Interpreting the Handmaid's TaleThe Handmaid's Tale is distinguished by its various narrative and structural divisions. It contains four different levels of narrative time: the pre-Revolution past, the time of the Revolution itself, the Gileadean period, and the post-Gileadean period (LeBihan 100). Furthermore, the novel is divided into two frames, both with a first-person narrative. Offred's narration forms the first frame, while the second frame is provided by the historical notes, a transcript of a lecture given by a Cambridge professor. The distinctions in narrative structure and perspective parallel the separation of Gilead's residents into different social roles. Offred's narrative is primarily concerned with the Gilead period, but she often interrupts her account of this period with memories of the pre-Revolution and Revolutionary periods. In her account of the pre-Revolution period, the reader learns of Offred's childhood with her mother, her student days with her friend Moira, and her relationship with her daughter and her husband. From his memories of the Revolution, reading...