MARGARET ATWOOD AND THE DYSTOPIAN NOVEL

THE HANDMAID’S TALE

1. Look for some information about Margaret Atwood and share it with your classmates.

2. Let’s watch the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v-mfJMyBO0&t=16s

3. Let’s imagine that the government decides to force people to live like that. What can you
predict will happen? Think in groups of at least 5 examples.

4. This book deals with the issue of human rights. In our society, many human rights are violated
everyday. Think, in groups, of at least 5 examples of things that will happen if we don’t solve
the issue of human rights (discrimination against race, gender, social class, etc.)

10 RULES IN “THE HANDMAID’S TALE” SOCIETY

1. Enforced social stratification.

2. Birth control and rights are illegal.
3. Heterosexuality is enforced.
4. No diversity in religion.
5. Women are forbidden to read or write.
6. Enforced greetings and language.
7. Freedom of speech is illegal.
8. Procreation is of utmost importance.
9. Criminal punishment is for public viewing.
10. All women exist under the patriarchy,
 "Happy Endings", by Margaret Atwood
John and Mary meet.
What happens next?
If you want a happy ending, try A.

A.
John and Mary fall in love and get married. They both have worthwhile and remunerative jobs which they find
stimulating and challenging. They buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they can afford
live-in help, they have two children, to whom they are devoted. The children turn out well. John and Mary have a
stimulating and challenging sex life and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations together. They retire. They both
have hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually they die. This is the end of the story.

B.
Mary falls in love with John but John doesn't fall in love with Mary. He merely uses her body for selfish pleasure and ego
gratification of a tepid kind. He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, you'll notice that he
doesn't even consider her worth the price of a dinner out, and after he's eaten dinner he fucks her and after that he falls
asleep, while she does the dishes so he won't think she's untidy, having all those dirty dishes lying around, and puts on
fresh lipstick so she'll look good when he wakes up, but when he wakes up he doesn't even notice, he puts on his socks
and his shorts and his pants and his shirt and his tie and his shoes, the reverse order from the one in which he took them
off. He doesn't take off Mary's clothes, she takes them off herself, she acts as if she's dying for it every time, not because
she likes sex exactly, she doesn't, but she wants John to think she does because if they do it often enough surely he'll get
used to her, he'll come to depend on her and they will get married, but John goes out the door with hardly so much as a
good-night and three days later he turns up at six o'clock and they do the whole thing over again.

Mary gets run-down. Crying is bad for your face, everyone knows that and so does Mary but she can't stop. People at
work notice. Her friends tell her John is a rat, a pig, a dog, he isn't good enough for her, but she can't believe it. Inside
John, she thinks, is another John, who is much nicer. This other John will emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, a Jack
from a box, a pit from a prune, if the first John is only squeezed enough.

One evening John complains about the food. He has never complained about her food before. Mary is hurt.

Her friends tell her they've seen him in a restaurant with another woman, whose name is Madge. It's not even Madge that
finally gets to Mary: it's the restaurant. John has never taken Mary to a restaurant. Mary collects all the sleeping pills and
aspirins she can find, and takes them and a half a bottle of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the fact
that it's not even whiskey. She leaves a note for John. She hopes he'll discover her and get her to the hospital in time and
repent and then they can get married, but this fails to happen and she dies.

John marries Madge and everything continues as in A.

C.
John, who is an older man, falls in love with Mary, and Mary, who is only twenty-two, feels sorry for him because he's
worried about his hair falling out. She sleeps with him even though she's not in love with him. She met him at work. She's
in love with someone called James, who is twenty-two also and not yet ready to settle down.

John on the contrary settled down long ago: this is what is bothering him. John has a steady, respectable job and is getting
ahead in his field, but Mary isn't impressed by him, she's impressed by James, who has a motorcycle and a fabulous
record collection. But James is often away on his motorcycle, being free. Freedom isn't the same for girls, so in the
meantime Mary spends Thursday evenings with John. Thursdays are the only days John can get away.

John is married to a woman called Madge and they have two children, a charming house which they bought just before
the real estate values went up, and hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging, when they have the time. John
tells Mary how important she is to him, but of course he can't leave his wife because a commitment is a commitment. He
goes on about this more than is necessary and Mary finds it boring, but older men can keep it up longer so on the whole
she has a fairly good time.

One day James breezes in on his motorcycle with some top-grade California hybrid and James and Mary get higher than
you'd believe possible and they climb into bed. Everything becomes very underwater, but along comes John, who has a
key to Mary's apartment. He finds them stoned and entwined. He's hardly in any position to be jealous, considering
Madge, but nevertheless he's overcome with despair. Finally he's middle-aged, in two years he'll be as bald as an egg and
he can't stand it. He purchases a handgun, saying he needs it for target practice--this is the thin part of the plot, but it can
be dealt with later--and shoots the two of them and himself.

Madge, after a suitable period of mourning, marries an understanding man called Fred and everything continues as in A,
but under different names.

D.
Fred and Madge have no problems. They get along exceptionally well and are good at working out any little difficulties
that may arise. But their charming house is by the seashore and one day a giant tidal wave approaches. Real estate values
go down. The rest of the story is about what caused the tidal wave and how they escape from it. They do, though
thousands drown, but Fred and Madge are virtuous and grateful, and continue as in A.

E.
Yes, but Fred has a bad heart. The rest of the story is about how kind and understanding they both are until Fred dies.
Then Madge devotes herself to charity work until the end of A. If you like, it can be "Madge," "cancer," "guilty and
confused," and "bird watching."

F.
If you think this is all too bourgeois, make John a revolutionary and Mary a counterespionage agent and see how far that
gets you. Remember, this is Canada. You'll still end up with A, though in between you may get a lustful brawling saga of
passionate involvement, a chronicle of our times, sort of.

You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all
fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by
downright sentimentality.

The only authentic ending is the one provided here:

John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.

So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch
in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with.

That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a
what.
Now try How and Why.
Discussion questions

1. Why does Atwood's "Happy Endings" revolve around the same couple but in different
scenarios? What point is she trying to make, given the story's title?
2. What kind of narrator does Atwood use for "Happy Endings"? What is the effect of this
narrator?
3. Which version of the story is much preferred? Why?
4. To whom is the narrator speaking at the end of the story? Why?
5. To what extent do you agree with the narrator's advice at the end of the story?

Now it’s your turn

1. Let’s read the uses for all future tenses.

2. This story has six different alternative endings, add one of your own. Try to use instances of
the future tenses (future continuous, will, going to, present continuous).
3. Read through the story again. Follow Atwood’s instructions: “Now try HOW and WHEN”. You
should try to add sentences of your own in the story to respond to these instructions. Again,
try to use some instances of future tenses.

FUTURE TENSES