119 Fun Facts About The Handmaid's Tale

Who wrote the dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'?

Margaret Atwood, the Canadian poet and novelist born in 1939, wrote The Handmaid's Tale in 1984-85; it became her best-known work and has never been out of print.

In what fictional republic is 'The Handmaid's Tale' primarily set?

Gilead is a totalitarian religious state that has overthrown the United States government.

What is the primary color of the uniform worn by Handmaids in Gilead?

Handmaids are distinguished by their ankle-length red dresses and white headgear, which symbolizes fertility and makes them conspicuous.

Which name whispered in The Handmaid's Tale's prologue do many readers infer to be Offred's real one?

June is the one whispered name that never reappears attached to another character, and the TV adaptation made it official.

What job do Gilead's brown-clad 'Aunts' perform?

To train and indoctrinate Handmaids is the Aunts' role, which is why they are the only women in Gilead permitted to read and write.

What activity does the Commander secretly engage in with Offred that is forbidden for women?

Playing Scrabble is the forbidden pastime: women in Gilead may not read, so the word games in the Commander's study are a real transgression, rewarded with old magazines and hand lotion.

What does Gilead call the infertile or disobedient women it ships to the Colonies?

Nuns who refuse to convert are given the label too, because they will not marry or bear children.

In The Handmaid's Tale, Offred's shopping partner Ofglen belongs to which underground resistance network working to overthrow Gilead?

Mayday is the underground network Ofglen reveals herself to be part of, working to overthrow Gilead's government.

Before the formation of Gilead, what was Serena Joy's public role?

A televangelist: in the novel Serena Joy sang lead soprano on the Growing Souls Gospel Hour, then toured making speeches about women staying home, a rule Gilead later imposed on her.

What is the meaning of the Latin phrase 'Nolite te bastardes carborundorum' found by Offred?

Don't let them grind you down: the mock Latin means 'don't let the bastards grind you down', a schoolboy joke scratched in Offred's cupboard by the previous Handmaid, who learned it from the Commander.

What year was Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' first published?

1985 is the year McClelland and Stewart published The Handmaid's Tale in Canada; the Houghton Mifflin US edition followed in 1986.

What does Gilead call the women who cook and clean in Commanders' households?

Marthas are older, infertile and compliant women with domestic skills: the profile Gilead deems suitable for a Commander's home.

Which biblical story is often cited to justify the role of Handmaids in Gilead?

Leah follows suit with her own handmaid Zilpah, and Gilead reads both Genesis stories as licence for the arrangement.

What color uniform do the 'Wives' of Commanders wear?

Blue is the Wives' colour, a nod to the Virgin Mary's traditional blue robes in Christian art; Serena Joy wears it throughout the novel.

What is the name of Offred's best friend from before Gilead?

She escapes the indoctrination centre by stealing an Aunt's pass and clothes, and Offred later finds her working in a state-run brothel.

What is the primary reason for the strict social stratification and control over women in Gilead?

To combat mass infertility: Gilead's birth rate has collapsed, which Atwood ties to radiation, chemical pollution and sexually transmitted disease, so fertile women are conscripted as Handmaids.

What does Gilead call the ritual in which Handmaids are incited to beat a condemned man to death?

Particicution closes the Women's Salvaging: Aunt Lydia blows a whistle and the Handmaids tear the man apart; Ofglen whispers that he was no rapist but a Mayday political.

What colour do the cooks and maids in Commanders' households wear?

Green is the Marthas' colour, the dull green of a surgeon's gown; the name comes from Luke's Gospel, where Martha busies herself with housework while Mary listens to Jesus.

In The Handmaid's Tale, Aunt Lydia runs which facility, where women are re-educated for life as Handmaids?

The Red Center is where Aunt Lydia, whose pithy pronouncements punctuate the whole narrative, instructs women for a life as a Handmaid.

What does the phrase 'Under His Eye' signify in Gilead?

A warning that all is watched: 'Under His Eye' is Gilead's standard farewell, a reminder that God and the Eyes see everything, so citizens police themselves.

