A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms

Ercan Tugay Akı

A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms

Abstract

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale represents the struggle of women physically and mentally imprisoned in a phallogocentric and totalitarian state called the Republic of Gilead. Even though the novel has been subjected to many readings from various vantage points, no study has so far offered a thorough psychoanalytic analysis of the novel from a Freudian perspective which focuses on the activities carried out by Offred and the Commander in the Commander’s study. This article analyses Atwood’s novel within a psychoanalytic context by incorporating such concepts as phantasy, pleasure principle, and defence mechanism from Freudian terminology. It specifically focuses on the time that Offred and the Commander spends in the Commander’s study in private, where they read, write, and play games together, and argues that these activities function as phantasying and that Offred and the Commander create a space of phantasy together in private in Freudian terms.

Keywords

References

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. London: Vintage, 1996.
Buchegger, Lisa. “‘In Burning Red’ – Red as the Color of Female Shame in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” AmLit 3.2 (2023): 12-25.
Cixous, Hélène. The Laugh of the Medusa.” Trans. Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs 1. 4 (1976): 875-93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173239.
Feldman-Kołodziejuk, Ewelina. “From Villainess to Gilead’s Nemesis: The (Un)easy Rehabilitation of Aunt Lydia”. Canada and Beyond: A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies 14 (Jan. 2025): 85-103.
Filipczak, Dorota. “Is There No Balm in Gilead? — Biblical Intertext in The Handmaid’s Tale.” Literature and Theology 7.2 (1993): 171-85.
Freud, Sigmund. “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 9. Trans. James Strachey. London: Hogarth, 1959. 143-53.
———. “Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 12: The Case of Schreber Papers on Technique and Other Works. Trans. James Strachey. London: Hogarth, [1958] 1981. 218-26.
Klarer, Mario. “Orality and Literacy as Gender-Supporting Structures in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 28.4 (1995): 129-42.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Modernist/Postmodernist Literature

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Ercan Tugay Akı ^*
0000-0001-7161-6097
Türkiye

Publication Date

January 26, 2026

Submission Date

September 10, 2025

Acceptance Date

December 1, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Number: 5

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP

Cite

RIS / Bibtex

APA

Akı, E. T. (2026). A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms. Overtones Ege Journal of English Studies, 5, 11-17. https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP

AMA

1.Akı ET. A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms. Overtones. 2026;(5):11-17. https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP

Chicago

Akı, Ercan Tugay. 2026. “A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing As Phantasying in Freudian Terms”. Overtones Ege Journal of English Studies, nos. 5: 11-17. https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP.

EndNote

Akı ET (January 1, 2026) A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms. Overtones Ege Journal of English Studies 5 11–17.

IEEE

[1]E. T. Akı, “A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms”, Overtones, no. 5, pp. 11–17, Jan. 2026, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP

ISNAD

Akı, Ercan Tugay. “A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing As Phantasying in Freudian Terms”. Overtones Ege Journal of English Studies. 5 (January 1, 2026): 11-17. https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP.

JAMA

1.Akı ET. A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms. Overtones. 2026;:11–17.

MLA

Akı, Ercan Tugay. “A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing As Phantasying in Freudian Terms”. Overtones Ege Journal of English Studies, no. 5, Jan. 2026, pp. 11-17, https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP.

Vancouver

1.Ercan Tugay Akı. A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Playing Scrabble, Reading, and Writing as Phantasying in Freudian Terms. Overtones [Internet]. 2026 Jan. 1;(5):11-7. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA37GB32NP