SOURCE: “Names and Naming Tell an Archetypal Story in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale,” in Names, Vol. 41, No. 3, September, 1993, pp. 143-57.

In the following essay, Templin examines the significance of symbolic, generic, and biblical names in The Handmaid's Tale.

One element in the highly wrought art of Margaret Atwood, and one that deserves careful attention, is her use of names to illuminate character and present theme. Atwood herself has remarked on the special concern she has for her characters’ names:

I'm very interested in their names. By that I mean their names don't always readily spring to mind. I have to go looking for their names. I would like not to have to call them anything. But they usually have to have names. Then the question is, if they are going to have names, the names have to be appropriate. Therefore I spend a lot of time reading...