Authorial Choices and Textual Features (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

The Handmaid's Tale: authorial choices and textual features

Across assessments in English A Language and Literature, you need to show the ability to analyse and evaluate how a writer achieves a purpose, conveys a message and/or explores a theme. Therefore, knowing the names of authorial choices and textual features and pairing them with specific references and impacts is key to your success in assessments.

Literary methods

There are a number of literary methods used in The Handmaid’s Tale:

• Structural techniques 

• Setting and narrative perspective

• Language

• Characterisation 

• Symbolism and motifs

Structural techniques

Non-linear structure 

Margaret Atwood’s non-linear and fragmented structure moves between the past and present, alternating between current events in Gilead and the narrator’s memories. 

• The novel’s forty-six chapters are structured episodically as a fragmented narrative:

  • Multiple time lines narrate Offred’s daily life in Gilead, her indoctrination at the Red Centre, and her memories of her family and previous life

  • The structure represents Offred’s restrictive daily routine juxtaposed (opens in a new tab) against her inner thoughts which are presented as her only escape

• Roman numerals divide the novel into fifteen sections, perhaps representative of the story as a piece of history

• Sections are broken up by setting, location, or activity, such as "Shopping", "The Commander’s Study", and "Night":

  • This represents ideas of confinement regarding space and time

  • Recurring chapters called “Night” are separate to the main narrative, offering insight into Offred’s internal thoughts through memories and flashbacks (opens in a new tab)

• The novel ends with an epilogue that contains “Historical Notes”:

  • These notes, set in the future in 2195, are transcriptions of evidence collated by historians

  • The epilogue, presented as a lecture or oral testimony, is suggestive of a lost past

Foreshadowing

Atwood foreshadows (opens in a new tab) specific events using recurring imagery (opens in a new tab) and references to future events, largely to hint at the failure of rebellion. 

• Through the recurring images of bodies on the “Wall”, Offred’s thoughts of suicide, and the story of the “hanged” Handmaid, Atwood foreshadows Ofglen’s suicide:

  • This serves to recreate the oppressive nature of the society and to hint at a doomed future, which conveys dystopian (opens in a new tab) themes

• Atwood hints at the relationship between Offred and Nick, building suspense by foreshadowing Offred’s rebellious relationship: 

  • In Chapter 4, Offred describes her physical reaction to seeing Nick: “Despite myself, I think of how he might smell”, adding “I sigh, inhaling”

  • In Chapter 14, Offred again shows anticipation: “He’s so close that the tip of his boot is touching my foot”

• Atwood’s foreshadowing presents the powerful nature of sexual desire alongside the desire to have children:

  • In Chapter 11, Offred describes the significance of falling pregnant: “Covertly we regard each other, sizing up each other’s bellies: is anyone lucky?”

  • In his office, the doctor offers to “help” Offred become pregnant

  • He hints at the Commander’s sterility: “Most of those old guys can’t make it any more”

  • This foreshadows future events, heightening suspense regarding Offred’s survival 

Setting and narrative perspective

Setting 

Atwood uses a realistic setting, basing her fictional world on a real place (Cambridge, Massachusetts) in an imagined near future. 

• By using Cambridge, Massachusetts as the inspiration for the setting of Gilead, Atwood makes connections to the historical Puritan society centuries earlier:

  • Gilead is described as a newly created totalitarian regime that oppresses women by using their body and reproductive abilities as a form of control

  • Its existence is based on the low birth rate that follows ecological disaster, a dystopian theme

• Outside of Gilead are the “Colonies” and the “Homelands”, where those deemed irrelevant, infertile, or diseased are “shipped off”:

  • Living in the “Colonies” are the “Unwomen” who might “starve to death”

  • The “National Homelands” (in Dakota) is a euphemistic (opens in a new tab) title for a place of segregation

  • This is called the "resettlement of the Children of Ham", referring to those of marginalised race mentioned in the Old Testament

• Within Gilead, domestic settings are portrayed as minimalist prisons that prioritise function: Offred describes a room that has “A chair, a table, a lamp”:

  • The Commander’s House is defined by surveillance: the ceiling has a “blind plaster eye” 

  • Gardens are presented as dubious rewards: “Many of the Wives have such gardens”

  • These suggest the control of infertile wives; Offred narrates “it’s something for them to order and maintain and care for”

Narrative perspective 

Atwood employs an unreliable narrator who offers a subjective view of life in Gilead and life before the coup.

