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Dystopian Society In 'The Handmaid's Tale'

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It is often the case that authors use ideas in novels as a lens through which they comment on the nature of society. Margaret Atwood cleverly does so by creating a dystopian setting, Gilead for her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Themes such as extreme gender roles, theocratic society and forms of control lead us as readers to question our own society’s views, structure, and ideals and draw parallels between Atwood’s dystopian society and elements of our own. In Gilead, low fertility rates caused gender roles, a theme which arises from the book, to be taken to the extreme in society. Men make the decisions, who are able to both make and break the rules. Women are forbidden from reading or writing and whose sole purpose is to reproduce or serve …show more content…

Many of the laws of Gilead are based on a very literal understanding of the Bible. Each week, the commander reads passages from the bible to the household, focusing on those which justify the actions and beliefs of Gilead. For example,“…and Adam was not deceived, but the woman who was being deceived was in transgression, notwithstanding she shall be saved through childbearing” clearly illustrates Gilead’s belief that women are inferior to men and can only be saved through reproduction. Ideas like this are drilled into the minds of the handmaids as they are taught to chant “Give me children or else I die”. Unfortunately for them, Gilead takes this saying seriously – if a handmaid is unable to conceive after three postings, she is sent to the colonies to work until she dies. In Gilead biblical interpretations are used to justify these extreme acts. The prevalence of biblical messages is also clear in other ways. The names of the guards – ‘Angels’ as well as the grocery stores – “Fish and loaves”, “All scrolls”. Atwood’s aim to challenge society’s view ‘that could never happen here’ is made crystal clear. By basing Gilead upon biblical interpretations, we are forced to examine how our interpretation of the Bible is similar or different from Gilead’s. One cannot help but question whether a society like Gilead could arise from our own in the

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Theme Of Conformity In The Handmaid's Tale

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One of the factors used by the characters in the two novels for their survival is conformity. An example of conformity that plays an important role in the two novels is clothing. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the classifications of each individual are conformed by different clothing. The Handmaids wear red dresses, Marthas wear green, Wives wear blue, Ecowives wear stripes dresses of the three colours, and Commanders and the Angels wear black clothing. According to Offred from The Handmaid's Tale, “The wings too are prescribed issue; they are to keep us from seeing, but also from being seen” (Atwood 9).

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When Offred is in the bathtub, the lack of connection she feels with her body is revealed: “Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping” (Atwood 73). Here, she is describing her body as “flesh,” which connotes the separation she feels from her body, as “flesh” is a word often used to describe dead things. The “central object” that she feels “congealed around” is her womb, because the only purpose she feels she has in the society of Gilead is to bear children. This reveals Offred’s lack of motivation to defend her body or her beliefs, and her assimilation to Gilead.

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The Commander and the Aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead, where they are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. However, while Gilead claims to suppress sexual violence, it actually institutionalizes it. An example is Jezebel’s, the club that provides the Commanders with prostitutes to service the male elite. Another example is the Ceremony that compels Handmaids to have sex with their Commanders. Foster suggests, “...sex can be pleasure, sacrifice, submission, rebellion, resignation, supplication, domination, enlightenment, the whole works” (158).

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