By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers Ahead: In 2017, it was hard to escape the presence of The Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood's dystopian Feminist novel seemed to be everywhere. It was made into a critically acclaimed Emmy winning Hulu series starring Elisabeth Moss. Protestors against sexual assault and for reproductive rights and other women's health issues have taken to standing in silence and wearing the Handmaid's costumes: a red robe and a white bonnet covering most of the face.
The book has been banned, analyzed, and debated over the themes and whether modern society is approaching the grim Totalitarian theocracy of Gilead, as envisioned by Atwood in 1985. When a novel reaches modern consciousness, sometimes people wonder if it's worth all the hype. Luckily in this case, the Atwood novel is and so much more. It is one of the Landmark works of Postmodern Feminism.
(Note: I am basing this review on the novel since I don't have a Hulu subscription and have not seen the series-a shame since I love the novel and am a fan of Elisabeth Moss. I will make passing references to the series based on things I have heard but since the series will soon be entering its second season, I must reiterate that this review will contain spoilers.)
For the few people unaware of the premise, The Handmaid's Tale is set in a futuristic United States which has become a collective of Theocracies that tie church and state together tightly. (You know that thing the Constitution warned us about in separating them.) The main setting is Gilead, which is formerly known as the state of Maine. The Gileadian structure, indeed most of the governments, is very unstable. Many of the various religious factions war against each other. Different racial and ethnic minorities have been either isolated or wiped out. Previous nuclear attacks have rendered the population diminished and sterile.
Because of the reduced population and the strict religious laws, the roles of men and women are rigidly defined. Men either fight in the wars, are Guardians of the various enclaves, or are Commanders or overseers of the communities. Women are tightly constrained as either Wives of the Commanders, Marthas who are housekeepers and cooks, Econowives, wives of poorer men, or Handmaids, women of childbearing years who are given the task to give birth to their Commander's children, whether they want to or not.
The book is told by one of the Handmaids, known as Offred a patronym meaning that the Handmaids belong to their Commanders, in this case Fred. Showing that the women don't even have the freedom of a real name beyond belonging to a man. (Though there are hints in the book that Offred's real name is June, which the series also uses as her name in flashbacks.)
Offred describes her daily life in which the Handmaids are constantly monitored, deprived of possessions, and forced to remain silent, according to the Biblical tenets which dictate their society. Their only outside experiences are their shopping trips in which they are partnered with other Handmaids and walk into stores with pictures for signs. (In this society women are not permitted to read because in the words of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast: "Next you thing you know women start getting ideas...thinking."). The women however also are forced to participate in sex rites with their much older Commanders for the purpose of conceiving children. So women are meant to be sexual playthings in a society dominated by religious dogma. It's a world dominated by men who are somewhere between Mike Pence and Harvey Weinstein.
Like 1984's Winston Smith, Offred hates her society but does not overtly rebel against it. Instead she covertly acts in small ways to retain her individuality and humanity in a world of forced conformity. She sees words scratched in her room which says "Notile te bastardes carborundorum" which she repeats silently as a mantra. (She later learns that it means "don't let the bastards grind you down" making her repetition of the phrase more subversive.)
She goes with her shopping partner to the Wall where prisoners are hung and displayed for various "crimes" such as participating in abortions, being "gender traitors" i.e. homosexuals, and being different religions.
She takes a secret smug delight in the silenced and diminished role of Serena Joy, Commander Fred's Wife who used to be a Conservative Religious spokeswoman who campaigned against Feminism and insisted that a woman's place should be in the home. ("How furious she must be now that she has been taken at her word," Offred remarks observing Serena Joy's now-powerless role in the world she helped create by her views.)
Offred also uses restricted alone time with her Commander to play Scrabble and to be granted favors like hand lotion and magazines, and to receive answers to questions about why the world became the way it did. ("Better never means better for everyone," The Commander observes. "It always means worse for some.") These moments of defiance serves to remind Offred that she is an individual person underneath the red robe and that as long as she is aware of that, her spirit can never be broken.
Another way Offred retains her individuality is to retain her memories of her life "in the Time Before." She recalls her Feminist mother who gave birth to her in middle age and used to drag her daughter to protest marches when Offred was a little girl. Offred also rembers her best friend and former college roommate, Moira and how the two shared cigarettes, pretentious thoughts, and opinions on men and society.
Above all, Offred remembers having a job at a library, a husband named Luke, and a daughter, all of which she loved and loved having the freedom of choosing a life.
She recalls the world changing around her-Conservative pundits, like Serena Joy, speaking loudly about Traditional values, declining birth rates and infant kidnapping including briefly her own daughter's, slight restructuring of laws giving less rights to women-until the day comes when Offered and her female colleagues are removed from their jobs and their cards are declined; when their status as women were marginalized and they officially became second-class citizens.
These memories of those basic times of various choices of wearing different clothes, earning her own money, having relationships become dear to Offred. She also recalls various memories with the people in her life; the bad-the teasing, her mother's embarrassments, Moira's odd views, squabbles with Luke and her daughter, and the good- advice from her mother, heart-to-heart chats with Moira, public moments of affection and romance with Luke, and a joyous bond with her daughter. Offred misses all of them and the people they used to be.
With a feeling of nostalgia, Offred longs for the return of those days no matter how embarrassing, confusing, and minor they seemed at the time but are now precious in a world she no longer recognizes. They become weapons in her defiance against the Gileadian society as she longs for a different time because she lived through it.
There are hints of a Resistance and Offred possibly becomes involved with a member who may also be a spy for Gilead. In the end, Offred's whereabouts become murky as she is taken away never to be heard from again. (Though a second season to the series is planned with Atwood's full cooperation.)
However, an epilogue set long after the end of the Gileadian regime in which women reclaim their full power states that Offred's account of her life as a Handmaid was an important document in the return of a Feminist society.
The academic epilogue in which a professor discusses Offred's account shows that in her small acts of subversion and her accounts of her life before and her time as a Handmaid, Offred gained more than she ever would have believed in her life time.: People inspired by her to survive the Totalitarian regime of Gilead, to fight against it, and ultimately defeat it.
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