• Atwood crafts a surreal mood through the subjective first-person (opens in a new tab) narrator’s perspective of present experiences blurred with memories: 

  • Offred’s limited perspective offers readers a fragmented story that highlights her fear and trauma

  • This builds suspense as readers are unaware of her future

• Offred’s tone shifts between hope and despair, presenting the voice of an individual struggling to maintain sanity and survive

• Her voice merges with other characters in free indirect speech, both creating ambiguity and presenting the “Handmaids” as one homogenous group

• As a “Handmaid”, Offred is unnamed in the novel: Offred is a patronymic, indicating she belongs to Fred the Commander (Of Fred):

  • This diminishes her individuality and strips her of agency and identity

Language

Allusion 

References and allusions (opens in a new tab) to historical events, religion, and literary culture are used to create a realistic world while blending the past and present. 

• Atwood references Old Testament Christianity from the start of her novel:

  • The novel begins: “And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die”

  • This introduces themes of infertility and competitiveness regarding pregnancy

  • By focusing on the Old Testament, Atwood presents a patriarchal society, also evident in the name Gilead 

• Shops have Biblical names: “Milk and Honey”, “Loaves and Fishes”, and “All Flesh”

• The Commander references Genesis as the origin behind the “Handmaid”:

  • He reads: "Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her"

  • Before the Commander reads from Genesis, Offred says: “It’s the usual story, the usual stories. God to Adam, God to Noah”

• Atwood uses historical allusions to set the novel firmly in a realistic world which contributes to the novel’s purpose as a warning:

  • Based in Massachusetts, Atwood alludes to the Salem Witch Trials and religious extremism

• Literary references serve as reminders of a culturally rich past:

  • The novel refers to the Book of Revelation (“Whore of Babylon”) and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes”

  • There are repeated references to Alfred Tennyson, such as his poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’

Euphemism 

Typical of a dystopian novel, Atwood’s oppressive fictional world makes use of euphemistic language as a form of control. 

• Neologisms, such as “Wives”, present women only in terms of their marital status:

  • The “Marthas of Gilead” refer to the domestic maids of the household

  • Even the term “Handmaids” is a positive word for women who are, as Offred describes, "two-legged wombs"

• To present the oppressive forces of control as saviours, the police force and soldiers are named the “Guardians of the Faith” and “Angels” respectively:

  • Here, religious terminology is used euphemistically to sanitise the authoritarian power structures

  • Atwood uses irony (opens in a new tab)to underscore the danger of misused language 

• Executions are renamed “Salvagings” to present them as redemptive

• “Colonies” refer to wastelands or penal colonies where “Unwomen” are sent:

  • This attempts to hide the true nature of the segregation at work in Gilead

Characterisation

Characters in The Handmaid’s Tale are divided between those with power and those without it, representing the strict social order in Atwood’s fictional, futuristic world. 

Offred

• Offred is the novel’s protagonist (opens in a new tab) and, as narrator, the story is told from her perspective:

  • The reader experiences Gilead via Offred’s thoughts and descriptions

  • She is an unconventional hero: she is flawed yet sympathetic 

• As a “Handmaid” she is still fertile in an increasingly infertile state:

  • She is re-educated at the “Red Centre”, where her individual identity is erased

  • She is forbidden from using her real name and does not disclose it to the reader, indicating a world of mistrust and fear 

• Offred is not an obvious dissident: Atwood shows Offred passively obeying rules in order to survive

• However, her memories of a family and a past life represent a form of protest against accepting her new world, alerting readers to her rebellious spirit

• This demonstrates the idea of individualism as a form of protest and illustrates the limitations of Gilead’s power

The Commander

• The Commander is a symbol (opens in a new tab) of the power held by a wealthy, white, male Christian in the patriarchal, conservative Gilead

• His distance in the novel is ironic given the importance of his status and position

• This may suggest his isolation, particularly as the relationship between he and Offred changes depending on whether they are in a public or private space

• He can be interpreted as a link between the past and future: 

  • At the end of the novel, the balance of power between he and Offred shifts, as she realises that she is above him, looking down, as he is “shrinking”

