Offreds Narrative - What is the purpose and function of...

Offreds Narrative - What is the purpose and function of the Historical Notes and how do they assist your interpretation of the novel? The historical notes are not part of Offred’s narrative, they are a transcript of a symposium held at a university in 2195 – two hundred years from where we left the end of Offred’s harrowing tale. The purpose of these notes if any, is to put Offred’s narrative into a historical purpose to help these academics understand the life of Gilead. It seems to me that another purpose of these historical notes is to provoke a very strong reaction in the readers who have followed the emotional journey with the narrator Offred. The significance of the university name ‘Denay, Nunavit’ is that Atwood†¦show more content†¦All of this is now being analysed and retold by those who made her feel so powerless in the first place. This section of the novel can also be functioned to create a light mockery towards the current academic practice and language, the male perspective used here is typical of the historical male dominance and perspective in academic research who also completely miss the point, like Pieixto with Offred’s narrative. I believe that the readers who have just finished agonising with Offred through her tormented times to suddenly come across the Historical Notes will find themselves offended and shocked, as I am convinced Atwood means it to be allowing another purpose for the historical notes, to hear Offred’s tragic life discussed in front of an amused audience of academics who joke about it as if it was an unusual memento. At the beginning of his speech we learn it was a man called Professor Wade who gave the title of Offred’s story ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ partly in homage to the great Geoffrey Chaucer who had wrote the Canterbury tales between 1380 and 1400. This is significant because he only had two female characters and one of those characters was the Wife of Bath who’s prologue argues the importance of female experience over male authority, the significance of Offred’s experience is invalidated by the power of the male authority in 2195 plus