Characters
This character serves as the narrator and a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead.
Who is Offred?
The monthly ritual meant to produce children.
What is the Ceremony?
The color worn by Handmaids symbolizing fertility.
What is red?
Offred is taken to this place to be trained as a Handmaid.
What is the Red Center?
Gilead maintains authority through fear and this tactic.
What is surveillance/control?
This woman enforces discipline among the Handmaids at the Red Center.
Who is Aunt Lydia?
Women are forbidden from doing this basic activity, emphasizing control over knowledge.
What is reading (or writing)?
The Eyes symbolize this concept within the novel.
What is surveillance (or constant monitoring)
Offred secretly steals this to moisturize her body as an act of rebellion.
What is butter?
Offred survives psychologically by relying on this.
What are memories of the past?
This character secretly rebels and represents resistance against Gilead’s system.
Who is Moira?
The place where Handmaids are trained and indoctrinated.
What is the Red Center?
Signifies that the Handmaid's are property of the men they serve.
What is their name? (ex: Ofglen, Offred, etc.)
Offred discovers this shocking truth about Ofglen after she disappears.
What is that she committed suicide (to avoid capture)?
The government’s control of reproduction emphasizes this broader theme.
What is loss of bodily autonomy (or control over women’s bodies)?
The household servant who often appears annoyed with Offred.
Who is Rita?
The secret police force that monitors citizens for treason or disobedience.
Who are "The Eyes"?
The phrase “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” symbolizes this idea.
What is resistance (or defiance)?
The person who tries to "help" Offred with her fertility before being offered support by Serena Joy.
Who is the doctor?
The Ceremony shows how power replaces this human experience.
What is love/intimacy/consent?
This character’s true identity is ambiguous, leaving readers unsure whether he is an ally or a spy.
Who is Nick?
Public punishments like Salvagings and Particicutions serve this primary purpose in Gilead.
What is maintaining control through fear (or enforcing obedience)?
Flowers in Serena Joy’s garden symbolize this emotional conflict.
What is control, jealousy, or suppressed desire?
At the end of the novel, Offred is taken away by this group, who may not be who they seem to be, leaving Offred's fate incertain.
Who are the Eyes (or possibly Mayday operatives)?
Offred’s narration shifts between past and present to represent this idea.
What is resistance/rebellion through storytelling or preservation of identity?