The Handmade Tale

This is not a spoiler free article, so if after all you decide it is a good idea to read this before watching the series or reading the book, then bear that in mind. Now, under his eye, let’s dive into it!

The Handmaid's Tale poster

When Margaret Atwood wrote the story back in 1984, the panorama was different from what it is now, thus making us perceive the obvious alterations between the original book and the Hunu tv show. The director responsible of bringing this narrative to the small screen, Bruce Miller, has revealed that in many occasions he was concerned about how to represent certain passages, so the contact with the author for this adaptation has been essential.

Both the book and the show follow the same story line. The society here depicted is living the aftermath of a rebellion. Due to the pollution and other earthy issues, most women were not able to bear a child, causing the natality rate downfall. So, this encourages a group of radical men to assassinate the US President and take down the government, saying that they will take charge of the country for a while. They do establish a misogynist, retrograde, totalitarian and theocratic regime in which women lose all their rights to have properties or a job, to read, to freely speak and appear in public by themselves. Most women are sent to special institutions where they are indoctrinated these ideals and are taught that their only worth to society is their ability to carry children. These institutes are called Red Centres, because the colour red is the distinctive of the handmaids – commanders usually wear suits while their wives mostly use blue, and more rarely, green.  

Maids in one of their shopping trips 

These women, or handmaids, are often called after their Commanders, so for example, Offred has this name because she is “property of the Commander Fred”. They are allowed to go out of the house for shopping walks only, and even in home they have no privacy as they can never shut their room’s door completely. Moreover, when they go shopping, they have to go in pairs and are always supervised by the Eyes, the secret (not so secret) police. 

In one of the walks, Offred and her companion, Ofglen, enjoy certain privacy, so the latter sees it as the perfect opportunity to mention Mayday to her, the underground organization planning on taking down the new ruling nucleus. Shortly after, Ofglen is captured and severely punished.

As it is obvious, the show does not exactly copy each page of the book – but it covers the main concerns Atwood had when she brought this tale to life.

The main difference is the whole character of Offred. Both versions follow her closely, so we can get the feeling of being experiencing the same as her and create an even deeper sympathy towards her persona. In the book she plays the role of a rather passive woman, giving more importance to her life than to the rebelling cause. She never gets to reveal her real name, but in the tv show she does indeed. At the final of the first episode she says that she is going to tell the story of Offred, of June, of herself. She had an affair with Luke, a married man, and he divorced to marry her instead, they had a baby girl and then the new government irrupted, so they planned on run away to Canada, but as soon as they were approaching the frontier they were caught. In the tv show we see that Luke finally made it to Canada, but their child was in the country with another family.

Serena Joy, given life by Yvonne Strahovski

This links to Serena, the Commander Fred’s wife. She is also different because in the tv show she appears younger than in the book. Although the director has explained that this was because in Atwood’s work, this character had already passed the age of having children, but in my opinion this change makes the story more interesting and intense, as we get two women of the same age frame fighting for what they want – Serena wants a baby and June wants her freedom. This clearly gives the substantial background for the hatred existing between the two main feminine poles of the story. Serena knew from the beginning where June’s daughter was, and she uses this information to persuade the maid into doing whatever she desires. 

Joseph Fiennes in he role of Fred Waterford

Fred is that character that appears as it is in the book – fantastically interpreted by Joseph Fiennes, if I may add. He is one of the architects of this new world and the affection he feels towards June is undeniable. Maybe “affection” is not the most accurate word, but at least he does not make her life in the house a burning hell, unlike Serena. He gives Offred the chance to read again, as they play together Scrabble from time to time and he lets her read old magazines like Vogue. But, is this really a relief for her? In the end, we see how he is like the rest of the society he himself has helped to rise, he is cynical, hypocritical and egoistic, because this small “kind” acts are only a continual risk for her. As their life together goes on, both the book and the show provide us a glimpse of how their relation changes. He may not love her, but it is crystal clear that when they are in that time of the month – the Ceremony – this ritual is no longer impersonal, when they got to have sex, he does not care if his own wife is grasping their maid’s wrists, he pours his soul – and more – in the act, which he shouldn’t since the only purpose of this night is to get the maid pregnant to finally have their baby. But ohhhh it happens that our big boy Fred right here is not fertile. No matter how many shots he gives, he will never achieve what he is pursuing. This leads us to Nick 💓 

Nick has worked for the Waterfords from the very beginning of the story. He may not seem that important at first, at least on the show, because his appearances are so rare. But there’s a crucial point where Serena straightforward asks him to sleep with June, as it is the only way to get her pregnant. It was not supposed to be something habitual for them, but let’s be honest, since this asking was made we all knew how they were going to end. The romance that emerge between them two is like a ray of light in this sad, dark life of June, it is what makes her life bearable and the times she gets to see him are the occasions she looks forward the most.

June and Nick 

Other thing that changes in the series is the amount of non-white and non-straight characters that we find. Is not that Atwood did not write about them, she just did not specify how they were in their past life. Miller explained that in the adaptation they needed to retouch this kind of characteristics to make the show more attractive to us, for it to represent our real society, to make us believe that what happened in the fictional Gilead could happen anytime soon in anywhere.

Luke, June's husband

Hannah, June's daughter

Moira, June's bestfriend, is black and openly gay 

Not much more can be pointed out since the current show is going completely by itself. Atwood finishes the book in an interesting way. She uses the voice of an history teacher to tell that Offred ran away helped by Nick and Mayday, but the end of her story is not known. She may have finally saved herself, or she could have been caught again. We will never know. However, Miller has decided to exploit June’s rebel side and although he does not longer have literary support, the show keeps on going.

Is there anything you would have done in a different way? What do you think about the way feminism and misogyny are represented? Let me know in the comments below.

Thank you for reading!