Author's treatment of time in "Handmaid's tale"

In addition, the unchronological order creates suspense to the readers. The readers may get attracted to the book to see the whole picture and the conclusion of the story.

To characterise the protagonist, Offred, Atwood mainly uses the ‘night’ chapters of the book. Atwood structures the novel in different sections, and the ‘night’ is the most frequent section. The nights’plays an important role in the novel as it is the only time of the day when Offred has her ‘own’ time. “The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will” shows that

Offred feels free in the nights and, thinks that it is her ‘own.’ This emphasizes that there are limited amount of things that are her own in the state of Gilead. Furthermore, in the night, Offred frequently has the flashbacks of her pre-Gilead life, and also thinks about her life in Gilead, and Atwood shows that Offred is a character who analyzes what she gets taught by the Aunts, and tries to oppose them mentally, “Aunt Lydia did not actually say this, but it was implicit in everything she did say” is an example showing Offred thinking about what she got taught. To oppose the ideology of Gilead, Offred continuously imagine about Luke, and always has hope of being freed again. Therefore, Offred’s opposes to the Gilead mentally, rather than physically; this might suggest that the author also agrees with the Offred’s method of surviving from the dystopia, and highlights that the searchlights of guards, in night, can not control the hopes and feelings of the protagonist.

To criticize Gilead more, Atwood uses Offred’s flashbacks of minor characters to show Offred’s loss and love. Offred’s family is an example. Offred’s thoughts of her family in pre-Gilead are motifs that show the hope of her, and her loss. The totalitarian society has separated the family by force, and forced Offred to love someone, she doesn’t love. However, Gilead justifies her brutality with the religion and the holy bible. “Give me children, or else I die” is from Genesis, 30:1-3, and commander reads it before the ceremony.

To finish her novel, Atwood uses ‘Historical notes” to changes the time to year 2195. This helps to answer the questions created by the unchronolgical structure of the story. Also, the narrator changes to Professor Piexoto, and this shows the observers’ point of views about the Gilead. The Professor’s last sentence is “Are there any questions?” It gives the story a deliberately open-ended conclusion. Therefore, the readers are asked to judge Gilead’s evil, tyrannical, and soul-destroying society.

The Handmaids Tale travels over the time by using the parts such as nights and the historical notes. Also, the protagonist herself tells us the story in the unchronological way. The readers may get confused. However, Atwood treats the time in her own way to highlight the brutality of Gilead, and the “historical notes” at the end of the novel helps to understand about the whole story.