How Do the Historical Notes Influence Our Interpretation of A Handmaid s Tale
How Do the Historical Notes Influence Our Interpretation of ‘A Handmaid’s Tale’? The epilogue of ‘A Handmaid’s Tale,’ is a transcript of a lecture about Gilead. ... Another purpose of the historical notes is to give another point of view other than the character Offred’s. The first paragraph denotes the time and place the lecture occurs formally showing that the readers of the Historical Notes could be anyone looking at the transcript, not only Atwood’s readers. This gives the Historical notes a ‘timeless’ feel and so, relevant to anybody at anytime. ... This influences our interpretation of ‘A Handmaid’s Tale’. Firstly at several points in the Historical notes, Pieixoto makes jokes implying that he does not take the character Offred’s ‘plight’ seriously. ... This is similar to Pieixoto’s prejudice left from Gilead. Atwood gives the first sense of Pieixoto’s sexist nature here. ... Pieixoto’s sexism may give a clue why he is so dismissive of Offred. ... Through the Historical Notes, we get the idea that the character Pieixoto has a problem with calling ‘A Handmaids Tale’ a ‘document’. ... We also have an insight into Pieixoto’s ideas of Gilead. ... Atwood gives the idea that Pieixoto has an empathy with the society ‘Also, Gileadian society was under a good deal of pressure’ This, again, gives another point of view changing our interpretation of ‘A Handmaids Tale’.