The Handmaid's Tale: Atwood's Vision of a Theocratic Totalitarian State

Introduction

The Handmaid's Tale is a 1985 novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The main character, Offred, is a handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state ruled by Christian fundamentalists, in what used to be the United States. Gilead is a patriarchal totalitarian theocracy whose social, economic, and political control systems are modeled after the Old Testament in the Bible. Gilead is a theocracy because the sect "Sons of Jacob" are the ones in power. In Genesis chapter 11, Sarah, Abraham's wife, gets a handmaiden Hagar to be her husband's mistress. When Hagar gets pregnant with Ishmael, Sarah gets jealous, and later on, when she conceives, she convinces Abraham to let Hagar and Ishmael go. The Handmaid's Tale is riddled with similar biblical allusions, which Atwood uses to highlight the theme of abuse of power by the Christian theocracy.

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In the novel, freedom is a casualty of the society divided into classes such as Commanders and Eyes for men. Men occupy high-ranking positions and their titles suggest so. The titles of women are Handmaids, Aunts, Marthas, and so on. The highest-ranking women are Wives, married to Commanders; they have reached menopause and cannot conceive. Handmaids such as Offred and Oglen are sexual slaves and mistresses because they are fertile. Boston argues that when the government and religion are in cahoots, then things will go wrong (13). A truly democratic society is one where the government is free to run without being imposed any beliefs. Boston believes that religion should be imparted in a religious community not synonymous with the state, and the teachings should be personal. In Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, the democratic government was overthrown by the Sons of Jacob, a group of Old Testament fanatics who model the early half of the twenty-first on outdated biblical beliefs.

There is no individuality in Gilead. Women suffer the most as their sense of beauty, femininity, and sense of self-worth is determined by men. Sexual purity for women is seen as the most desirable trait, yet the same is not required for men. As Aunt Lydia tells the handmaids, including Offred, "Gilead knows no bounds. Gilead is within you." (Atwood 32) The bodies of women are an item for men to judge and use. Aunts teach handmaids how to behave with men; how to use their posture to submit to the men they are to sleep with to give children to Wives. It is hard to picture how people can cooperate in such an oppressive society.

Another feature of the totalitarian Sons of Jacob government is how they use their power to distort history. Atwood may have borrowed the oppressive tactic from George Orwell's novel 1984, where history is rewritten by the government of Big Brother (Orwell 33, 216). In 1984 the only major document which shows true history was Goldstein's handbook "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism." Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984 and Offred are both denied their freedoms, and worse, they are forced to be content with their miserable lives. In The Handmaid's Tale, people are similarly misinformed, just like in 1984.

Women are illiterate in Gilead. It is illegal for them to learn how to read and write because, as Offred recounts, "Some women believed there would be no future, they thought the world would explode. They said there was no sense in breeding." (Atwood 144). Offred believes the propaganda that Aunt Lydia tells her- many women the lie that their lives are perfect as they are. However, that is hardly so. The women referenced in the quote were right- the quality of life for women under the Republic of Gilead is much worse compared to back when it was the United States. Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is dull and sad for the handmaidens; they are forced to enjoy their supposed divine privilege of bearing children. Both governments understand that the citizens will be forced to be content with their lives if they have no glorious past to reminisce.

Depriving women the ability to read hides a much darker motive. Gay explains the harmful side of the Church in making believers "live in the past" (98). Christianity, according to Gay (1992) glorifies the past as some paradise, which we should go back. The Bible history goes back more than two thousand years; indeed, there are valuable lessons to be learned from biblical times but in many cases, at the expense of progress. The Church enjoys the privilege of being protected by the state such as exemption from paying taxes, promoting outdated beliefs, and top clergy thinking they are above the law in some situations (Gay 1992). The community of women in Cambridge, Massachusetts is disempowered by the sect of The Sons of Jacob.

It is clear to see why Gay (1992) and Boston (2014) advocate for separation of church and state. Religion with unencumbered power poisons minds, fosters corruption and commits crimes against people. In Gilead three in four women are sterile. Hence, handmaidens are highly regarded because of their fertility. Offred is named so because she belongs to Fred, her Commander. The reader does not get to know her real name which could be hidden in her flashback moments to when she was married before the Sons of Jacob seized power. The regime exploits handmaids (and indeed other classes). Once handmaids give birth to children for the Wives, they are dispensable.

Power in the Handmaid's Tale is wielded by the men affiliated with the Sons of Jacob. Canada to the North is regarded as a democratic paradise compared to Gilead. However, some women such as Aunt Lydia are delusional in their understanding of free will. She says to the handmaids: "There's more than one kind of freedom, freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it" (Atwood 34). Aunt Lydia has obviously accepted the oppression by the Sons of Jacob to the point that she imparts her beliefs on to the young handmaids. Since women are denied learning from books, it is saddening that all the handmaidens have to rely on is word of mouth and folklore from the likes of Aunt Lydia.

Boston (2014) and Gay (1992) mention several examples in the past where the Church influences the common narrative- spreading myth in a manner so unchecked that ultimately it becomes true. A similar scenario occurs in George Orwell's 1984 where the Ministry of Truth "manufactures the truth" out of literally nothing. Atwood goes further than Orwell's totalitarian regime and on top of that adds backward religious fanaticism from the Sons of Jacob. Total power is wielded by the Sons of Jacob. As Aunt Lydia said, the government reserves the right to deny people freedom. It is a miserable world which Offred finally escapes at the end of the novel, and the reader hopes she is truly free from the Sons of Jacob.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. "The Handmaid's Tale. 1985." New York: Anchor 1 (1998):

Boston, R. (2014). Taking liberties: Why religious freedom doesn't give you the right to tell other people what to do. Prometheus Books

Gay, Kathlyn. Church and state: Government and religion in the United States. Millbrook Press, 1992.

Orwell, George. "1984". London: Secker and Warburg, 1949. Print