The Handmaid's Tale: Sabotaged Narrative of Offred

Abstract

"The Handmaid's Tale” (1986) is another vibrant novel by Margaret Atwood. Unlike her poems the novel is a fiesta of unique narrative technique. The novel deals with a very serious theme”decreased birthrates in Gilead and the preventive measures taken by the authority to maintain and increase the birthrate. On the contrary, the narrative layers perforate so many out comings of "casually held attitudes about women” which are "drawn to their logical conclusions” (394, 1986). Since the question of birth is intricately connected with the body and sexuality of women, hence the Gileadan system engineers very organized and selective methods to achieve its goal. The measures include a series of rejections for women---they are not entitled for right to property, right to vote, right to speech, and right to movement and so on. In simple terms, they are reduced to non-individual entities owned by the State.  In this paper, I would like to discuss the narrative of Offred, the main character in the novel, to show how Atwood has sabotaged the narrative of Offred while allowing Offred to tell her own story.