Ofglen

• Ofglen is symbolic of collaborative power and resistance towards a common goal

• Atwood raises ideas about friendship and alliances through unity and rebellion:

  • The “Handmaids” are prevented from forming friendships with each other

  • The careful relationship between Offred and Ofglen demonstrates the potential power of alliances, which can lead to collective action

• The power of their companionship grows as trust develops between them, empowering them both 

• Information is representative of power, demonstrated by Ofglen’s suggestions that Offred report back anything she can about the Commander

Serena Joy

• Serena Joy, the Commander’s wife, is presented as an unsympathetic character whose rightwing ideology and conservative views offer her some form of power:

  • The character could be viewed as a satirical (opens in a new tab)representation of American Christian media personalities prevalent in the 1980s

• Her autonomy is illustrated by her name; unlike the other women, she has an identity:

  • Nevertheless, the name is another example of euphemistic and ironic  language; she is not serene nor joyful

• As an older, childless woman, readers can infer her bitterness and resentment: 

  • She must endure humiliation at the “Ceremony” as her husband has intercourse with another woman

  • This is further demonstrated by Serena Joy’s attempts to attend to her garden, a symbol of fertility and freedom

• Trapped by her society, she exerts control and power through cruelty, exemplifying, perhaps, the idea of the bullied becoming the bully: 

  • This may resonate with aspects of Nazi Germany in that Gilead’s social order relies on the willingness of others to carry out cruel acts

Symbolism and motifs

Symbolism 

Margaret Atwood uses symbolism to present the rigid social order of Gilead and the surveillance that maintains it.  

• Colour divides women according to their marital and reproductive roles and status

• The “Handmaids” wear red, which may symbolise blood and fertility:

  • Offred narrates: it is “the colour of blood, which defines us”

  • The bold colour may signify, too, the idea of sin and danger, which presents the duality between fertility and sexual shame

  • Wearing the colour means the women stand out, which puts them in a vulnerable position

• The “Wives” wear blue, a symbol of the Virgin Mary and immaculate conception

• The housemaids, or “Marthas”, wear green: Offred compares the colour to “a surgeon’s gown of the time before”:

  • It may also suggest a role in the society’s population growth

• To symbolise the idea of constant surveillance, Atwood uses the symbolic representation of eyes:

  • The “Eye” symbolises constant surveillance, presented as “the eyes of the Lord”

  • This is illustrated by the recurring phrase "Under His Eye" as a form of greeting

  • Further, Offred describes eyes surrounding her in the Commander’s house: the ceiling seems to have a “plaster eye”

  • In the hallway there is a “pier-glass, like the eye of a fish”

Motifs

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood uses motifs (opens in a new tab) to highlight ideas associated with femininity.

• Repeated reference to gardens and flowers raises themes about fertility and freedom

• Offred's temptation to steal a flower is a quiet, individual act of rebellion

• Red tulips have "a darker crimson towards the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there":

  • Tulips are described as “chalices”, connoting to the idea of the “Handmaids” as sacred vessels

  • Conversely, the tulips in Serena Joy’s garden are “not tulips of blood, the red smiles are not flowers”, which signifies Serena Joy’s lack of fertility

  • It also contributes to the surreal quality of Offred’s narration

• The motif of the garden as a form of control is evident throughout the novel:

  • Offred describes it as the “the domain of the Commander’s Wife”

  • Atwood presents the facade of freedom: from a “distance it looks like peace”

• Blue, particularly relating to nature, is representative of memories:

  • Blue flowers are “framed” and in “print”, the bathroom is “papered in small blue flowers, forget-me-nots”

  • In memories of Luke, Offred often describes the blue sky

Sources:

Murkett, Kristina. “The Handmaid’s Tale – The Power Of Language and The Language Of Power.” English and Media Centre, 4 January 2021, https://www.sidcot.org.uk/sites/default/files/inline-files/Language%20and%20power.pdf (opens in a new tab). Accessed 20 April 2026.

Peloso, Elizabeth. “The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring: A Critical Look at Flower Imagery in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid' s The Handmaid's Tale.” The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English, vol. 4, no. 3, 2002, https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=tor (opens in a new tab). Accessed 20 April 2026.