What is the role of 'Econowives' in Gilead?

Wives of lower-ranking, non-elite men: Econowives are married to Gilead's poorer men and must be Wife, Martha and Handmaid at once, with no servants of their own.

In The Handmaid's Tale, which character, the Commander's driver, does Serena Joy push Offred towards when she suspects her husband is sterile?

Nick is the Commander's personal driver; Serena arranges for Offred to sleep with him, and at the end he tells her to trust him and get into the van.

Announced in 2018 and published in 2019, what is Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale called?

The Testaments reveals that Aunt Lydia had been quietly aiding the resistance all along.

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is best known for exploring which theme?

Women's subjugation and lost autonomy under a patriarchal regime is the novel's core; Atwood has called it a study of power and how it deforms the people living inside it.

In the book, what is the fate of the first Ofglen encountered by Offred?

She kills herself before arrest: the new Ofglen tells Offred her predecessor hanged herself when she saw the black van coming for her, rather than be taken and interrogated.

What is the primary function of the 'Eyes of the Lord' in Gilead?

To act as secret police and spies: the Eyes of the Lord are Gilead's plain-clothes intelligence agency, hauling suspects away in black vans marked with a winged-eye emblem.

What are the women forced to work in Gilead's secret, state-sanctioned brothels called?

Jezebels is Gilead's name for the women staffing its clandestine club and brothel, where Commanders entertain foreign trade delegations; unlike other women they may drink and wear make-up.

The novel is set in the former Harvard Square area of which Massachusetts city?

Cambridge: Offred's shopping walks pass Harvard Yard and the old Harvard Square shops, streets Atwood knew from her own graduate years at Harvard.

What is the term for a public display of executed individuals in Gilead?

The Wall, the old Harvard wall, is where bodies are hung with bags over their heads and placards naming the crime, from abortion doctors to priests who would not convert.

In the Hulu series, what is the name of June's daughter, taken from her when the family is caught fleeing?

Hannah is the name the Hulu series gives June and Luke's daughter, seized when the family is caught fleeing for the Canadian border; in the novel the child is never named.

Which type of government does Gilead represent?

The Republic of Gilead is a patriarchal, totalitarian theocratic state, meaning it is governed by religious leaders.

Which two pastimes fill Serena Joy's days, being among the few activities permitted to Wives?

Gardening and knitting: Serena Joy tends her tulips and knits scarves for the Angels at the front, confined to the domestic sphere she once championed.

What is the primary purpose of the 'Ceremony' in Gilead?

The Ceremony is a monthly ritual in which the Commander attempts to impregnate his Handmaid, with his Wife present, for the sole purpose of procreation.

In The Handmaid's Tale, which Old Testament-inspired group seizes power by assassinating the President and most of Congress?

The Sons of Jacob stage the coup, blaming Islamic fanatics for the massacre of the President and Congress, then suspend the Constitution and freeze every woman's bank account.

What happens to Handmaids who fail to conceive a child after several assignments?

A Handmaid who has produced a child is safe from that fate for life, even if she never has another.

In the metafictional epilogue, which professor analyzes Offred's story at a conference?

Pieixoto: Professor James Darcy Pieixoto of Cambridge presents 'Problems of Authentication' at the Twelfth Symposium on Gileadean Studies in Nunavit, identifying the Commander as probably Frederick R. Waterford.

What is Gilead's paramilitary police force, which also guards the Commanders, called?

Guardians of the Faith are Gilead's rank-and-file police and guards, manning checkpoints and Commanders' households; Nick holds that rank, while the Angels are the soldiers at the front.

Which Christian denomination does Atwood portray as running an underground escape route to Canada?

Quakers run the Underground Femaleroad that smuggles women to Canada; Atwood said she suspected that is exactly what they would do, echoing their role in the historical Underground Railroad.

What is the primary mode of transportation for Handmaids when they go shopping?

On foot in pairs: Handmaids walk to the shops two by two, and the pairing is surveillance as much as company, since each is expected to report on the other.

