The Handmaid's Tale: Episodes vs. Novel – Friday's with Fay #2

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a thrilling and dark literary classic. As a novel, it has depth, vivid imagery and it covers issues that are very relevant to this day. But, as most of you may know by now, Hulu has recently released web series based on Atwood’s classic. I recently read both the book and watched the full series – the effects of which I posted on my own blog – and I can safely say that the series are an accurate representation of the original novel, even though there were some chronological changes to the story. After a short review, I’ll be assessing and comparing both the series and the novel – so as so decide which is better for different audiences.

The Handmaid’s Tale, I found, is a very heavy novel to read – especially if you struggle with similar issues as stated in the story. It describes a dystopian world where the human population has become mostly infertile so that many women – usually those have “sinned” – are gathered up like cattle and used for breeding by “respectable”, important household, and are give the title of Handmaid’s. The story also puts a heavy focus on religious extremes, repeatedly quoting the bible where Jacob’s wife Rachel is distraught about her infertility and offers him her ‘handmaid’ to produce children for them “on her (Rachel’s) knees”. The interpretation is taken quite literally in the story – where the Handmaids are made to copulate while being between a husband and wife.

Women have been disallowed from reading, working and other such basic rights. They must wear long, uniform garments – red for Handmaids and blue for Wives – and cover their heads and faces. Homosexuals are executed, along with doctors that performed abortions and peoples of other faiths or church denominations. It’s a horrible world and our protagonist, Offred, has to find a way to escape it. I would definitely recommend this read to anyone who enjoys such works as 1984 and others.

The show differs from the novel in a few ways, but it’s not way off. It’s a masterpiece in the sense that it has captured the cruelty and barbarism of the novel to a t. The emotions are vivid, and the imagery is as you would have imagined. But the chronology is different. When I watched the first episode of the show, I was halfway through the book – but there were still some spoilers. So they definitely should not be done simultaneously. The show adds some elements to the story as it has more perspectives than just Offred’s – so it adds a whole layer of intrigue and excitement. In both, the characters are very real and I felt the need to stop at many points in the book because it really got me thinking or feeling strong emotions – like anger and outrage.

I would definitely recommend the show to anyone who feels strongly about women’s rights or love the wonder of a dystopian world. I wouldn’t recommend the book to anyone who finds long descriptive paragraphs tedious – as the book can be very slow-paced, but for good reason. Other than that, it is an amazing, eye-opening read.