Imagery in The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

may serve. In the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood many of the symbols are used

as literary ironic elements. Atwood carefully chooses her symbols in The Handmaid's Tale to

portray the many contradictions that are present in the Gilead Society. By using the symbols

ironically, the reader recognizes a deeper meaning behind them. More importantly, insight is

gained on why these ironic symbols work so well in the novel. The symbols that show a large

amount of irony in The Handmaid's Tale vary from setting, to clothing, to spoken language. The

location of the novel, set in what used to be Harvard University, along with the Handmaid's given

colour of red and the massive amount of Bible imagery, it is simple to understand the ironic and

paradoxical meaning behind these subtle yet significant symbols.

An initial symbol that is introduced early on in the novel is that the Handmaids are all

dressed in red. Once the reader discovers what the Handmaids' purpose is in the Gilead Society

the colour seems appropriate and fitting. Red is the col

Using symbols in a novel must be handled with extreme caution in the sense that there are

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