The Handmaid's Tale, Chapter I and II
Samira Kuklinski
01/02/2021
Summary and brief Analysis
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, 1985
The protagonist, along with other women, sleep in army cots in an old gymnasium. They are not allowed to speak, so they rely on whispering and lipreading. There are two women called Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth who are patrolling the facility equipped with electric cattle prods. Twice a day the women take walks in the former football field, which is surrounded by a fence and guarded by so called Angels who are patrolling outside armed with guns. The Angels stand with their backs towards the women, who wish they could make deals with them, exchanging their bodies in order to gain something.
The protagonist then is in a room that reminds her of a college guest room, fit for a lady in reduced circumstances. All objects with which the women could hurt themselves, such as glass, are removed throughout the late Victorian family house the protagonist now resides in. The protagonist remembers how Aunt Lydia once told her to consider her circumstances as a privilege and not a prison.
She has to dress completely in red, except for white wings around her face which keep her from seeing and being seen. There are other people inside the house, as well. Household servants who are called Marthas, a Commander and his Wife. They all have certain colors assigned to themselves. After the protagonist gets three tokens from a Maid called Rita in order to exchange groceries. Once, she hears Rita state to Cora that she would never debase herself as someone as the protagonist must. The protagonist wishes she could talk and gossip with the two women, to have at least some kind of an exchange.
A male character called Luke is remembered by the woman as being pedantic and eager to learn.
The reader is introduced to the novel through the perspective of a first person narrator, that does not reveal the name or the gender of the protagonist (p.9, ll.1f.). This makes it easier for the reader to identify themselves with the character and comprehend the atmosphere. The anonymity and lack of information in the first chapter of the novel makes the reader want to know more about the bizarre situation which is described. Furthermore vague descriptions such as “old ones that still said U.S.” (p.9, ll.24-25), create curiosity as to what happened to the “old world” and which events caused it to change. Through the consistent use of pronouns such as “I” (p.9, l.5) and “We” (p.10, l.10) the reader can sympathize with the debased environment the women are described to be almost held captive in, since there are guards armed with guns and the women express the wish of an exchange of just about anything, which they would even offer their bodies for (p.10, ll.9-10).
The reader can imagine the dull atmosphere at the Victorian Mansion through descriptions such as “A chair, a table, a lamp.” (p.13, l.1), the basic enumeration creates a monotone language which can be translated into a description of the atmosphere. The reader also gets engaged into the novel by interpreting vague sentences themselves. For example “They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to” (p.13, ll.4-5), “When the window is partly open - it only opens partly” (p.13, l.7) or “a picture, framed but with no glass” (p.13, l.17) do not openly state it, but clearly indicate that the women are prevented from trying to hurt or kill themselves.
The question of what kind of living conditions the women have to submit to is further raised through the protagonist stating a form of thankfulness to simply be alive (p.14, l.7).
In addition the reader gets roped into the story by descriptions such as “black, for the Commander, blue, for the Commander’s Wife, and the one assigned to me, which is red.” (p.15, ll.42-43), which describes a societal system fundamentally different from the reader’s, without giving any background knowledge as to what caused these changes, since there are clear indications that the world of the novel used to be like the readers, “the time before” (p.15, l,54).
In conclusion the reader is introduced to the novel, through a narrative perspective that makes it easy to identify and empathize with the protagonist, as well as descriptive language which does not use a lot of adjectives, which creates a dull and monotone atmosphere.