Symbolism In The Handmaid's Tale

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I am a Christian. At least that’s what they told me. Parents, peers, pundits, politicians, priests: others are always telling us who we are. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the central narrator Offred states, “Because I am telling you this story, I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are” (268). Spinning Descartes’ infamous assertion, “I think, therefore, I am”, Offred toys with the reality of existence in the apocalyptic, oppressive, and biblically binding land of Gilead. In painting the picture of a totalitarian society defined by iconic religious imagery, Atwood shows her readers the peril of blindly accepting the vision of those who would lead us. Offred’s society is born from the death of America as we know it. Out …show more content…
“Let the women learn in silence with all subjection.” Here he looks us over. ‘All,’ he repeats. ‘But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, the Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety”(221). This reference to 1 Timothy 2:11-15 is proclaimed by one of the Commanders during a ceremony in which young girls within Gilead are being handed off in an arranged marriage in order to fulfill their duty to the Republic. As the Commander recites the story of Adam and Eve to the room filled with Gilead women, Atwood incorporates certain stresses within his speaking role in order to fully depict where the men of the Republic place the women in the pecking order. By stressing the world “all” then condescendingly examining the women before repeating it, the God-like image that males are supreme is solidified. From this context it is apparent that the expectations of the women are to be wholly submissive objects — fulfilling their purpose to the men; not permitting any female, regardless of status, to speak out, teach, or assume authority over a
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