While Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is perhaps best known for its starkly futuristic dystopian society, plants are at the forefront of several important scenes. As women’s rights are stripped away, plants become symbols of life and power, or—eventually—symbols of death. A garden belonging to Offred’s predecessor, Mrs. Reddy, becomes a point of contention between her and her husband after she is forced to flee the house of Commander Fred. Flowers are also used as metaphors throughout Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
The first chapter of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale introduces protagonist Offred dining with the Commander and his wife on “piles” of toast topped with caviar. Margaret Atwood writes that, for Offred, “the taste of sacramental food had been sweetened into blankness by too many courses. ” This scene begins Margaret Atwood’s novel on a high note that prepares readers for the loss to come in its wake. As women are enslaved in Margaret Atwood’s dystopia, Margaret Atwood uses plant life as a means of implying their lack of power.
After Offred’s free life is destroyed in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, her desperation to hold onto any item or trace of the past drives her to visit the home where she once lived with Luke and Moira. Offred finds nothing but furniture and dirt when she arrives; however, Margaret Atwood writes that “there were flowers in [Mrs. Reddy’s] garden, red and white geraniums: Mrs. Reddy had been a meticulous gardener. ” While Margaret Atwood gives no explanation for why there are suddenly flowers in the garden after so an absence, this mention is a symbolic gesture on Margaret Atwood’s part to demonstrate Mrs. Reddy’s resilience and determination.
Margaret Atwood is also subtly suggesting that, as flowers are typically associated with life and beauty, there may be hope for Offred yet. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, plants become symbols of death as the story progresses. When they first meet Nick in Margaret Atwood’s dystopia, Offred notes that he has a “weed… growing out of his head. ” Offred recognizes this weed as a dandelion by the shape of its taproot and speculates that it is likely not surprising to see one growing inside someone’s skull where they have been shot.
This imagery reinforces Margaret Atwood’s implication that, in Margaret Atwood’s Gilead, existence is a small battle for survival waged with whatever means are at hand. Margaret Atwood implies that Offred will be tortured and interrogated by the Eye when Margaret Atwood adds that the Commander “is not the one who has been torturing [her], he has a man in a white coat doing it,” and she notes in Margaret Atwood’s dystopia that in spite of Mrs. Reddy’s flowers there isn’t any green growing in Margaret Atwood’s world.
Margaret Atwood creates an atmosphere of alienation, oppression, and perpetual gloom for her readers through these scenes. In Margaret Atwood’s dystopia, Offred witnesses a public execution. Margaret Atwood uses the sight of the hanged men to symbolize how far Gilead has fallen from its former glory, writing that “all colors are bleached out of them by the antiseptic light. ” Margaret Atwood may be implying that Gilead is a society in decline, but Margaret Atwood also uses this scene to highlight Offred’s role as a witness to history.
Margaret Atwood describes these events with epic imagery—”the headsman’s boots are highly polished… his axe falls with an awesome thud”—as though Margaret Atwood were recording something important for posterity. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, flowers become symbols of death and dying when Janine, a Handmaid from Margaret Atwood’s dystopia, returns to the Red Centre as a “two-time loser” and is killed. Margaret Atwood shows how Janine has been broken after countless days of torture by the Aunts in Margaret Atwood’s republic when Margaret Atwood says that “Janine has trouble doing it at first. After struggling, Margaret Atwood writes that Janine manages to stand up and “stands there shivering slightly,” indicating she has been left utterly exposed and vulnerable by this series of events.
Margaret Atwood adds that Janine then steps off her platform, hangs herself with her own hands, and Margaret Atwood comments that “it takes some time” for her neck to break; this last detail is Margaret Atwood’s way of showing how Janine’s “spirit and will and desire to live [have been] systematically crushed. Margaret Atwood uses this scene to show Margaret Atwood’s protagonist Offred what Margaret Atwood has already told her—that survival in Margaret Atwood’s dystopia is a difficult path graveled with many pitfalls. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the Commander “picks up [his] stick from beside [his] chair,” which Margaret Atwood tells readers “is made of rowan, for staving off witches,” before he leaves his sitting room.
Although she does not give a reason for why the Commander carries a stick or what Margaret Atwood implies about its magical powers, Margaret Atwood uses the Commander’s stick to foreshadow that he will have a role in Offred’s survival. Margaret Atwood later writes that “the flowers [Offred] had planted with such hope” were dug up and thrown away by Serena Joy when she learned of her husband’s affair with Offred; this is Margaret Atwood’s way of showing how much Margaret Atwood has lost and what Margaret Atwood has been left to deal with in Margaret Atwood’s dystopia.
Offred describes them as “tiny splashes of brightness, color against the streetscape; they are what is left of beauty” Offred goes on to describe the flowers with phrases such as “they are alive in the fresh air. ” She describes how she wishes she could be with them, saying “its good to see even a little bit of colour around. Its so dull otherwise. ”
There are many different meanings that can be linked to flowers throughout The Handmaids Tale, but Margaret Atwood seems to have used these flower images as a way for Offred to keep her sanity during her time in Gilead by creating this life within their blooms and natural surroundings. It is also a link to the past, when Offred was free and flowers were something she could enjoy. There is a sense of sadness in Offred’s description but it is done cautiously as though she does not want to offend anyone.
It seems that Margaret Atwood has used these images of flowers throughout The Handmaid’s Tale to provide a way for Offred to still feel life within her surroundings even though everything else seems bleak and miserable. This theme is particularly reinforced by Atwood once more near the end of the novel where Ofglen tells Offred about her old daughter who tried desperately hard throughout her time in Gilead “to make [her] forget [her]. [She] would hide it in flowers”
At the end of the novel Margaret Atwood provides Ofglen with particular hope at their meeting, which she can only achieve by using this image of flowers to remind Offred that Gilead is not all there is; “there are always flowers”. This last comment shows Margaret Atwood encourages her reader to see that although much world-building has happened within The Handmaids Tale much – including people and life – will continue long after the events within the novel.