What is the color of the uniform worn by the Aunts?

The Aunts, who train and indoctrinate the Handmaids, wear brown uniforms.

What purpose do the Handmaids' white bonnets, the 'wings', serve?

To block side vision and hide the face: the white wings stop a Handmaid seeing sideways or being seen, and seeing less and being seen less both make her easier to control.

The novel's title echoes the component parts of which earlier work?

The Canterbury Tales: Atwood's title echoes Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale', 'The Knight's Tale' and the rest, alongside the fairy-tale tradition of a heroine telling her own story.

The novel won the inaugural edition of which science-fiction prize in 1987?

The Arthur C. Clarke Award, Britain's science-fiction prize, went to The Handmaid's Tale at its first presentation in 1987, a choice some purists disputed because Atwood rejects the science-fiction label.

In what year are the novel's closing 'Historical Notes' set?

The epilogue is a partial transcript of an international historical conference held in 2195, with Gilead reduced to an academic subject.

Caught escaping, Offred's college friend chose what over the Colonies?

Offred is stunned to find her there, dressed in a tattered Playboy Bunny costume.

Which country's 1978-79 revolution, with its strict dress code for women, did Atwood cite as an inspiration for Gilead?

Iran: Atwood has cited the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which swiftly imposed compulsory veiling on Iranian women, as proof that rights can be stripped away almost overnight.

Which dictator's Decree 770 birth-rate drive inspired Gilead's policing of pregnant women?

Nicolae Ceaușescu's Decree 770 of 1966 banned abortion and contraception in Romania and subjected women to compulsory gynaecological checks, the model Atwood cited for Gilead's monitoring of pregnancies.

Atwood rejects the sci-fi label for the novel, insisting it belongs to which genre instead?

Speculative fiction is Atwood's term: her rule of thumb is that nothing happens in the novel that people have not already done somewhere, at some time, so no Martians or time travel.

Atwood dedicated the novel to her ancestor Mary Webster, who survived what?

Being hanged as a witch: Mary Webster of Hadley, Massachusetts, was strung up from a tree by neighbours and found alive the next morning; Atwood's other dedicatee was Perry Miller, her Harvard teacher on the Puritans.

Which Canadian prize did The Handmaid's Tale win in its publication year, 1985?

It was nominated for the 1986 Booker and Nebula but did not win either.

How many books made up the 2022 'Big Jubilee Read' list that included the novel?

70 books made up the Big Jubilee Read, ten for each decade of Elizabeth II's reign, chosen by the BBC and The Reading Agency from Commonwealth authors; The Handmaid's Tale represented the 1980s.

What colour scheme marks the Econowives in the novel?

Blue, red and green stripes: the Econowife dress is striped in the three colours of the women's castes because one woman must fill all three roles, and it is cut from noticeably cheaper cloth.

What colour do Commanders' unmarried daughters wear in Gilead?

Offred's daughter appears in a photograph in a long white dress.

Where did Atwood begin writing The Handmaid's Tale in spring 1984?

West Berlin: Atwood started the novel there in spring 1984, with the Wall and the watchful East Bloc as backdrop, and finished it in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1985.

Which novelist friend was the first person to read the manuscript?

Valerie Martin, the American novelist later known for Mary Reilly, was teaching at the University of Alabama when Atwood finished the book in Tuscaloosa, and became its first reader.

Besides 'of Fred', what other pun does Atwood build into the name Offred?

'Offered', as a sacrifice: Atwood wrote that hidden inside Offred is 'offered', a religious offering or a victim offered up, alongside the patronymic 'of Fred'.

What name was Offred given in the 1990 film adaptation?

Kate is the name the 1990 film gives Offred, played by Natasha Richardson opposite Robert Duvall's Commander.

Which two Marthas serve in the Commander's household in the novel?

Rita and Cora are the Commander's two Marthas: Rita, the cook who bakes the household bread and disapproves of Offred, and Cora, the gentler housemaid who hopes for a baby.

What happened to the Commander's previous Handmaid?

