Allusions For The Handmaid's Tale
Allusions (For The Handmaid's Tale)
Imagine a time and a place in the future where women are not allowed to show their face and are forced to wear long red garments. A place where love and romance are forbidden and to participate in such a way is punishable by death. Margaret Atwood's novel "The Handmaid's Tale" shows what life would be like in a place like this. Atwood uses biblical allusions to show similarities between the society and the characters with the events in the bible.
One of the first biblical allusions is the Republic of Gileade. In the Bible the Gilead is a land where families went to live because the soil was fertile and the livestock was prosperous. The Republic of Gilead was prosperous because of its fertile soil. However, in "The Handmaid's Tale", it was the woman who could have children, not fertile soil. The allusion applies in this society because their prosperity was procreation. If you could not have children, you were worthless, unless you were wealthy and have your children through your handmaid. Therefore, in this society the richest is not in the soil, but in the womb of a woman.
Another biblical allusion is the epigraph "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...he said...who hath with held thoe the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bibah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her." (Genesis 30:1-3). This allusion applies to "It's not the husbands you have to watch for, said Aunt Lydia, it's the wives, you should always try to imagine what they must feeling, of course, they will resent you. It is only natural. You must realize they are defeated women". (pg 61) Rachel was unable to bare children just as the commander's wife, Serena Joy, was unable to. The whole purposes of the Republic of Gileade is to procreate and those who couldn't were worthless or had a surrogate mother, the handmaids. Serena Joy, was angry and saddened that her husbands had to sleep with another women, which explains the attitude she has towards Offred.
Biblical allusions are found throughout the...