4.1.1

Setting

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The Setting of The Handmaid's Tale

Atwood sets The Handmaid's Tale in America, or what is meant to have formerly been the USA.

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Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • Atwood is Canadian. She chooses to set her novel in America (or a now-lost America). The dynamic between these two countries influences how she examines politics, gender relations, religion, society and culture in the 1980s.
  • Atwood places the action in the real-life setting of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She plays upon the irony of this being home to Harvard University and historically the site of the Salem witch trials in the seventeenth century.
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Harvard vs the Wall, Salvagings

  • Massachusetts is home to Harvard University: a place of liberal thought, freedom and acceptance.
    • Atrocities like the Wall, Salvagings and Particicutions taking place on the former site of Harvard University show how the new Republic of Gilead is.
  • In the first chapter, Offred describes her environment as a "palimpsest" which is something which has been altered but still holds traces of what came before, like the room she is imprisoned in still holding traces of being a gymnasium.
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Salem witch trials

  • The Salem witch trials also took place in Massachusetts.
    • Atwood implies that when lessons from history are not learnt, we are doomed to keep on repeating them. This is shown by the (mis)treatment of women in Gilead.
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Historical notes, 2195

  • The novel ends on the Historical notes, set in the University of Denay, Nunavit in 2195.
    • Atwood may have chosen this ending to emphasise the restorative power of knowledge and education.
    • But the sexist attitudes of the Professors implies that gender relations are still complex and problematic.

Jump to other topics

1Author Background

1.1Margaret Atwood

2Chapter Summaries

3Dedications & Epigraph

3.1Dedications & Epigraph

4Context

5Narrative Structure & Literary Techniques

6Themes & Imagery

7Characters

8Readings

8.1Readings of The Handmaid's Tale

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