Gender inequality is a continuously occurring problem in our society. Margaret Atwood, a famous American writer, describes what she feels our country will turn into through her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Every time there is a step forward for equality it seems we end up taking two steps back. In Gilead, the fictionalized setting of the novel, a woman’s obligation is to be obedient, a role they adopted after transitioning from a time of extreme liberalism to radical religion. Once the women in the novel were cut off from their resources and freedom, their sole purpose became to use their wombs. During this time of radical religion, Gilead decided it was time to make changes for “the greater good” that would impact everyone immensely. The futuristic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, concentrates on the unequal relationship between men and women, where women are exploited for their biological functions and government-sponsored religion reinforces female servitude.
Offred feels exploited for her biological functions, feeling as though she is nothing more than a usable womb. Even in Offred’s dreams, she affirms her feeling:
I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a mean of transportation, or an implement of 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 72)
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With Gilead trying to come back from the alarming shortage of children, women that are healthy are being forced to bear the children of the Commander’s, if their wives are not able to do so. Offred’s body had so much meaning to her life before becoming a handmaid that all she dreams of is the day she could feel like that again. Her body, previously used for pleasure through her freedom, is now the entire purpose of her existence, and using it for one organ in particular.
In our society today, with sex being readily available through prostitution, and the strong equality of women, many assert that men have begun to feel demoralized. Wendy Perkins,an Assistant Professor of English at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland, explains her thought on why the Commander in The Handmaid’s Tale believes the way Gilead is governed is for the best. Perkins states, “We’ve given women more than we have taken away. This way all they get a man, are protected can full fill their biological destinies in peace.(Paragraph 9)” This statement supports the purpose the men of Gilead had in reconstructing it. Commander Fred is suggesting that the over sexualization of the country made men lose their interest in seeking women. Women, having equal rights, made men not want to seek a marriage or sexual relationship. Men, feeling demoralized by strong women, made them rethink their thoughts on sex, marriage, and life.
After spending forbidden time with Commander Fred, Offred begins to think differently of him. She began to see him less as her “boss” and more of her equal, which brought a shift in the novel. After remembering she watched a Nazi movie as a child, Offred begins to think back and sympathize with the woman of the movie that was the girlfriend/lover of one of the leaders. During a scene in the movie the Nazi girlfriend states:
He is not a monster, to her. Probably he had some endearing trait” he whistled off key, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles, he called his dog Liebchen and made him sit up for a little piece of raw steak. How easy it is to invent humanity for anyone at all. What an available temptation. (Atwood 145-146).
After spending some intimate time with the Commander, Offred begins to see him in a different light: friendly, kind, and caring; however he is still part of the problem. His job as a Commander makes him an oppressive figure in society, but in his private life he wants his handmaids to be smart and expressive. The Commander is in a sense dangling the steak in front of Offred because he is giving her small bits of her old life back by playing scrabble and letting her express herself privately to him. Although Offred enjoys the time with the Commander, she knows that if anyone found out about these times, she would be facing death. He is providing her more of a life than just a handmaid, but actually adds to the problem of gender inequality by keeping this treatment of Offred a secret.
The government of Gilead is claiming to base their belief of how to repopulate the community from The Bible. In Genesis, Rachel is unable to bare Jacob’s children and uses her maid, Bilhah, as a “surrogate mother”. The Bible states, “ Now when rachel saw she bore Jacob no children…she said to Jacob, “Give me children or else I die!”…So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her and she will bear a child on my knees that I also may have children by her”(Genesis 30:1-3, 26). Just like in the novel, in Genesis women were being used for their wombs after the absence of children. The government used Genesis 30:1-3 as a point of reference in a misinterpretation of what the Bible was actually trying to state. Bilhah was the maid of Rachel, but, unlike the novel, it does not show she suffered the torment that handmaids seem to have. Bilhah was being used as more of a surrogate contrary to how the handmaids being tortured and degrade.
In an article by Sophia Lee she states her interpretation of the scene in the novel and television series where the handmaid is being penetrated by the husband in hopes of conception, while the wife sits with them. She claims that this idea comes from Genesis 30:3. However, most interpret the claim: “she will bear a child on my knees that I also have a child by her” (The Bible, Genesis 30:3, 26) in a different manner. Many believe it means that Rachel would be in the room during the delivery like many of the modern adoptive mothers are in today’s day and time.
Even though the government is using the Bible as part of their philosophy for running Gilead, twisting words to make them to your way of living doesn’t make them true. Amin Malak said it best in his assessment of the novel:“Theory claims to be founded on Christian principles, yet in practice miserably lacks spirituality and benevolence” (9-16).The government of Gilead was only taking select quotes from the Bible and twisting it to how they needed to use it for their governing practices. During the Women’s Prayvaganze, group wedding, the men recite, “Let the women learn in silence with all subjection? All? But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to ursurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve” (Attwood 221). This passage is letting the women know it is their job to continue to be silent and follow the men. Women biblically should follow the example of their husbands, but in retrospect the husbands need to be the ones setting good examples for the wives. The women are being manipulated and made to think that they will be rewarded for all the do and suffer in silence.
The smallest things have been changed and manipulated by the government to continue the biblical justification for their new society. People and shops’ names have been changed to sound more Biblical. Clothing shops are now called “Lilies”, taken directly from Mathew 6:28, which states, “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;… (The Bible 852). Even the phrases that the handmaids are required to use are pulled from the Bible such as “Praise be”, “Blessed be the Fruit”, and “May the Lord open.”
However, even though the handmaids use these biblical terms and shops are given biblical names, people will still be who they are and feel how they feel. You can try and control people anyway you want by using false teachings of the Bible or through your own beliefs, but there will always be people who find their own meaning in faith and their beliefs. Reading was forbidden, so even if Offred or any of the handmaid’s felt that the teachings were incorrect, it couldn’t be questioned or challenged with any sort of textual evidence.
The futuristic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, concentrates on the unequal relationship between men and women: women are exploited for their biological functions and government-sponsored religion reinforces female servitude.There were a few bright spots in the novel, but for the most part it was about the suppression and control of women by men that should have been protecting them. The use of the Bible for the purpose of controlling women and basically justifying the rape of an entire group of women makes a hard reality for the handmaids. The biblically set laws make it so hard for any of the citizens to even come close to being perfect that all they can do is pretend and hope to not get caught doing something wrong. They could strive to be the best version of their self everyday and in this society it still would not be enough.
