There is a wide gulf separating the French-Canadian work Maria Chapdelaine by Louis HTmon and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, but there are also certain characteristics linking the two works as expressions of a certain worldview, especially toward the role of women in society. HTmon writes a realistic account of rural life among French Canadians in the early part of this century, while Atwood offers a speculative dramatization of a dystopian society such as might develop in the future if certain trends she perceives in contemporary society continue. One thing that links the two works is a certain view of women and their ability to transcend the roles given them by society, though Atwood is quite self-conscious in presenting this theme while HTmon merely demonstrates an attitude toward women without making it a central or overt issue. The differences have more to do with the widely separated eras in which the works were written than with the sex of the author or the fact that one is French-Canadian and the other from English-speaking Canada.
Setting is important in both works, and the setting indeed dominates the HTmon work as the young woman who is the central character represents the French Canadian peasant living close to the land and experiencing all of the hardships that such a life entails. For such people, the change in seasons is a major event, especially the coming of winter and the coming of spring, the first leading to harsher times and the second promising relief and a new sense of life. Distance is an important element to marie, for she is always considering how far her home is from other places--other homes, settlements, towns, places the men are traveling to or from, or the distance of her own trip to St. Prime, the key event in her life to date. When her mother is ill and her father traveling to La Pipe and then Mistook in the dead of winter, Maria experiences a sense of the loneliness of her life:
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