Themes and Persuasion of Religion in "The Handmaid's Tale"

The Themes and Persuasion of Religion in The Handmaid’s Tale

(Image from Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale)

Before I switched my degree interest from Nursing to Multicultural and Gender Studies plus Comparative Religion, I took the class that I fell in love with- Women in Religion. I took this class in 2018 and we went through several different cultures and religion and how they view and treat their women. For our final, I heavily researched and wrote this essay about western religion in The Handmaids Tale. This essay has a special place in my heart, as I focused on this while going through some serious shit my first semester in college, hiding out in my dorm's study room. Here it is.

“Give me children, or else I die.” Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is the nightmare every woman alive has. It is no surprise that the biggest conversation being held in America right now is that of reverting back to a society of patriarchy since men like Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh are being handed power in government. The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel following a handmaid called Offred in the Republican of Gilead, a future United States of America. In this time the environment has gotten to the point of lowering birth rates. Most outcomes are miscarriages to children with deficiencies that die minutes after and it is seen as a miracle if a child is born healthy and to term. With this, the US government is now a theonomy, which means biblical law is applicable to civil law. Gilead is a patriarchal society, as one would expect, and so the government is male dominated. These men call themselves Commanders. With the theocratic society, every law is based on religion, this case being Christianity. With such religious impact on the society and government, Gilead is the definition of Hell.

In this new society each person has a unique role based on their “abilities.” Some being: The Commanders, who are the wealthy men; the Commander’s wives; Marthas, domestic servants for the wealthy families; and the Handmaid; the most important, but most oppressed class, breeders for the Commanders. Each handmaid is expected to give up their name and identity and go by Of- the name of the Commander they are serving.

The creation of Gilead is not specifically known, since Offred is the narrator and has limited knowledge, but it is seen that religious extremist groups that believed that America “needed to be saved from sin and corruption.” These groups went in and assassinated those who were keeping America on the rise of progression and they organized coordinated attacks, blaming it on “Islamic fanatics.” At the end of the novel, in the conference transcript, the groups had a name, “the Sons of Jacob.” In Genesis, Jacob is the son of Issac and the grandson of Abraham. Jacob fled to his mother’s brother Laban and at the time, Jacob feared his twin brother, Esau, would kill him (Genesis 27:41–46). It was at there that Jacob met Leah and Rachel. Jacob soon fell in love with Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, and agreed to work for Laban seven years in exchange for marriage to her (Genesis 29:16–20). Laban agreed, but after seven years, deceived him, giving Rachel’s older sister, Leah, to him as a wife instead. Jacob protested, but Laban argued that it wasn’t the custom to give the younger daughter in marriage first. Jacob and Leah stayed married. Laban then said Jacob could still have Rachel in exchange for another seven years of work (Genesis 29:21–30) In exchange for fourteen years of labor, Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel. Jacob showed favoritism to Rachael and loved her more than Leah. God compensated for the lack of love Leah received by enabling her to have children and closing Rachel’s womb for a time. This story is very important in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

The role of the Handmaids was created from the story of Rachel and Leah, and most likely the story of Hagar and the name that this religious extremist group symbolizes even more how impactful this story was to the creation of Gilead. The situation of the environment effecting births also pushes the creation of Gilead. While it is the cause of declining birth rates, it is taught and said to be because of the sins of women using birth control and getting abortions, much like the debates happening today of global warming and anti-abortion between some religious followers. Religion controls everything in this society.

Back in 1985, Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale as an

exaggeration of things she saw around her in her daily life as a woman. Little did anyone know that a story like this would be reality. Since the eighties there has been a movie adaption in 1990 and most recently, and adaption by Hulu in 2017. Not even five months after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, bringing the realization that the Republican of Gilead might the near future. With the topic of The Handmaid’s Tale impacting modernity, there are several details in the novel that are seen today. Today’s social ideals of attractiveness, such as wide hips and bigger breasts, are signs of fertility. In The Handmaid’s Tale, it is shown that the Commander’s, when creating the laws, color coded the women in their society.

