Red In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

The true color of life is the color of the body, the color of the covered red, the implicit and not explicit red of the living heart, and the pulses. It is the modest color of the unpublished blood” - Audrey Meynell. Red is one of, if not the most powerful colors on the visible light spectrum. Kate Smith thinks “Red is violence, anger, and aggression, and it frequently indicates danger” (Smith) while Karen Haller says “red communicates feelings of passion, lust… love.” Both of which are correct as red symbolizes a multitude of things ranging from danger to desire, passion to poison, aggression to affection, from sex to sin. There is no shortness of emotions. In this essay, we will analyze how Margaret Atwood utilizes symbolic meanings of the color red in her novel The Handmaid's Tale to establish control in the Republic of Gilead in reference to the deep-set misogynistic nature of society. The color red was first introduced in The Handmaid’s Tale to describe the clothing that the handmaids are

“Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure. I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own” (Atwood 73). It is expected that Offred has issues with her body, as her body’s ability to create life —which should be honored and celebrated, not suppressed and subjugated—defines her completely. “I avoid looking down at my body because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me” (Atwood 63) which is understandable as her body is no longer her own. Further on she says “I used to think of my body as an instrument of pleasure, I could use it to make things happen” (Atwood 73). Offred’s reflection of her body coincides with the emotions of many women in today's world, where societal pressure degrades them into feeling like “two-legged