She killed herself when Serena found out: the Commander admits his previous Handmaid hanged herself after Serena discovered their secret meetings, the same study visits he now has with Offred.

Which Harvard building serves as Gilead's secret-service headquarters in the novel?

Atwood researched there while at Radcliffe.

Which two 20th-century regimes did Atwood cite as models for Gilead's 'utopian idealism'?

Khmer Rouge Cambodia and Communist Romania: Atwood has said Gilead's 'utopian idealism' echoes those two regimes, one emptying cities for an agrarian purge, the other policing women's fertility by decree.

What does Gilead call the mass ceremonies where Angels are married to Commanders' daughters?

Prayvaganza is Gilead's name for its mass public ceremonies; the women's version Offred attends is a group wedding of Angels back from the front to veiled daughters barely in their teens.

Which pre-Gilead costumes do the Jezebels wear?

Cheerleader, school and Playboy Bunny outfits: the women at Jezebel's wear scavenged pre-Gilead costumes, from cheerleader and schoolgirl uniforms to a Bunny suit, alongside swimsuits and lingerie.

The novel ranked where on the ALA's most-challenged books list for 1990-2000?

37th was The Handmaid's Tale's rank on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most challenged books of 1990-2000; it returned at number seven on the 2019 list.

Which historical text is cited in the novel's Historical Notes at the future historians' convention?

'Iran and Gilead: Two Late Twentieth Century Monotheocracies' is one of the scholarly works the keynote speaker cites in the Historical Notes, treating Gilead as a subject for comparative study.

Which philosopher's social hierarchy has been compared to Gilead's Commanders, Guardians, Marthas and Handmaids?

Plato: critics have likened Gilead's castes to the Republic's philosopher-guardians, auxiliaries and producers, each citizen fixed in the function the state assigns.

On what date did the Hulu series premiere?

April 26, 2017 is when Hulu released the first three episodes of The Handmaid's Tale; the sixth and final season premiered on April 8, 2025.

How many Emmys did the first season win?

Eight Emmys went to the first season in 2017: five at the main ceremony (drama series, Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd, directing and writing) plus three Creative Arts wins including Alexis Bledel as guest actress.

What Emmy milestone did The Handmaid's Tale set in 2017?

Streaming series winning Outstanding Series: in 2017 The Handmaid's Tale became the first show from a streaming service to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, Hulu's first major award.

Who created the Hulu series?

Bruce Miller created the Hulu adaptation and ran it as showrunner for its first five seasons, having earlier written for ER and The 100.

Which network passed on an earlier version of the pilot developed by Ilene Chaiken?

Showtime passed on the Ilene Chaiken version it had developed with MGM; Chaiken went on to run Empire, and MGM took the project to Hulu with a new writer.

Which producer, a former NBC president, helped secure Hulu's straight-to-series order?

Warren Littlefield, NBC's entertainment president in the 1990s era of Seinfeld and ER, produced through The Littlefield Company and brought the project to Hulu, which ordered it straight to series in 2016.

What role does Margaret Atwood hold on The Handmaid's Tale TV series?

Consulting producer with a cameo in episode one: Atwood gives feedback where the show expands or modernises the book.

Who was announced in June 2016 as director of the series' opening episodes?

Reed Morano, the cinematographer turned director, was announced in June 2016 and shot the first three episodes, winning the 2017 Emmy for directing a drama series.

Where was The Handmaid's Tale primarily filmed?

Toronto and other Ontario cities, including Mississauga, Hamilton and Cambridge, stood in for Gilead's New England.

How many seasons did the show's original showrunner say he had envisioned?

Ten seasons was the arc the original showrunner told interviewers he had sketched out; the show ended after six, with the final season airing in 2025.

Which Canadian film office earned a first-ever Location Managers Guild nomination for season 3?

Cambridge, Ontario, whose Galt core doubled for Gilead's streets, earned its film office a Location Managers Guild International Awards nomination for season 3; some scenes were also shot in Washington, D.C.

Elisabeth Moss made her directorial debut during which season?

