The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, displays the totalitarian and dystopian society of Gilead in which women are stripped of their rights and identities as it all takes place in Cambridge Massachusetts. The novel is set in the mind of Offred, a handmaid whose sole purpose is to birth children for the commanders, the elites of Gilead. Gilead is structured into a long, complex societal pyramid as the commanders reign above while the handmaids linger towards the bottom. Religion is central to the story as it helps shape and hold Gilead together, but not in a way you might think. As mentioned previously, the commanders hold the power within Gilead as their manipulation of biblical faith empowers them over the handmaids as the power

This is justified by another biblical story “The penalty for rape, as you know, is death”. Deuteronomy 22:23-29. Atwood, 249. Within The Handmaid's Tale, Gilead's profound hypocrisy and corruption remain present through the religious framework of Gilead. The hypocrisy is displayed through the ideals of the commanders as they attempt to use the Bible as a stepping stone, but the harsh reality of their actions reveals their true thought as their corruption engulfs them. A question that may linger in your mind is: if the commanders are doing the right thing, why must they seek external justification? If it is true that the commanders truly wish to cure society and seek a better future, why does Offred repeatedly reflect on her horrendous quality of life as she mentions “It's a lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I can love are dead or elsewhere.” (Atwood, 88). Besides the repeated mentions of the hell that Gilead is, the hypocrisy is even admitted to by the commander during a conversation he held with Offred as he blatantly states “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, is what he