Color Imagery in the Works of Margaret Atwood and T. S. Eliot

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood employs a rigid color hierarchy—red for fertility and surveillance, blue for purity, and black for authority—to visualize Gilead’s institutional control and the reduction of women to biological functions. Offred’s red habit, while functioning as a brand of shame and a hindrance to escape, ultimately becomes the garment worn as she steps into the “Ustopian” darkness of an uncertain future. Similarly, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land uses yellow and brown to depict the spiritual decay of the modern city, while violet captures the existential void of the masses during the twilight hours. However, the color red in Eliot’s work hints at the Passion of Christ, suggesting that spiritual rebirth is only possible through the endurance of suffering and the passage through a black abyss. Both authors utilize color as a sophisticated visual apparatus to capture the profound sense of loss in modern civilization and the arduous journey toward liberation and salvation. Consequently, these color allegories serve as pivotal literary tools that consolidate the thematic depth of both works.