The Feminist Message in "The Handmaid’s Tale" and Its Sequel "The Testaments"

Introduction

“Despite the strict patriarchal structure of Gilead, it is ultimately the female voice that wins out in the end.”

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'The Feminist Message in "The Handmaid’s Tale" and Its Sequel "The Testaments"'

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One of the main features of Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and its sequel “The Testaments” is the strong feminist message Atwood communicates through them. Despite the strength with which we see the manifestation and control of the patriarchal structure of Gileadean society, the female voice which permeates the story is ultimately the force which wins out.

The women of Gilead are oppressed in every possible way, most notably through rape and the ceremonial confiscation of their reproductive rights. This is seen through the deeply biblical and sexist views held by Gilead on reproduction and sexuality, especially in relation to women. Atwood makes use of a metaphor comparing women (more specifically handmaids), to containers and their fertility as the contents of the container, “We are containers, it’s only the inside of our bodies that are important.” Handmaid’s while being despised by many of the wives and even daughters of Gilead, seen in Shunamite’s approach to them in Agnes’ tale “They get passed around until they have a baby. They’re all sluts anyway, they don’t need real names.”, they are treated also as sacred vessels as they hold the ability to produce the future generation of Gilead. However, the division between the valued fertility and personhood is highlighted in Janine’s Birthing Ceremony, where Janine’s Commander’s Wife pretends to give birth at the same time, and the faked birth is treated as the authentic one. The Handmaids are completely deprived of motherhood. They have no right to keep the children they give birth to; instead, their reproductive potential becomes their means of survival.

They are also banned from reading and writing- a restriction that deprives women of any chance to record their own history. This loss of literary awareness and power is seen throughout both novels, first in the family gathering in The Handmaid’s Tale, 'The Bible is kept locked up... We can be read to from it, by him, but we cannot read’. The reader can see this again in Agnes’ story in The Testaments as we see how women are not only prohibited from reading but that they are educated into believing that men are the only ones capable of the act itself, “That was a talent women had because of their special brains, which were not hard and focused like the brains of men but soft and damp and warm and enveloping” .This emphasises Atwood's special warning intended for women writers, historians and artists. In a patriarchal society turned radical and violent, the female voice will be stifled. This strict enforcement of gender roles and norms can lead women to have a lower view of their own capacities; creating an under-developed sense of self and inhibiting their ability to stand up for themselves. Atwood however challenges this view, demonstrating how the female voice refuses to be stifled, fighting back and ultimately being the thing that destroys Gilead.

Suppression of the female voice in Gilead society

The topic of freedom or the lack of it, is a predominant issue in dystopian literature. Most dystopian novels depict totalitarian societies in which freedom is strictly limited or inexistent. Jelena Živić argued that “Offred’s story is similar to the classic slave narrative… As in the classic slave narrative, the Handmaids are enslaved by the dominant minority – the Commanders.”

The most common way the reader is shown Gilead's control of the female voice throughout the two novels is through their manipulation of language itself. We see this first through the stripping away of the handmaids’ names. The Commander and his wife accept Offred only for her proven fertility, and they even rename her as Fred’s possession; they are instead referred to through the naming of the commander they serve, their body’s functions are valued, but their personhood is not, 'My name isn't Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it's forbidden.' This shows how Offred characterisation of herself has been influenced. Due to the fact that she is constantly degraded and controlled, she believes that personal information, even her name, are not relevant. This quote proves that this society is corrupting handmaids’, and by extension all women’s, opinions on themselves. In Offred’s case we see that her most often strong and resilient personality has been taken over by self-consciousness and vulnerability. This control of freedom of expression causes Offred to present a fragmented narrative, with regular flashbacks to a time when she felt like she had some semblance of self-agency in her life.

We also see this through Gilead's enforcement of the use of religious language among the Handmaids, 'Blessed be the fruit... the accepted greeting among us.' This suppresses their freedom of expression, not allowing any room for thoughts of rebellion or injustice, maintaining the theocratic and patriarchal dictatorship. This restriction of language brainwashes those in the lower ranks of Gileadean society, ie women, allowing the commanders to maintain control. Atwood wrote the novel shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fuelled by a strong, well-organised movement of religious conservatives who criticised what they perceived as the excesses of the 'sexual revolution' of the 1960s and 1970s. The growing power of this 'religious right' heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in previous decades would be reversed and thus the female voice, silenced.

However, ultimately Gilead is unable to fully control the minds of those who it oppresses. We see many points in the novel where Offred attempts to assert her individuality in small ways, never fully succumbing or accepting the identity which has been forced upon her. Firstly, she refuses to say 'my' room and later, when she does say 'mine', she asserts her right to do so, 'There has to be some space, finally, that I claim as mine.' This is also seen as she creeps downstairs to steal a dead flower - an almost completely pointless gesture, but one which asserts her sense of individuality, and reminds her 'of what I once could do'.