Fourth: Elisabeth Moss directed for the first time in season four (2021), starting with episode three, 'The Crossing', and helmed three of that season's ten episodes.

Which Handmaid's Tale cast member, who played Emily, left in May 2022 saying she 'had to step away'?

Alexis Bledel departed ahead of season five; her character Emily returned as a guest in season 6.

Who took over as co-showrunners for the sixth and final season?

Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang, long-time writers on the show, ran the sixth season as co-showrunners while the creator stepped back yet wrote two episodes himself.

Which UK broadcaster premiered the series in May 2017?

Channel 4 premiered the series in the UK on 28 May 2017 and carried the later seasons too; in Canada it launched on Bravo before moving to CTV Drama Channel and Crave.

Which Irish broadcaster became the first in Europe to debut seasons 2 through 4?

RTÉ2 began airing the series in Ireland in February 2018 and then ran seasons two to four ahead of any other European broadcaster.

Where was Nick Blaine a drifter from before Gilead?

He is secretly an Eye.

What alias does Moira use as a Jezebel?

Ruby is the working name Moira goes by at Jezebel's in the series, where June finds her after her recapture; she later escapes to Canada.

Rita's son Matthew died at 19 doing what?

Fighting in the civil war: in the series Rita tells June her son Matthew was killed at 19 in the war that created Gilead, a loss behind her quiet loyalty to June.

Commander Lawrence is described as the architect of what?

Gilead's economy was Lawrence's design, and he also founded the Colonies.

What is Hannah renamed after being placed with a Gilead family?

Agnes MacKenzie is Hannah's name in Gilead after she is placed with Commander MacKenzie's family; June is allowed one brief, supervised meeting with her in season two.

What was Janine's job before Gilead?

Waitress: Janine Lindo waited tables before Gilead and had a young son, Caleb, who was taken from her in the takeover.

What did the Putnams name Janine's baby, whom she calls Charlotte?

Angela is the name Commander Warren Putnam and his wife Naomi gave the baby Janine bore them; Janine calls her Charlotte, and Naomi hands the child back to her in the series finale.

Which actress plays June's outspoken feminist mother in the series?

Cherry Jones plays June's activist mother, seen in flashbacks and later in the Colonies; Jones won the 2019 Emmy for guest actress in a drama series for the role.

Which actress plays Eden, the pious teenager married off to Nick in season 2?

Sydney Sweeney played Eden Blaine, the 15-year-old devout Wife assigned to Nick in season two, who is executed by drowning for adultery; Mckenna Grace later played teenage Wife Esther Keyes.

Which Law & Order star plays High Commander George Winslow in season 3?

Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU's Elliot Stabler, plays High Commander George Winslow in season three; Winslow hosts the Waterfords in Washington, D.C. and is killed by June at Jezebel's.

What is the title of Serena Joy's controversial book?

It argues women should be obedient housewives.

What does Serena name her son in the later seasons?

Noah is the name Serena gives the son she bears in season five, conceived with Fred Waterford shortly before his death.

How does Fred Waterford die at the end of season 4?

Beaten to death by June and former Handmaids in no man's land, Waterford ends season 4 with his body hung from a wall.

What name did June and Nick want to give their daughter before she was called Nicole?

Serena had chosen the name Nicole.

How does Nick Blaine die?

In a plane blown up by Commander Lawrence: in the penultimate episode Lawrence stays aboard the Commanders' plane knowing Mayday's bomb is on it, sacrificing himself and killing Nick and Wharton.

Roughly how many children escape to Canada with Rita on a plane at the end of season 3?

Over 80: the season three finale gets 86 children and nine Marthas onto a cargo plane out of Gilead and into Toronto, with Rita among the adults who make it.

How many years after The Handmaid's Tale is the novel The Testaments set?

15 years: The Testaments opens more than fifteen years after Offred's final scene and is told by three narrators, Aunt Lydia, Agnes and Daisy.

The Testaments shared the 2019 Booker Prize with which novel?

