revival of certain nineteenth-century and earlier sensibilities, a mixture of the contemporary and the traditional. This gives the story the patina of an inverted fairy tale, with women regarded as breeders who at the same time are controlled by rigid Victorian values and restrictions.
The place of women in the society of Gilead is a reversal of the advances made for women in our own time and a revival of attitudes Atwood sees as remaining dear to a large segment of the population. In this vision, the revival of family values so touted by a conservative segment in American society today has come to pass in a way that highlights control, subordination, and the isolation of women and their biological functions into a ghetto that is society-wide and that is enforced most brutally. Also revived is the power of class conflict and a social hierarchy, and though Offred and her mistress may seem worlds apart, both are controlled in this male-dominated society in ways that determine every aspect of their lives, limit their choices, and return them to a t
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