Margaret Atwood says that “The Maid’s Tale” is not “written as a feminist novel” and she simply “wrote a dystopian novel from a woman’s point of view.”
- The author says that the famous novel is inspired by George Orwell’s 1984
- Written as a classic dystopia from a woman’s point of view, not as a feminist novel
- He says the novel is seen as feminist by “those who think women should not have a voice”
Margaret Atwood says that her acclaimed novel The Maid’s Tale was not intended as a feminist work and that she simply wanted to “give women a voice” in the dystopian genre.
The novel follows a woman named Ofred, who is forced to live as a “maid”, giving birth to children against her will in totalitarian North America. It has become an instant feminist classic since its release in 1985.
However, 82-year-old Canadian writer Margaret says she never wanted to create a “feminist dystopia” instead, instead trying to create a classic dystopian novel “from a woman’s point of view”.
She says the book, which is inspired by the epilogue to George Orwell’s classic Nineteen Eighty-Four, is branded as a feminist by those who “think women should not have a voice.”
“I wanted to try a dystopia from a woman’s point of view – the world according to Julia, so to speak,” she said in an essay for The Sunday Telegraph.
Margaret Atwood says that her acclaimed novel The Maid’s Tale was not intended as a feminist work and that she simply wanted to “give women a voice” in the dystopian genre.
“However, this does not make ‘The Maid’s Tale’ a ‘feminist dystopia’, except insofar as giving a voice and a woman’s inner life will always be considered ‘feminist’ by those who believe that women should not have these things.”
She explained that most dystopians are written from a male point of view and that female characters are usually “genderless automata” or women who deny the new sexual regime.
The writer says that the themes explored in the book are the parallel dynamics of power in real life and in various literary works, including 1988-4.
“The force that opposes tyranny in my book is one in which Orwell himself – despite his belief in the need for a political organization to combat oppression – always attaches great importance: ordinary human decency,” she wrote.
The friendly novel follows a woman named Ofred, who is forced to live as a “maid”, giving birth to children against her will in totalitarian North America. Elizabeth Moss plays the maid Ofred in the television adaptation of the book
The action of The Maid’s Tale takes place in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, where a brutal regime has changed the government of the United States after the global fertility crisis.
Fertile women, known as servants, are forced to give children to the rich and influential, while women who cannot conceive are sent to work in toxic wastelands or as prostitutes.
Ofred, whose real name is June, took away her own daughter before she was placed with the high-ranking Waterford family, where she was routinely raped by Fred to conceive his child.
Her name is an abbreviation of ‘Of Fred’ – the name of her master.
The story of the maid takes place in the near future, where fertile women, known as maids, are forced to provide for the children of the rich and influential.
Last year, the author released a sequel to her cult novel, which won the Man Booker Prize two months before its release. The action of the book takes place 15 years after “The Tale of the Maid”.
The original novel became a popular TV series, which was met with critical acclaim when it debuted in 2017, winning five Primetime Emmy Awards for its first season.
Crazy Men actress Elizabeth Moss plays the maid Ofred, the main character in the series, along with Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strachowski, Alexis Bledel and Anne Dowd.
The last season of the drama aired last summer and was commissioned for the fifth series, which is expected to hit small screens this year.