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo shared the 2019 Booker Prize with The Testaments, the judges breaking the rule against joint winners; Evaristo was the first Black woman to win.

What is the name of the Aunts' headquarters in The Testaments?

Ardua Hall is the Aunts' headquarters and library where Aunt Lydia writes her secret memoir, hiding the pages inside a copy of Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua.

What are the Gilead missionaries who lure foreign women called in The Testaments?

Pearl Girls are Gilead's silver-clad missionary pairs sent abroad to convert and recruit young women; Daisy poses as a street kid called Jade to be taken in by them.

How does Nicole carry the incriminating files out of Gilead in The Testaments?

A microdot in her cruciform tattoo: Aunt Lydia's cache of Gilead's crimes is shrunk to a microdot and embedded in the cross-shaped tattoo scarred onto Nicole's arm before she and Agnes flee.

What Aunt names do Agnes and Becka take in The Testaments?

Aunts Victoria and Immortelle are the names Agnes and Becka take as Supplicants training to be Aunts, where they later shelter the disguised Nicole.

Daisy's parents Neil and Melanie in The Testaments run what kind of front for Mayday?

A second-hand clothing store: Neil and Melanie run The Clothes Hound in Toronto as a Mayday front, until a car bomb kills them shortly after Daisy's sixteenth birthday.

Who plays Agnes in the 2026 series The Testaments?

Chase Infiniti plays Agnes, the Commander's daughter raised inside Gilead, in the Hulu series The Testaments, with Lucy Halliday as Daisy and Ann Dowd returning as Aunt Lydia.

Rowan Blanchard plays which pampered teenager in The Testaments series?

Shunammite Hayes, the gossipy, status-hungry schoolmate of Agnes from the novel, is played by Rowan Blanchard; Mattea Conforti plays Becka Grove.

Who directed the 1990 film adaptation?

Volker Schlöndorff, the German director of The Tin Drum, made the 1990 film from a Harold Pinter screenplay, with Natasha Richardson as Offred.

Who played Serena Joy in the 1990 film?

Faye Dunaway played Serena Joy opposite Robert Duvall's Commander, with Natasha Richardson as Offred and Aidan Quinn as Nick.

Who composed the score for the 1990 film?

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese composer who had won an Oscar for The Last Emperor, scored the 1990 film, which competed at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.

Which Danish composer wrote the Handmaid's Tale opera?

Poul Ruders composed the opera to a libretto by Paul Bentley; it premiered at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in March 2000 and reached English National Opera in 2003.

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in which city?

Ottawa: Atwood was born there on 18 November 1939, the daughter of forest entomologist Carl Atwood, and spent much of her childhood in the bush of northern Quebec and Ontario.

Which device did Margaret Atwood invent?

The LongPen, unveiled by Atwood in 2006, lets an author sign a book from afar: the writer signs on a tablet and a robotic pen reproduces the signature at the other end.

Which Atwood novel won the 2000 Booker Prize?

The Blind Assassin, Atwood's novel-within-a-novel about the Chase sisters, won the 2000 Booker Prize and also took that year's Hammett Prize for crime writing.

What was Atwood's first novel, published in 1969?

Her poetry collection The Circle Game won the Governor General's Award in 1966.

Atwood's Alias Grace fictionalises which 1843 crime?

The murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery: Alias Grace reimagines the 1843 killings at Kinnear's farm north of Toronto, for which the 16-year-old servant Grace Marks was convicted; the novel won the 1996 Giller Prize.

Where did Atwood begin graduate studies in 1961 on a Woodrow Wilson fellowship?

Radcliffe College, Harvard: Atwood went there in 1961 on a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, took her master's in 1962 and began a Harvard doctorate she never finished, on 'The English Metaphysical Romance'.

Which trilogy begins with Atwood's 2003 novel Oryx and Crake?

The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam followed.

Why did the series' creator step down as showrunner before the sixth and final season?

To focus on adapting The Testaments: the creator handed the final season to two long-time writers so he could develop the sequel series, while the 2023 Hollywood strikes pushed production back.