History Literature / TheHandmaidsTale

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Invoked in regards to the wives and the handmaids. The Republic of Gilead encourages wives to look down on and mistread the handmaids, ensuring that the two groups of oppressed women won't team up and overthrow the regime.

** Especially true for the Marthas.

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: {{Discussed|Trope{{. Moira refers to Jezebel's as "butch paradise", and the women can have sex, if they want.

* DeadlyEuphemism: "Salvaging": execution by hanging. "Particicution": being tortured to death by enraged Handmaids (the term is a dark reference to [=ParticipACTION=], a Canadian public ''exercise'' program).

* FreedomFromChoice: {{Discussed}}. Under the Republic of Gilead, women have had all their power completely stripped in every meaningful way. Some women adjust well to their new lives, and seem to truly believe that they're better off. Those who were not convinced that this trope was a good thing had it put to them another way; before they had "freedom to" do a lot of things, but now they have "freedom from" a lot of the problems that came with it, and the woman saying this said, quite sincerely, not to undervalue "freedom from". However, it didn't particularly matter if they accepted this or not, since they had no rights and no power anymore.

* FutureImperfect: The epilogue. [[spoiler: Gilead is described in the past tense, so that's good. But whoever is speaking in the epilogue is dismissive and misogynistic. They state that the title invented by another academic is not only a ''Canterbury Tales'' reference but also a sexual reference to the "tail" of a Handmaid being the part of them relevant to their function. Worse, the speaker pays more attention to Nick's motivations, and the possible identity of the Commander, than they do to Offred's lived experience.]]

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Discussed. Moira refers to Jezebel's as "butch paradise," and the women can have sex, if they want.
--> Hell, they encourage it. Besides, it sort of turns (the commanders) on.

-->"Serena Joy grips my hands as if it is she, not I, who's being fucked, as if she finds it either pleasurable or painful, and the Commander fucks, with a regular two-four marching stroke, on and on like a tap dripping. He is preoccupied, like a man humming to himself in the shower without knowing he's humming; like a man who has other things on his mind. It's as if he's somewhere else, waiting for himself to come, drumming his fingers on the table while he waits."

-->''"More than one incautious refugee was known to receive a hand, ear, or foot, vacuum-packed express, hidden in, for instance, a tin of coffee."''

* NoNameGiven: Our protagonist and all other handmaids, but if you really read between the lines her first name is probably June, implied by a line in the first chapter: "We learned to lipread, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths. In this way, we exchanged names, from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June". Everyone in the list appears later in the story, except June. And then we consider that June (the month) is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth... Although, it's revealed in the first chapter that she has apparently changed the names of the others (Moira, Fred, Nick etc.) to protect her friends remaining in Gilead, so potentially the ''whole'' list of names given is made up. Though it could also be an author EasterEgg as the theme of summer is strong in the text. Atwood [[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-age-of-trump.html has said]] that it was not her intention [[spoiler:to imply that Offred's real name is June]] "but it fits so readers are welcome to it if they wish." The narrator gets explicitly NamedByTheAdaptation: in the 1990 film adaptation, where Offred's name is [[spoiler:Kate]] and the 2017 TV show adaptation, where it's [[spoiler: June]].

-->''"I told you it was bad."''

---> "Problems of [[spoiler:Authentication in Reference to]] ''The Handmaid's Tale''."

----> I wait, for the household to assemble. ''Household'': that is what we are.

----> I’m waiting, in my room, which right now is a waiting room.

* TheConspiracy: We can assume it's of the Group variety. Why? Well, how else did a group formed by Fundamentalist Christians, [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic The Far Right]] and [[MoralGuardians anti-pornography activists]] manage to infiltrate the highest echelons of the [[TheFederation pre-Gilead]] government and military? Confirmed in the book with a far-right cabal in the US government known as the Sons of Jacob that plots its takeover. The fruits of their plan? ''The President's Day Massacre'', in which [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] was assassinated, Congress was massacred, the Constitution was suspended, and martial law was declared. In other words, nothing less than the ''total collapse of the government''. Goodbye United States of America, hello Gilead. They [[FalseFlagOperation blamed it on Muslim terrorists]] - predating 9/11 and resulting conspiracy theories of an "inside job" by 16 years.

-->''"Many of the Wives have such gardens, it's something for them to order and maintain and care for."''

