English Literature

Handmaid in this story are characterize as fertile women forced to bear children for barren and elite couples. They are trap into the Gilead society which was established in response to the crisis caused by severely decreased of birthrates. The state assumed a complete control of women s bodies and sense of individuality. Women in this society have limited individual freedom. Any activities and social involvement that may give them a sense of independence and literacy are restricted for them. They are not allowed to vote, to hold property, to acquire job and education. The definition of their existence in this type of society revolves in their duty to conceive and procreate. Women are not only treated inhumane emotionally and intellectually but also physically. During a woman s menstrual cycle, she is obliged to have an impersonal and wordless sex with the elite husband, with the wife holding her hands. Women are treated subhuman and incomplete wherein their sense of meaning lies in their fertility.

All handmaids in the novel are trained at the Red Center. A group of women called Aunts brainwashed and manipulated them into submission to their new role. Their primary and only role is to bear children for the elite and childless couple in the Republic. To maintain their purity, they are not allowed to freely express themselves, to read, to write and to associate with other men. Their birth names are being taken from them and rather be tattooed with a number for identitys sake. In addition, they are taught to believe the general idea that women should be the ones to blame in any ills of the society while men are always blameless. In addition, fertile women in the society are considered useless. In the Gileadean society, if a handmaid has a child, she will never be exiled to do hard labor. When tourists ask them if they live a fair life in that kind of society, handmaids should answer positively or else there is a risk of being arrested.

However even if substantial humane power is taken from the women in the society, they will still find a way to maintain their dignity. Other handmaids would rather  commit suicide then be treated like a toy. But Offred for example, the main character and the narrator, finds ways to manipulate her sexuality in subtlest ways. She is forcedly separated to her husband after the establishment of Republic of Gilead and whose only child is forcedly adapted by a childless elite couple in the Republic. Having proven to be fertile, she is considered a significant commodity in the society.

I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I m a 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 124).

She becomes a handmaid whose job is to bear children for elite, childless couple. Since fertility is rare in the Gilead society, handmaids are beneficial commodity to the society. Offred has one more year left to have a child before she is considered barren and so sent to the Colonies to be either a prostitute or a servant. Since Offred has been powerlessly separated from her family, she leads a restricted or repressed lifestyle.  Her emotional state regarding her seemingly hopeless situation fills her being with despair, resignation and rebellion. In the novel, the only physical description of Ofred is the only she tells about herself  I am thirty-three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five feet seven inches without shoes  (Atwood, Handmaid s Tale 143). Ofred becomes a handmaid to bear a child for Commander Fred and his wife Serena Joy. The commander however sees the realities of the situation.

The problem wasn t only with the women, he says. The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore . . . I m not talking about sex, he says. That was part of it, the sex was too easy... You know what they were complaining about the most Inability to feel. Men were turning off on sex, even. They were turning off on marriage. Do they feel now I say. Yes, he says, looking at me. Theydo (Atwood 128)

Though the commander is dissatisfied with his marriage and his role in the community, he is unwilling to take the risk of going out in his situation. But Commander Fred also introduces her to a secret club where women are allowed to dress in the way they want. He also engages her into intellectual pursuits such as reading and playing scrabble. Moreover, she is also given lotion and other cosmetics. Ofred just like other handmaids are hungry of knowledge and freedom, and so grab every opportunity that will fulfill their simple human desire.

The pen between my fingers is sensuous, alive almost, I can feel its power, the power of the words it contains. Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects. And they were right, it is envy. Just holding it is envy. I envy the Commander his pen. Its one more thing I would like to steal (Atwood 186).

Offred, like most women in Gilead society, is just an ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary circumstance. Offred is definitely not a hero in the story because even though she resists the system inwardly, she submits to the rules outwardly. Although she is friends with some women who are members of the resistance, she is never bold enough to join herself. As a matter of fact, she always felt uncomfortable with her mothers activism. Ultimately when she begins to have an affair with Nick, she seems to forget to escape and almost feels that life in Gilead is already bearable.

He was not a monster, to her. Probably he had some endearing trait he whistled, offkey, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles, he called his dog Liebchen and made it sit up for little pieces of raw steak. How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation (Atwood 120).

The physical and emotional companionship she has with Nick makes the restrictions almost bearable. Offred is apparently a good hearted yet passive character. She never fights liberally and strongly. If she does escape, it is because of the resistance or Nick, and not because of anything she does herself. The writer somehow condemns Offred because of her complacency . Even if she will continue to complain, she fails to make a difference. Tiny rebellions must be guaranteed with will and strength. But in the case of Offred, she only managed to escape because of luck rather than personal or physical resistance

Gilead society is dictator where power is imposed entirely from the top. There is no possibility of petition, no hope that an outside power will intervene the way United Nations interfered during the era of apartheid and no way of protecting oneself legally from the government since the government itself enforced this kind of dystopian or miserable society. The most frightening part of this book is how Gilead authority distortedly justify the given norms and standards specifically the nature of the handmaids through biblical stories in the Old Testament. This is not just a story about the uneven distribution of human rights between man and woman but most importantly this is a glimpse of reality towards human nature, what man is capable of doing either good or bad.

The Handmaid s Tale carries on the tradition in maintaining control over names. Gilead society creates a system of titles and vocabularies. Men are defined by their military rank and strength while women are define only by their gender roles such as wives, Marthas or Handmaids as if their names defines their sense of individuality. Jews and Blacks for example are defined by biblical terms that alienate them from the rest of the society which makes their persecution easier. That label which symbolizes their identity is already a manifestation of inequality by which their sense of purpose is classified according to his or her given distinction. As a result, women in this type of society readily accept the given roles. Women with their lack of control because of illiteracy and ignorance support Gilead s existence by willingly participating in it, serving as political instruments for reproduction. In this totalitarian state, the character of Offred suggests that individuals can endure oppression willingly as long as they receive some slight amount of freedom or power. Women from Gilead society perceive their situation as part of the natural order of things so they willingly participate and submit to the customs.

One of the major of Gileadean regime is on the control of sex and sexuality. Before the establishment of Gilead society, the commander and the aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead. They promised that they will be treated with respect that is safe from abuse and violence. To prove this, they executed lesbians and gays, outlaw divorce and second marriages and they kill abortion doctors. But it is surprisingly at the end of the novel how Gilead society itself institutionalizes violence, how they created an automatic group of prostitutes called handmaids to serve the male elite.

One of the concept or themes subtly prevailing in this novel is the concept of utilitarianism where actions must be for the benefit of majority s happiness and pleasure. Note that the Gileadean society is in the midst of extreme pressures where their population is shrinking. They will be totally disappeared if they will not make concrete and severe actions. Obviously the Gileadean society is acting under the idea of utilitarianism that attempts to do what they think is best for the greatest number of people via women s isolation and ovaries. The survival of the group they believed depends on women s fertility. This concept may seem rationally illogical but Gilead society approaches it that way perceiving women as simply sexual symbols with their misinterpretation and literal approach towards the Bible.