[I found this lurking from a few years ago, and since the TV series has been on, I thought I’d publish this]
The Handmaid’s Tale
When I first looked through the reading list I made it my intention to read a text I had little previous knowledge of; no reviews or idea of synopsis so not to sway my initial opinion. I chose Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.
Having been to the lectures I knew this was a gothic romance; the incarcerated female with a fear of sexual violence and quite quickly drew parallels with other dystopian texts such as Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’. I avoided all critical essays until after finishing the novel. I wanted to establish my own thoughts first. At the beginning I rooted for our ‘heroine’, Offred. I wanted her to revolt, to bring down the patriarchy that oppressed her. Halfway through I realised the whimsical , sentimental, apathetic Offred just lets everything happen to her, it is all by chance rather than by her own volition. Days after finishing the book – still fuelled by frustration – the book that had hopes of a feminist empowerment dissolved to disappointment, my initial opinion swayed. Perhaps it is a feminist novel? I eagerly devoured critical texts which provided further insight into Atwood’s 1986 novel. Perhaps I disliked it because I was uncomfortable It is no longer far-fetched science fiction, it is a possible reality. Caryn James wrote in the New York Times:
(Atwood) advises, ”Anyone who wants power will try to manipulate you by appealing to your desires and fears, and sometimes your best instincts. Women have to be a little cautious about that kind of appeal to them. What are we being asked to give up?’ (James 1986)
I could readily ignore this ‘warning’ in which I live in a climate where the political and media landscape is filled with monsters and become an Offred character by continuing to accept the status quo.
The book was published in 1985 during third wave feminism and a rise of Christian right wing fundamentalism in America. A movement called the Moral Majority became popular in the late 1970’s America. The leader, Jerry Falwell said in 1980: “We’re fighting a holy war, what’s happened to America is that the wicked are bearing rule. We have to lead the nation back to the moral stance that made America great…we need to wield influence on those who govern us.” (Banwart. 2013)
His words 36 years ago are an echo of today and I think Atwood and her ‘warning’ should not be dismissed. All our steps forward in equality are counteracted by leaps backwards.
The book is set post environmental catastrophe – A nuclear/chemical disaster resulting in “colonies” and plummeting fertility. Despite the population in the book being mostly female it appears to be policed by men. The structure is domestic and divided into a class system based on a woman’s function.
The Commanders, presumably, are the high bureaucracy of the regime, yet they are oddly powerless in the household, having no part in the administration of discipline and ceremonially subject to their ageing wives. (James 1986).
Amongst the critical texts I read all posed the same question; ‘Is The Handmaid’s Tale’ a feminist text?’
On the outset I would have disagreed with any notion of it being feminist but through considering it further and reading arguments it is an interesting concept. Caryn James adds “Gilead is a woman’s world” (NY Times 1986). Women appear to wield the power despite it disguised as a patriarchy. In the Historical Notes at the back of the book Professor Pieixoto, talking of the ‘Aunts’, states; “…the best and most cost effective way to control women for reproductive and other purposes was through women themselves.” (P.320. Atwood 1996).
Atwood’s warning rings true since the culture of celebrity we embrace creates an inferiority amongst us – We are judged on our looks, our shape, our style and creating consumers crippled by the need for material and aesthetic wealth rather than intellectual and spiritual growth. On the subject of politics; subjugation of women by women in the political landscape occurs prominently by our own Theresa May who; “endorsed an austerity regime that saw the gender pay-gap increase, and been a stalwart of a government that introduced cuts that affected four times as many women as men” (Foster, 2016) and Hilary Clinton; “supposed penchant for women’s rights wasn’t taken into account when it came to taking money from countries that exhibit some of the worst examples of gender inequality in the world” (Sainato, 2016)
What I found in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ shocking is that Atwood has not made up any science fiction devices, everything that is in the book has happened at some point; there is no fantasy. She said in the Guardian:
The group-activated hangings, the tearing apart of human beings, the clothing specific to castes and classes, the forced childbearing and the appropriation of the results, the children stolen by regimes and placed for upbringing with high-ranking officials, the forbidding of literacy, the denial of property rights: all had precedents, and many were to be found not in other cultures and religions, but within western society, and within the “Christian” tradition, itself.” (Atwood 2012)
Personally, as a woman in her mid-thirties, I have been fortunate to witness symbolic historic events unfold; the fall of the Berlin wall, the ‘end’ of the Cold War, landmarks in LGBT and women’s rights, IRA resistance and subsequent ceasefire among many others. What I have followed is the wave of right-wing fundamentalism that ebbs and flows but never goes away, however disguised it may be. Dan Geddes adds to the idea of dystopian fiction serving as a warning:
It is important to keep in mind that the function of negative utopian literature is not to prophesy, but to warn, to spin out the implications of contemporary views and practices. It is perhaps justifiable to argue that if extreme elements of the religious right had their way then women would be denied certain legal liberties such as the right to abortion, and that such a regime would try to put the genie of permissive sexuality back in the bottle. (Geddes 2001).