* BrokenPedestal: When Offred meets [[spoiler:Moira at Jezebel's. Prior to this all she knew was that Moira had overcome an Aunt and escaped - she is understandably shaken to find her in her current position, not just because of the role but because she's finally been broken.]]
* BuryYourGays: Or rather, "leave your gays hanging on the gibbet as a warning to others." "Gender treachery" in Gilead is punishable by death, along with many other "crimes." It's somewhat {{zigzagged}} in on-page depictions though: Moria, the only LGBT+ character with a name, face and dialogue (she's a lesbian) survives the book, though in a [[SexSlave bad state]], and she knows once they deem her "useless" she'll get [[FateWorseThanDeath shipped off to the Colonies]] for a slow death. This also goes for other bi or lesbian women in the Jezebels brothel like her.

** "Blessed be the Fruit"[[note]]The "fruit" of the womb.[[/note]]

* ChekhovsGun: Subverted. [[spoiler: Offred manages to smuggle a match into her room and speculates what she could do with it, but never gets a chance to use it for anything.]]

--->''"She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn't seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word."''

* BlamingTheVictim: the Aunts preach that Janine was to blame for her being gang-raped at fourteen, insisting she led her rapists on and that God was "teach[ing] her a lesson". The other Handmaids are forced to repeat this to Janine over and over, until she finally breaks down and 'agrees' that it was her fault. The Aunts in general state that [[ImAManICantHelpIt men can't always control themselves]] and that it's up to women to keep themselves modest so men won't be tempted.

!! The Handmaid's Tropes:

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture

The setting is the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny Republic of Gilead]], a newly-established theocracy still fighting rebellion at its borders in the former United States. Money has been abolished; laws are based on the state's interpretation of Christianity, and many crimes are punishable by public execution. Everyone has a specific role to play - especially women.

The protagonist is known only as Offred - "of Fred", her current Commander. She can remember before, when women still had rights and were allowed to read; her mother, a feminist who raised her alone; her husband, who left his first wife for her; her daughter, who was a toddler seven years ago when the revolution happened and the family tried to flee to Canada. Offred has seen none of them since, though she is told her daughter is happy with her new family.

* FutureImperfect: The epilogue. [[spoiler: Gilead is described in the past tense, so that's good. But whoever is speaking in the epilogue is dismissive and misogynistic. They state that the title invented by another academic is not only ''Canterbury Tales'' reference but also a sexual reference to the "tail" of a Handmaid being the part of them relevant to their function. Worse, the speaker pays more attention to Nick's motivations, and the possible identity of the Commander, than they do to Offred's lived experience.]]

* FutureImperfect: The epilogue. [[spoiler: Gilead is described in the past tense, so that's good. But whoever is speaking in the epilogue is dismissive and misogynistic. They insist that the title must be a ''Canterbury Tales'' reference InUniverse, as if an escaped Handmaid would really care about literary puns. Worse, the speaker pays more attention to Nick's motivations, and the possible identity of the Commander, than they do to Offred's lived experience.]]

* TheFundamentalist: The entire Republic of Gilead is run by a particularly ruthless, scary bunch of these.

* IKEAErotica: [[JustifiedTrope Intentionally invoked]] [[FetishRetardant to show how passionless, loveless, and chore-like sex has become in Gilead.]]

''Literature/TheTestaments'', a follow-up written by Atwood set fifteen years later, was released in September 2019.

** Mentioned when Offred recalls how her mother, a radical feminist, wished for a separate women's culture and that [[NotSoDifferent pornography be eradicated]]. Both very much happened in [[NoWomansLand Gilead]].

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The story is set in an unnamed American city, but certain clues point to it as Cambridge, Massachusetts: specifically Harvard Square. MargaretAtwood [[WordOfGod stated in the foreword]] for the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale TV show's]] tie-in edition that this is a CallBack to colonial-era Puritanism.

* BuryYourGays: Or rather, "leave your gays hanging on the gibbet as a warning to others." "Gender treachery" in Gilead is punishable by death, along with many other "crimes." It's somewhat {{zigzagged}} in on-page depictions though: Moria, the only LGBT+ character with a name, face and dialogue (she's a lesbian) survives the book, though in a [[SexSlave bad state]], and she knows once they deem her "useless" she'll get [[FateWorseThanDeath shipped off to the Colonies]] for a slow death.

* BuryYourGays: Or rather, "leave your gays hanging on the gibbet as a warning to others." "Gender treachery" in Gilead is punishable by death, along with many other "crimes."

* GaiasLament: The environment is in a state of decline, which spurned the events that lead to the formation of Gilead. Severe air and water pollution, ozone degradation, radiation from nuclear meltdowns along the San Andreas after an earthquake and any number of chemicals and medicines people used; all of it contaminated peoples' bodies to the point that vultures could die just from eating them. All of this lead to a severe decline in birth rates. The emergence of a resistant form of syphilis and AIDS certainly didn't help matters. Whales and most fish are also mentioned to be long extinct.