First wave (mid-19th century to World War Two)

The first wave centred on the suffrage movement. Suffragettes across the Western world campaigned for women's right to vote. This fundamental democratic right was denied to women throughout most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Second wave (mid-20th century)

The second wave broadened its focus to women's rights in the workplace, in marriage, and in society generally. Until surprisingly late in the twentieth century, marital rape was legal in many Western countries. Key texts that captured the frustrations of women during this period include The Second Sex (1949) by French writer Simone de Beauvoir and The Feminine Mystique (1963) by American writer Betty Friedan. These works articulated feelings of frustration and the lack of gender equality experienced by growing numbers of women.

Third wave (1990s onwards)

Third wave feminism emerged from zine culture and the riot grrrl movement in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, growing out of punk and DIY scenes. This wave saw the work of black feminists, including bell hooks and Audre Lorde, gaining wider mainstream recognition.

Fourth wave (2012 onwards)

Fourth wave feminism is characterised by its use of social media to organise and spread awareness. It focuses on combating sexual harassment and violence, addressing post-colonialism, and highlighting the discrepancies between women's rights in Western countries and elsewhere. Key campaigns include the #MeToo movement, the 2017 and 2018 Women's Marches, and the intersection with #BlackLivesMatter protests that sparked important conversations about inequalities between white women and women of colour.

Second wave feminism in The Handmaid's Tale

Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale in the early 1980s, during the height of second wave feminism's influence. The novel reflects this through its characters and their relationships to feminist activism.

Moira, Offred's best friend from university, is also a vocal feminist. Whilst at college, Moira hosts an "underwhore" party to sell lingerie, deliberately reclaiming the word 'whore'. She uses humour to undermine sexism, a strategy she employs throughout the novel. Both of the most important women in Offred's life are committed feminists.

Is Offred a feminist?

Compared to her mother and Moira, Offred might not appear to be much of a feminist. She does not openly rebel against the regime, escape from the Red Centre like Moira, or accept Moira's invitation to work as a sex worker at Jezebel's (which Moira argues would grant more autonomy). Instead, Offred's focus remains on her internal mental struggle and physical survival.

Politics and religion in the United States

When Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale, the United States was in the second year of Ronald Reagan's presidency. Understanding the political and religious climate of the Reagan era is essential for grasping what inspired Gilead's theocratic regime.

The Reagan administration (1981-1989)

Ronald Reagan was a Republican President whose time in office was characterised by several key policies. He implemented tax cuts whilst increasing defence spending due to Cold War pressures. At the same time, he reduced spending on social and public services. His administration was staunchly anti-Communist. A former Hollywood actor, Reagan was a charismatic speaker and, at the time, enjoyed significant popularity among Christian Americans.

Reagan's presidency emphasised conservatism and "family values", a phrase that alluded to the traditional, heterosexual, nuclear family. His rhetoric appealed to white working-class Americans who harboured racist resentment towards the advances black people had achieved during the civil rights movement. He also appealed strongly to religious organisations like the Moral Majority.

The Moral Majority and Christian fundamentalism

The Moral Majority was an organisation founded in 1979 by members of the Christian right and the Republican Party. They formed in response to what they perceived as the decay of moral values in American society. The 1960s and 1970s had been decades of increased sexual and religious freedom, marked by the civil rights movement, the movement for gay rights, and the rise of second wave feminism. Traditional ideas about women's roles as housewives, sex before marriage, and women's sexual autonomy were being questioned and challenged. The Moral Majority represented a backlash against these social advances.

The organisation existed to combat what they saw as the secularisation of American society. They believed America was fundamentally a religious (specifically Christian) nation. Their political agenda opposed abortion, gay rights, pornography, and the exclusion of Christian prayer from public schools.

The HIV/AIDS crisis

The first cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States were reported in 1980. By 1984, nearly 4,000 people had died from the virus, and a homophobic moral panic was spreading through mainstream media. AIDS was the first major pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920. At the time Atwood was writing, an AIDS diagnosis meant death within approximately one year. There was no effective treatment and enormous fear surrounding the disease.

Remember!