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Bruce Miller's dystopian American television series The Handmaid's Tale is based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 book of the same name. The story takes place in a dystopian civilization after the Second American Civil War when a totalitarian, theonomic society enslaves fertile women known as "Handmaids" to carry children for elite families.
Originally released on Hulu, the show stars Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, and many more.
The show does not state the year in which the events in The Handmaid's Tale take place. Still, based on the clues provided, including the clothing worn by June and her friend in the first few episodes and a few flashbacks that Jane has, it may be assumed that The Handmaid's Tale is set in the present day.
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June made a joke about Yelp in one episode of The Handmaid's Tale and brandished an iPhone in another. She even uses a laptop to watch past Friends episodes on a DVD. Thus, this series is set around the vicinity of 2024 or 2025. This article discusses in detail the reason why we believe the show depicts the present.
Disclaimer: This article purely reflects the author's opinion and contains spoilers for the show. Reader's discretion is advised.
How does The Handmaid’s Tale begin?
Many years before The Handmaid’s Tale's significant events, a fertility crisis drastically lowered birth rates. While every country reacts differently, most of them pay attention to environmental issues and the potential role they may play. June Osborne, and O.T. Fagbenle's character, Luke Bankole, meet when he is still married. They start having an affair.
During this time, Serena Joy Waterford’s (Yvonne Strahovski's) seminal work, A Woman's Place, is released. She works closely with the Sons of Jacob, a group that aims to topple the US government, along with her spouse Fred (Joseph Fiennes). During a public appearance, Serena is shot by a sniper, but she makes it out alive.
June gets pregnant when Luke divorces his wife. Their daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) is almost abducted by a desperate lady soon after she is born. This leads to a complete hospital lockdown, demonstrating the extent to which the current reproductive crisis has already progressed.
The Sons of Jacob, in the meantime, devise a scheme to assault the three branches of the US government simultaneously. The President, the majority of the Cabinet, and numerous members of Congress are slain when they launch their attack. Martial law is proclaimed, the National Guard is summoned, and the US Constitution is suspended.
How does the series hint at the present?
Following the coup in The Handmaid's Tale, the new government filters and limits internet usage following state-sponsored "decency codes." Property ownership is outlawed for women, and their bank accounts are shifted to male family members.
Soldiers remove them from their places of employment while ignoring their perplexity and suffering. There are protests, but they quickly degenerate into violence as government agents suppress them all. June and Luke's marriage has ended in divorce, and gay marriage is prohibited and removed from the books.
In the scene where June and Moira discuss her pregnancy, June is holding an iPhone, although it's an older model— roughly a fifth generation. The iPhone 5 was released in 2012. Since the iPhone 5 was phased out in 2013, owning one had become increasingly uncommon by 2016. According to this, Hannah was born sometime between 2012 and 2015.
Considering just the above factors may still leave room for fans to debate the time period, but the low fertility rate of the elite women cannot be ignored, which led to the whole existence behind the handmaids.
The US has been recording a steep decline in its fertility rate for decades, but the year 2023 recorded the lowest rate in centuries. According to reports by the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the general fertility rate decreased by 3% from 2022, reaching a historic low. This leads us to believe that the show could be placed in the present time.
Plot of The Handmaid’s Tale
In The Handmaid's Tale chronicles, life in Gilead is a totalitarian society situated in what was formerly the United States. Environmental catastrophes and a declining birth rate plague Gilead, which is governed by a fundamentalist government that views women as the state's property.
The few fertile women who survive are forced into s**ual servitude in a desperate attempt to repopulate a shattered globe. Offred, one of these women in The Handmaid's Tale, is determined to survive her horrible environment to find her daughter, who was snatched from her, and endure the horrendous surroundings that she has been put in.
