The Handmaid's Tale

Naomi Alderman wrote the novel while mentored by Margaret Atwood (Rolex mentorship programme) and named the book behind it: "I'd been to an Orthodox Jewish primary school where every morning the boys said, 'Thank you God for not making me a woman.' If you put that together with The Handmaid's Tale in your head, something will eventually go fizz! Boom!" (Telegraph, 2012). The Power inverts Gilead: women gain the physical upper hand.

Bruce Miller's series adapts Atwood's 1985 novel, with Atwood as consulting producer and in a first-episode cameo. Season one follows the book closely and then runs past its ending, which the novel leaves deliberately open at the van door. Atwood's own sequel, The Testaments, was written alongside the show.

Atwood has written about Orwell as a direct model, including an introduction to 1984 itself, and the structural borrowing is unmistakable: both novels end with an academic appendix set long after the regime has fallen. Orwell closes on a note about Newspeak; Atwood closes on the Symposium on Gileadean Studies, where a professor makes jokes about the woman whose recording we have just heard. Both devices do the same work, telling you the tyranny ended without letting that be a comfort.

• Draws on biblical stories, especially the Book of Genesis story of Rachel, Leah, and their handmaids, which inspired the role of the Handmaids in Gilead.
• Uses biblical language, rituals, and quotations to show how religious texts can be interpreted and manipulated to justify political power.
• Reimagines themes of fertility, patriarchy, obedience, and control from the Bible within a dystopian society.
• Critiques the use of selective religious interpretation by showing how scripture can be weaponized to restrict women’s rights and autonomy.