What Are The Geographical Limits Of The Handmaid's Tale

The story of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is set in what used to be Cambridge, Massachusetts the home of the prestigious Harvard University. In my opinion this location was chosen by Atwood in order to set a tone of structure and show the superiority of the elite class in the novel. This structure and elite superiority is what allows the Republic of Gilead to have a strict hold on the women. Using Harvard as the background for the story provides geographical limits that were in place before the university closed. These limits are a constant reminder to the women of the control that the Republic of Gilead exudes over them. One particular example of this control is described by Offred while she is walking down the street to perform

an errand, “This is the heart of Gilead, where the war cannot intrude except on television. Where the edges are, we aren’t sure” (Atwood 23). The women are taught that there is no escape from the Gilead and that the new regime is the only way of life now. The setting is conducive to this message because of the secluded nature of the environment.
The vocabulary used in The Handmaid’s Tale, is another way that Atwood portrays the control that the Republic of Gilead has over the women. A use of a word in particular, that stands out to me, is the use of the word, “protected.” When referring to the time before the Gilead the novel states, “Women were not protected then” (Atwood 24). This alludes to the women now being protected by the Republic of the Gilead. This, In my opinion is not the case. The women are ‘protected’ but they have also been stripped of their freedom.