Is The Handmaid's Tale Based on a True Story?
No. The Handmaid's Tale is a novel, and Gilead, Offred and the Commander are invented. But Atwood built it on a rule: nothing goes into the book that people have not already done to other people, somewhere and at some time.
She calls it speculative fiction, not science fiction, because it relies on events and laws that already exist.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Is the story true? | No, it is fiction |
| Atwood's rule | Nothing in it has not been done somewhere |
| Genre label | Speculative fiction |
| Real sources | Puritan New England, Cold War states, Romania under Ceausescu |
| Written | 1984, in West Berlin |
What did Atwood say about its sources?
She has said that the sources are 17th-century Puritan New England and totalitarian regimes through the ages, and that if people have done something once they are capable of doing it again. In another interview she put it as: I put nothing into this book that had not been done by someone, sometime, somewhere.
For this reason she describes the book as speculative fiction rather than science fiction. It has no spaceships or invented technology.
↑ Back to the topWhat does New England have to do with it?
Atwood studied early American Puritans while at Harvard. She says some of her own ancestors were 17th-century New Englanders, and one was implicated in a witchcraft case. That is why the book is dedicated partly to Mary Webster. The story's setting, Cambridge, Massachusetts, was home to Harvard and was once a Puritan seminary town.
↑ Back to the topHow did West Berlin shape the book?
Atwood began the book in 1984 in West Berlin, with the Wall still standing, and also visited East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. She has described the wariness and the sense of being watched that she saw there. Gilead's spies, checkpoints and informers echo those places.
↑ Back to the topWere any specific events used?
Atwood kept boxes of newspaper clippings while researching the book. One of the examples she has pointed to is Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, where the state pushed women to have more children and monitored pregnancies. Forced childbearing and the taking of children from their mothers are central ideas in the novel.
In the Historical Notes, the fictional professor also points out that most of Gilead's customs were borrowed from other societies, not invented.
↑ Back to the topSo is Gilead a real place?
No. There is no country called Gilead, and Offred's tapes are an invention of the novel. The book's power comes from the fact that its parts are real, even though the whole is imagined.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Handmaid’s Tale
This guide covers the novel only. The TV series and the 1990 film differ in places.