Margaret Atwood’sThe Handmaid’s Taleis a horrifying story about religious extremism, misogyny, and totalitarianism. Centering on June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), the show puts its characters through some truly terrible situations involving forced pregnancies, mutilation, and slavery. Many of the episodes are hard to watch, as the characters' suffering is so extreme as to seem the result of some unfathomable evil. But what makes the series even more traumatizing is the knowledge that these on-screen horrors are all based on real-world events.
The Handmaid’s Tale
When discussing her original book, Atwood said that she avoided including “anything that human beings had not already done in some other place or time,” meaning that every horrific moment had some foundation in reality. Worse, while some of these real-world events occurred decades or centuries ago, many others have continued into the present day, with the people and regimes behind them growing even more brutal and cruel over time.
In order to learn from them, and hopefully avoid their continuance, here are 6 real-world events that inspiredThe Handmaid’s Tale.
6Nicolas Ceaușescu’s Reign Over Romania
Oppressive, restrictive, and all-around awful, Gilead started with a somewhat noble purpose: to help increase fertility rates. Births were down globally, and people were worried about what that could mean for society as a whole. However, Gilead’s answer—forcing women to become Handmaids and have babies—was obviously not an ok solution. And yet, it’s not too dissimilar to what was happening in 1966 in Romania.
The Inspiration
Nicolas Ceaușescu might be an unfamiliar name to most viewers, but his legacy is certainlyHandmaid’sworthy (…in a bad way). His Communist reign over Romania was marked by lawsordering women to have more babies. Specifically, Decree 770 outlawed nearly all abortions and contraceptive devices while also mandating monthly pregnancy tests. Although Ceaușescu initially passed the decree to make the country richer, the end result was a significant increase in orphaned Romanians, as well as higher infant mortality rates.
51980s Birth Rates and Politics in Canada
Decreasing birth rates weren’t just a primary motivator behind Gilead society and Romania’s Decree 770. In the 1980s, they were also a cause for concern among politicians in Canada, leading MP Dave Nickerson to “joke” that couples should spend their Christmases trying to conceive. He insisted that encouraging families to have more babies was a matter of public policy, perhaps unintentionally implying that the government had a responsibility to intervene.
In contrast to Ceaușescu’s reign, Canadian politicians did not force women to have babies. However, Nickerson’s remarks showcase how oppression doesn’t happen all at once. Atwood’s story presented a worst-case scenario in which these proposals turned into mandates, and while that isn’t what happened in Canada, it easily could have gone the way of Romania.
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4The Nazis’ Lebensborn Movement
One of the key differences between the book and show versions ofThe Handmaid’s Talerevolved around the characters' races. In the book,anyone who wasn’t white was sent elsewhere(with the implication that they were being killed or forced into labor camps) to create a more “racially pure” society. Although the show included a much more diverse cast, it was far less successful at acknowledging the impact of racism on Gilead and American society. Conversely, the original version had a sinister inspiration for how race, forced pregnancies, and kidnappings all intertwined.
Nazi Germany’s Lebensborn (aka “Fount of Life”) program was launched by Heinrich Himmler in 1935. The goal was to give Nazis extra wives in order to birth more blond-haired, blue-eyed babies. These babies would then be taught to worship Hitler and the Nazi party, similar to how the children raised in Gilead were taught to obey the system. More in line with the show-version ofThe Handmaid’s Tale, the program also encouraged the kidnapping of (blond-haired, blue-eyed) children to be raised in Aryan households.
3The People of Hope Cult
One of the scariest aspects ofThe Handmaid’s Talerevolved around the Wives who subjugated other women. Rather than acknowledge and fight against their own mistreatment, they clung to any power they could find. Many of these Wives were true believers who thought that the gendered hierarchy of Gilead was ordainly inspired. In truth, much of the inspiration came from a modern-day religious cult: the People of Hope.
Founded in 1975 by a Catholic priest named Robert Gallic,the People of Hopewas known for its “Handmaidens of God,” who, as opposed to taking on the role of Handmaids, served a similar purpose to Gilead’s Wives. Along with being expected to act as role models, these Handmaidens were tasked with keeping a watchful eye on the other women to ensure they obeyed their husbands. Forced marriages and early indoctrination were also key to the People of Hope, creating a pretty bleak, hopeless,Handmaid’s-esque reality.
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2Islamic Republic Coming to Power in Iran
The lives of women in America versus Gilead could not be more different, and yet, the former society was brutally contorted into the latter when Gilead’s regime came into power. From strict dress codes to body mutilation,the women of Gilead suffered greatly. In some ways, it’s hard to believe they once shared the (obviously incomplete, but still much better) freedoms of American women—and yet, a close parallel can be drawn to the fates of Iranian women in the late 1970s.
As recently as 1978, women in Iran had many of the same freedoms as other modern-day women. But in 1979, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime led tothese rights swiftly being stripped away. Women were forced to cover their hair, banned from most jobs and schools, and killed or maimed for disobeying. Tragically, the Islamic Republic of Iran remains in power today.
117th Century Puritans' Influence on the US
Totalitarianism was the bread and butter of Gilead society. The Commanders ruled over everyone, forcing them to abide by their rules and faith or else pay deadly consequences. While many of the rules of Gilead were unique, their basis was clearly in early American Puritan society, including the Salem Witch Trials. In fact, Atwood has compared her book to theScarlet Letter,saying it was her “take on American Puritanism.”
The inspiration behind this aspect ofThe Handmaid’s Talewas deeply personal to Atwood. One of her ancestors, Mary Webster, was accused of and hanged for witchcraft. Somehow, much like Atwood’s own battered and bruised protagonists, Webster wound up surviving, serving as a reminder to modern viewers that oppression can and must be stopped,whenever and wherever it appears.