The wives wear blue, symbolizing affection and admiration, yet not desire. While the handmaids wear scarlet red, symbolizing desire, yet degradable and despised. In the novel, Offred is sexualized by Fred Waterford, her commander, and is allowed special privileges of visiting his office late at night to play scrabble and read beauty magazines he picks, to him dressing her up and bringing her to a hotel to have sex with him. The way Waterford treats Offred is the opposite of the way he treats his own wife, Serena. He desexualizes her, puts her down, and won’t allow her even in his office. The wives are the “Virgin Mary’s” of the society.

This is very similar to the Madonna-whore complex, which is phycological complex, identified by Sigmund Freud, under the rubric of physic impotence. “In psychoanalytic literature, a Madonna–whore complex is the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving relationship… Men with this complex desire a sexual partner who has been degraded (the whore) while they cannot desire the respected partner (the Madonna). Freud wrote: ‘Where such men love they have no desire and where they desire, they cannot love.’” The Madonna-Whore complex also stems from the story of Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is a controversial figure in Christianity. She is a repentant prostitute “who found healing at the feet of Jesus, as a watcher at the Cross, as an attendant at Jesus' burial, and as the first person to hear the words of the newly risen Christ.” Offred is not the only handmaid that had experienced sexual harassment and assault from her commander. It is hinted that many others gave their commander’s sexual pleasure to be treated better. It is also hinted that the Offred before this one hung herself due to Waterford’s treatment. When Offred is first invited to Waterford’s office, she internalizes how illegal it is for her to be there and saying that even though that handmaids are the definition of a concubine, The Commander specially declared they are not. “My presence here is illegal. It’s forbidden for us to be alone with the Commanders. We are for breeding purposes: we aren’t concubines, geisha girls, courtesans.

On the contrary: everything possible has been done to remove us from that category. There is supposed to be nothing entertaining about us, no room is to be permitted for the flowering of secret lusts; no special favors are to be wheedled, by them or us, there are to be no toeholds for love. We are two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices.”

Even though the Commanders declared the handmaids not “concubines,” they certain view them as sex objects.

(Image from Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale)

This is especially seen when Waterford dresses up Offred in a short dress and makeup and brings her to an old hotel turned brothel, named Jezebels. Jezebel is a figure in the Hebrew bible. She is a queen and the wife of Ahab, the King of Israel. In the biblical story, Jezebel is associated with false prophets and her dressing in finery and makeup is associated to the use of cosmetics with "painted women" or prostitutes. Jezebels is not the only place named after religious figures and symbols. The grocery store the handmaids and marthas go to is called Loaves and Fishes, named from the bible story, Feeding the Multitude or Matthew 14:17, and the center where the women rounded up and trained to be handmaids is called the Racheal and Leah Center.

While having sex with a handmaid is forbidden and considered rape, the Ceremony is not. Once a month, when a handmaid is fertile, the Commanders and their wives, along with the rest of the household participates in the Ceremony. Before the Ceremony, the handmaid must bathe, just as most religious rituals do to purify oneself. Then the household gathers for readings of Genesis by the Commander, the patriarch, one of the only times the women can hear the fully quoted word of God since it is illegal for women to read. Afterwards, the Ceremony commences. They mostly stay clothed, because it is not sensual. The handmaid lays in between the wife’s legs as the Commander has intercourse with the handmaid. This symbolizes that they are "of one flesh."

This references the “story of Rachel, Jacob and their handmaid Billah, who bore children for the barren Rachel ‘upon [Rachel's] knees’.” Offred describes the ceremony as, “My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for.” Afterwards, the handmaid is supposed to lay and rest while the wife prays. For Offred though, Serena is angered and humiliated and yells at her to get out.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is not just about a

(Image of Jacob meeting Rachel)

dystopian future, it is about how much religion control can affect the lives of women. Atwood demonstrates how poorly women are portrayed in the stories of religions, especially in Christianity. Gilead only exists because of the ideas put into the minds of men by the bible. The epigraph of the novel is a quote from Genesis 30: 1-3, “And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel; and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.” The Handmaid’s Tale shows how impactful religion can be, especially to women.

Wow, that's heavy. I do not think religion is all evil. I study it for a reason. It is impactful to us as human beings and we cling to it for a reason. The reason for this essay is to ask the question- how are all kinds of people affected by religion? How far should we hold religion above our heads and everyone else? What is the line between faith and harm? We have to remember- being aware of harmful impactions is not sacrilegious.