"Handmaid's Tale" Margaret Atwood

1.

"Handmaid's Tale"
Margaret Atwood

2.

Margaret
Eleanor
Atwood (born November
18, 1939) is a Canadian
poet, novelist, literary
critic, essayist, teacher,
environmental
activist,
and inventor.

3.

Although she has been
labeled
a
Canadian
nationalist, a feminist,
a gothic and science
fiction writer, given the
range and volume of
her work, Atwood both
incorporates
and
transcends all of these
categories

4.

5.

6.

3
narrators:
Aunt
Lydia, Agnes Jemina
(Aunt
Victoria)
&
Nicole (Daisy, Jade)
Setting: the not-toodistant future, about
15 years after the
events
of
The
Handmaid’s
Tale;
Cambridge,
!speculative fiction!
"There's a precedent in real life for everything in the book.
I decided not to put
Massachusetts;
anything in that somebody somewhere hadn'tToronto,
already done"
Canada

7.

Key events:
1. Aunt Lydia has her own manuscript “The Ardua
Hall Holograph”
2. Agnes & Daisy – transcripts of witness
testimonies
3. Each of 3 wants to topple the patriarchal and
theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead
4. In the USA Aunt Lydia used to be a judge, after
the coup she is obliged to cooperate with the
regime of Gilead (Initially, she hesitated about
that offer, but unfortunately Commander Judd
dispatched her & she agreed to cooperate and
participate in an execution of other women)
5. Aunt Lydia became one of the Founders of the
Aunts
6. Lydia has established a vast network of
surveillance equipment to collect evidence of
other's indiscretions

8.

Key events:
7. Lydia is actively engaged in tracking the
whereabouts of “Baby Nicole”
8. Agnes Jemina grew up in a privileged Gilead
Family
9. Agnes was anxious about Gilead’s treatment of
women from an early age
10. Reached the age of 13, she was obliged to marry
to Commander Judd
11. Aunt Lydia suggested her taking refuge among
the Aunts
12. Agnes learned to read and write
13. Gilead’s official theology contradicted the Bible
14. Agnes hungered for more access to that power
15. Daisy came from Toronto
16. She turned 16 and her parents were killed (her
parents were not genuine one, they were Mayday
operatives)
17. Daisy was Baby Nicole

9.

Characters

10.

Agnes
Aunt Lydia
Nicole

11.

The major problems
Being able to read and
write did not provide
answers to all questions.
It led to other questions,
and then to others. Agnes
Hanging from a belt around
my waist is a taser. The
weapon reminds me of my
fallings: had I been more
effective, I would not have
needed such an implement.
– Aunt Lydia
I’ve become swollen with power, true, but also
nebulous with it – formless, shape-shifting. I am
everywhere and nowhere: even in the minds of the
Commanders I cast an unsettling shadow. How can I
regain myself? How to shrink back to my normal size,
the size of an ordinary woman? – Aunt Lydia

12.

How
easily
a
hand becomes a
fist. – Aunt Lydia
I know to much about the leaders
– too much dirt – and they are
uncertain as to what I may have
done with it in the way of
documentation. If they string me
up, will that dirt somehow be
leaked? They might well suspect
I’ve taken back up precautions,
and they would be right. – Aunt
Lydia
This is what the Aunts did, I was learning.
They recorded. They waited. They used their
information to achieve goals known only to
themselves. Their weapons were powerful
but contaminating secrets. - Agnes

13.

Shame, Fear, Repression
Whatever our shapes and
features, we were snares and
enticements
despite
ourselves,
we
were
the
innocent
and
blameless
causes that through our very
nature
could
make
men
drunk, with lust, so that
they’d stagger and lurch and
topple over the verge. - Agnes

14.

Shame, Fear, Repression
The goal in every instance
was the same: girls of all
kinds – those from good
families as well as the less
favored – were to be married
early, before any chance
encounter with an unsuitable
man might occur that would
lead to what used to be called
falling in love or, worse, to
loss of virginity. - Agnes

15.

Choice
The truth was that they’d cut Crystal open to
get the baby out, and they’d killed her by doing
that. It wasn’t something she chose. She hadn’t
volunteered to di with noble womanly honor or
be a shining example, but nobody mentioned
that. - Agnes
Once
a
story
you’ve
regarded as true has turned
false, you begin suspecting
all stories. - Agnes
[Becka] really did believe that
marriage would obliterate
her. She would crushed, she
would be nullified, she would
be melted like snow until
nothing remained of her. Agnes

16.

My impressions
1.
Satisfied
with the
ending
3.
The
writing
style
is
good and I
don’t know
the English
language lol
2.
Adore
how Lydia
has
transform
ed
5. Recommend you to read? It’s up to you. But you had
better read and watch the Hulu series as you will have
a clear picture who Agnes and Nicole are.
4. Food for
thought and
makes
you
be
conscious of
the current
problems in
the world

17.

Forbidden
things are open
to imagination

18.

1.Morose = sullen, gloomy
2.To preen – to spend time making
yourself look attractive
3.Liaison = relation, contact
4.Adamant = inflexible, unbending
5.Furtively = secretly - украдкой
6.Taser - электрошокер
7.Nebulous = vague
8.Enticement = temptation,
seduction
9.Heresy = schism - ересь
10.Supplicant – a person who asks
a God or smn who in a position of
power for smth in a humble way

19.

1. To wheedle – to try to persuade smn to do
smth or give you smth by praising them or
being intentionally charming
2. Tryst = date; meeting
3. To segue - to move easily and without
interrupton from one piece of music, part of
a story, subject, or situation to another
4. Lugubrious = sorrowful, mournful
5. Recalcitrance = rebelliousness, stubborness
6. Derision = mockery
7. To accost – to approach or stop and speak
to smn in a threatening way
8. Effigy = a model or other object that
represents smn, esp. one of a hated person
that is hanged or burned in a public place
9. To coddle – to baby; to protect smn too
much
10.To propitiate – to please and make calm a
god or person who is annoyed with you

20.

Thanks for
your attention
!