It is difficult to treat ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ anything other than a prophecy when the newly elected President of the USA, “threatens not only to halt progress for American women but to dismantle existing rights, such as access to abortions, contraception and sexual health checks. His success demonstrates what women are up against when we try to take our rightful place alongside men.” (Walker. 2016)
The question of ‘Is it a feminist text’ is still complex. Even though women do subjugate other women, it is still a patriarchy. Serena Joy, the Commissioners wife, still seems powerless at the end. The names of the handmaid’s symbolise ownership by men, e.g. Ofglen means ‘Of Glen’ her Commissioner, it controls their identity. The handmaid’s are dressed in red, a symbol of femininity and of sin, but also I see intertextuality of the fairytale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. In chapter two Offred goes out in her red dress with a basket, out into a world of danger filled with ‘wolves’. In addition, if a woman rebels against the oppressive regime they are hanged, or like the character of Moira, forced into prostitution. If they are infertile, a gender traitor (homosexual or had an abortion) they are sent to the colonies. Not much is mentioned of men other than the Commissioners and the ‘Angels’ on the front line, or those who are victims of the ‘salvaging’.
The protagonist, Offred is an unreliable narrator. The historical notes reveal the text is transcribed from ‘found tapes’. It destabilises the narrative, the time line questionable and displaced. She spends time thinking about her husband, Luke, who in her memories appear to be kind despite his dismissive tone when talking about the genocidal theocracy as the only people affected, at the time, were women. Offred is accepting of his attitude and his reluctance to protest the oppressive regime.
As Offred recalls the ‘time before’ she still seems to be the doting women who lacks any sense of fight against the oppressors. Which is in contrast to her mother who is “radical feminist who chides her for her complacency and for failing to appreciate “how many women’s lives, how many women’s bodies, the tanks had to roll over to get as far as her husband doing some cooking. (Robertson 2014)
Is it a feminist text? It is a woman’s world, yet trapped in this system where a women are defined by function. The question is, who runs Gilead? It is not the Commissioners, nor the wives. It appears they are all sheep to an unknown shepherd; an interesting consideration since on several Gnostic websites ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is regarded as a Gnostic text (I consider myself Gnostic and adds further depth to the novel).
Atwood raises the question about the authenticity of history. It is determined by whom writes it. In this text it is ‘Her-story’ not ‘His-tory’ as Pieixoto in the historical notes states. The interpretation is about the motivations, prejudices and ideology of the writer; “Offred dedicated a lot of effort to construct a record…but ultimately re-constructed and defined by male academics, making them…the present day Commanders of our past.” (Bloom. 2004). ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ not only serves as a warning for the future, it also warns us that the past has an unstable narrative – it is dependent on who had written it, and to what agenda. For this reason, I appreciate the text – yet feel it is claustrophobic, women will forever be trapped in a patriarchy and their his-story.
Bibliography
Atwood, M (1996). The Handmaid’s Tale. London: Vintage Books.
Atwood, M. 2012. Haunted By The Handmaid’s Tale. 20th January. The Guardian Online. [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/20/handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood
Banwart, D. 2013. Jerry Falwell, the Rise of the Moral Majority, and the 1980 Election. Spring . Western Illinois Historical Review. [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: http://www.wiu.edu/cas/history/wihr/pdfs/Banwart-MoralMajorityVol5.pdf
Bloom, H. (2004). Bloom’s Guide To ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. New York: Chelsea Books.
Foster, D. 2016. Is Theresa May A Feminist?. August. Hearst Empowers. [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: http://empowering.hearst.co.uk/be-informed/is-theresa-may-a-feminist/
Geddes, D. 2001. Negative Utopia as Polemic: The Handmaid’s Tale. 1st January. The Satirist . [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: http://www.thesatirist.com/books/HANDMAID.html
James, C. McCarthy, M 1986. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale/The Lady Was Not For Hanging. 9th February. New York Times Online. [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/26/specials/mccarthy-atwood.html
Robertson, A.D.I. 2016. In Trump’s America, The Handmaid’s Tale matters more than ever. 9th November. The Verge. [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/20/7424951/does-the-handmaids-tale-hold-up-dystopia-feminism-fiction
Sainato, M. 2015. Why Bernie Sanders Cares More About Women’s Issues Than Hillary Clinton. 11th June. The Observer. [Online]. [10 November 2016]. Available from: http://observer.com/2015/11/why-bernie-sanders-cares-more-about-womens-issues-than-hillary-clinton/
Pook and the Palimpsest 