Starting point of this novel is the story in
the Old Testament about a childless couple and the therefore polygamy. Jacob and Rachel have no children, Jacob has sons with his sister-in-law Leah and with the slave-girl Bilhan and another slave-girl Zilpah. (Genesis 29 and 30)
The handmaid Offred is assigned to produce children for high-status couples, who cannot reproduce themselves. All this is ordered by the commander of the republic of Gilead : he starts an affair with Offred. Then starts the fight of Offred against that antifeminist Utopia.
The Handmaid's tale about fake news :
"I'm allowed to watch the news. Serena always lets us wach the news. Such as it is : who knows if any of it is true ? It could be old clips, it could be faked. But I watch it anyway, hoping to be able to read beneath it. Any news, now, is better than none. First, the front lines. They are not lines, really : the war seems to be going on in many places at once. They show us only victories, never defeats. Who wants bad news ?" (p.126, 127)
The Handmaid's tale about her mother :
"I admired my mother in some ways, although things between us were never easy. She expected too much from me, I felt. She expected me to vindicate her life for her, and the choices she'd made. I didn't want to live my life on her terms. I didn't want to be the model offspring, the incarnation of her ideas. We used to fight about that. I am not your justification for existence, I said to her once" (p.189)
The Handmaid's tale about books :
"I worked transferring books to computer discs, to cut down on storage space and replacement costs, they said. After the books were transferred they were supposed to go to the shredder, but sometimes I took them home with me. I liked the feel of them, and the look. Luke said I had the mind of an antiquarian". (p.266)
The Handmaid's tale about God :
Oh God, King of the universe, thank you for not creating me a man. I wish you would tell me Your Name, the real one I mean. I don't believe for an instant that what's going on out there is what You meant." (p.300,301)
The Handmaid's tale about the woman :
"I, the Commander,will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, he says, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls of costly array. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing...
Saved by childbearing, I think. What did we suppose would save us, in the time before ? (p.341)
