Historical notes in the handmaid's tale

I am trying to write an essay on the historical notes. Has anybody got any ideas. All gratefully received.

About to start eng. lit degree in september

Thanks

Reply 1

*~Amy~*

hey!
i studies the handmaid's tale! the histroical notes really fill you in on more of the story, the characters and what happened, it also shows that in a male dominated society the voice of the narrator...offred is lost and taken over by another man in the historical notes emphasisng men's power in the book, pay close attention to some of the names aswellmlike the place in the historical notes!!!

They show that what you thought was a woman's stroy was actually a mans as it was men who put the taoes together, therefore they undermine the feminism we saw in the first part of the novel and reinforce the oppression of women also seen.

sorry im not much lep its been a while since i studies the book!

Reply 2

username18215

0

10

Also, the Inuits have adopted the pretentious and general academic/scholastic tone of discussion. One has to ask: what is Atwood's comment?

Reply 3

ciara

13

Yeah exactly, they only see the historical benefit of the tale and can't see her as a person as the reader has been able to. Obviously puts a context to the whole thing, which is kinda important and leaves the ending less ambiguous.. But I think the main point is like Amy said, the undermining of the feminism in the tale, as overall the men still have control.

Reply 4

Lillith Grimore

We spent so long doing this last year, our teacher thought it would come up on the exam (and it did, hurrah!) I got 86/90 :biggrin:

He seemed to think the important points were
- They try to authenticate the story: Atwood is using them to try and convince us that this story is real. We know that it isn't but Atwood is trying very hard to make this novel a 'real' story. Why? I think it's central to her philosophy of 'speculative fiction' - maybe it's not realy now, but it quite honestly could be.
- They also link back into the rest of the story so much - an essay on the historical notes is brilliant becuase it can reference nearly all of the points in the novel. One of the key points I think I picked up on is that even after all the research they've done, they haven't been able to find out Offred's real name - her name is the most precious thing to her in the book and even at the final hurdle she refuses to reveal it to us. You can then talk about the importance of identity and maintaining a sense of self prevelant in the novel - Gilead tries to destroy people by dehumanising them, but Offred's sense of self, especially once she's with Nick, is key.
- It also provides historical paralells, in that there is the idea of a revolution which then becomes a man hunt within the leadership and infrastructure, as happened in both Russia and China. By giving real historical paralells, Atwood is again trying to convince the reader this could happen. She also does this in the main body of the novel, by comparing some elements of the Gileadean regime to the holocaust and Offred's memory of the interview with the mistress of a concentration camp official.
- She uses a lot of word play/puns which is typical of her style throughout the novel and provides a bit of humour. It is also interesting to note the names of the professors - the fact that they are all indian/inuit/other minority names. IS Atwood indicating that in the future, the minorities will rise to become the majority and it is the 'infidel' and inflexible that will die out?

Was any of that vaguely coherant? I'll see if I can think up anything else...

Reply 5

Mata

16

I have an essay, "To what extent are the Historical Notes a fitting ending to the Handmaid's tale?". Some of the more useful bits (it got an A):

-Notes mean that we are now less involved with Offred - both her character and her tale. After a whole book’s worth of building up a sense of belief in Offred’s story, Margaret Atwood takes the risk of completely changing the writing style, the voice and the opinions
- . Although at first glance, the Notes do give us answers- useful information about the political backgrounds and a different perspective (from the ‘professionals’), we are also told that they had found a story with no title in the form of tapes with no order. “Thus it was up to Professor Wade and myself to arrange the blocks of speech,” says Professor Pieixoto. The Notes give us no answers, only more questions of a different nature
- Notes could be seen as a parody of academia.
- Currie says, “It has been given historicity” (Currie is really useful)
- more sympathetic towards Offred when we see that her tale is faced with the bias and sexism of the historians, “I am sure all puns were intentional… the word tail”. In a way, the Notes also complete the story, in that we see the consequences of the regime and the world after Gilead. The Notes could serve as a warning to the reader, and a commentary on human society.

Reply 6

snen

The fact that the whole tale was pieced together from tapes - it was not in order originally, it has had to be put in what the men think is the correct order, so some parts of the tale could be incorrect. (If you think about it, a lot of the story jumps about from time to time).

As Offred is never identified, and nor is the Commander, then it is possible to believe that, as the professors in the historical notes say, it is nothing more than a tale.

Historical notes in the handmaid's tale

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