The Handmaid's Tale story

movie: The Handmaids Tale (1990) · 1990-02-15

Set in a near-future New England, a strongly patriarchal, quasi-Christian, totalitarian state, known as the Republic of Gilead has overthrown the United States government. The central character and narrator is a woman named Kate, one of the group known as "handmaids", who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the "commanders" - the ruling class of men. It is based on the Canadian author Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel of the same name.

19 total · 11 major · 8 minor

Theme	Level	Motivation
caste system	major	In the Republic of Gilead, social class was made evident through the clothes people wore: blue dresses for the wives of the elite, black for security forces, brown for the educators, drab green for the workers, and red garments for the concubines.
coping with infertility	major	Serena Joy, who counted herself among the 99% of females who were infertile, wanted very much to have a child, and permitted her husband to impregnate a concubine to get one.
husband and wife	major	The Commander and Serena Joy.
mass infertility	major	The 1% of females would could bare children, known as "handmaids", were forcibly assigned to produce children for the men of the ruling class men.
organized religion	major	The film features numerous Judeo-Christian tropes, and the Republic of Gilead was patterned on a quasi-Christian ideology.
religion as a control mechanism	major	The Republic of Gilead elites reorganized society using a self-serving interpretation of some Old Testament ideas.
resistance movement	major	The Mayday resistance movement was fighting to undermine the totalitarian state she lived under.
romantic love	major	Kate and Nick fell passionately in love.
the desire to have children	major	Serena Joy, who counted herself among the 99% of females who were infertile, wanted very much to have a child, and permitted her husband to impregnate a concubine to get one.
totalitarian dystopia	major	The film is set in a near-future in a strongly patriarchal, quasi-Christian, totalitarian state, known as the Republic of Gilead that has overthrown the United States government.