The writer presents the role of the “Handmaids” as a highly indispensable member of the Gilead society as they are in charge of providing the children for each family, which in the future will be the forthcoming leaders of the community. As Atwood, herself, expressed in an interview with Random house in January of 2012:
“ The Handmaids themselves are a pariah caste within the pyramid: treasured for what they may be able to provide – their fertility – but untouchables otherwise. To possess one is, however, a mark of high status, just as many slaves or a large retinue of servants always has been.” (Atwood, Haunted by The Handmaid 's Tale, 2012)
These women are considered as a utensil, a womb, for the purpose of childbearing with the objective of increasing Gilead’s population and assuring the birth of future generations. Handmaids live under strict regulations of what they are aloud to do or not,
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The social dogma situates the women at the lowest position in society, depriving them the opportunity of being respected by their own knowledge and capabilities. Due to the fact that Austen work was contemporary to her life, her novel conveys the restrains imposed to women but at the same time follows the archetype inflicted that a social order must be followed where women must find the proper candidate for marriage, proper of Victorian times. This notion is clearly conveyed in her novel “Emma” as the main character, Emma, withdraws herself from the group of women who find themselves in urgent need of finding a husband. She states that: “My being charming, Harriet, is not quite enough to induce me to marry; I must find other people charming -- one other person at least. And I am not only, not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of every marrying at all.” (Austen,