Through the shift in the narrative voice from one single first-person perspective to three we are also able to see that Gilead cannot control the minds of its women in the long term either. This shift serves to reflect the growth in the power of the female voice within Gilead itself, as well as its refusal to submit to patriarchal control. 30 years on from the publication of The Handmaid's Tale, there has been a rise in social uprisings to defend the rights of oppressed groups such as the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements. These help to contextualise the more actively rebellious role taken on by characters like Aunt Lydia and Nicole and helps explain the more action-filled, thriller-like narrative seen in The Testaments.

Another principal way in which the patriarchal system of Gilead works to suppress the female voice is through isolation. We see this is done not only physically but emotionally and socially as well. Every woman of Gilead is classified into a rigid hierarchy, with different uniforms in specific colours and names to denote their role within the state organisation. Without a choice of clothing, the differences in individual appearances are minimised and the differences between the groups are emphasised, 'The Marthas are not supposed to fraternise with us.' A prime example of this in the novel is Offred's isolation in the household as she spends much of her time alone in her room, even forced to eat meals separately from the rest of the household. By segregating women in almost every way and forcing them to feel different from one another. They feel alone and isolated, unable to rise up against oppression on their own, preferring to be pit against one another, seen in the Marthas' obsession with gossip, 'They are very interested in how other households are run; such bits of petty gossip give them an opportunity for pride or discontent.' This serves to contrast what we are shown in The Testaments. Atwood shows us how the women of Gilead, ie Aunt Lydia and Offred's two daughters, come together to cooperate despite their vast differences and ultimately cause the downfall of the patriarchal system of Gilead. Many would argue that the growth in women's rights movements today such as The Women's March and #MeToo heavily influenced Atwood in this way, presenting how today women stand together as a united front against injustice.

Another way in which we see much of the patriarchal control Gilead exerts upon the female characters is through their indoctrination, making use of shame, fear and repression, seen in the character of Agnes. We see that all throughout her childhood and schooling, the language employed by characters such as Aunt Vidala and Aunt Estée is designed to reinforce the idea of maintaining innocence and pure, 'we were precious flowers'. Much of Agnes' education as we see it as based on reinforcing and emphasising notions such as these. This indoctrination distorts the world view of all the women being raised in Gilead, they will believe the patriarchal exerted on them serves a positive role, protecting them from their own destructive influence, 'we were the innocent and blameless causes that through our very nature could make men drink with lust'. The trend of Agnes' narration is often this blend of biblical, almost Old Testament language with more modern as well as gentle language. This gives the reader almost a sense of sarcasm and mocking of Gilead's ways.

Agnes' voice often echoes that of Offred. She demonstrates how the female voice survives within the system where it is powerless, and how despite the systems attempt to smother and rob women of their individuality, indoctrinate them, they are able to realise and fight against the injustice of total patriarchy. We see this through the frustration and fear that Agnes experiences over being refused her fundamental right to be able to make choices that affect her life. As a young girl, Agnes witnesses her family's Handmaid, Ofkyle, die in childbirth. While Agnes's family and the doctor praise Ofkyle for making the 'ultimate sacrifice' and having died with 'noble womanly honor,' Agnes is deeply disturbed, as Ofkyle's death was not something that she chose. Agnes's revulsion and deep sympathy for the Handmaid suggests that it is not even Ofkyle's death, but her total inability to choose whether or not she lives or dies, that is the greatest injustice forced upon her as a woman.

However, I would argue that she serves to brief a degree of balance to the narrative, often sounding defensive of Gilead, ‘I hope you will remember, too, that we all have some nostalgia for whatever kindness we have known as children'. She balances the highly critical and negative view every other narrator has of Gilead. Agnes indeed confesses that she loved the core idea of Gilead and supported its original core ideals (I would argue this would be mostly due to the indoctrination the reader sees throughout her childhood) but fight against the deep corruption that plagued the system and oppressed women for the gain of greedy men. I would argue that this is Agnes' female voice shining through, although she had love for her early years, she refused to be oppressed and desired freedom.

Nicole serves almost the opposite function to her sister. She too echoes Offred, her mother, in that she actively chooses the path of rebellion against the state. We see this active role highly emphasised through the novel as Nicole actively engages in the only violence we see carried out by a female character in the novels besides the 'particicutions' in which the Handmaids take part, 'Nicole did something with her fist... she hit Aunt Vidala in the chest.’ She also engages in subterfuge and secret rebellion like all the other female narrator which we see in Atwood's choice to give her multiple names throughout the narrative, Daisy, Nicole and Jade. She serves to demonstrate how being raised away from the totalitarian control of the patriarchal state can allow female voice to flourish and grow powerful, seen in her almost complete refusal to project too much of an outward façade of conformity, 'she would make a show of trying, But these attempts would not last long.'

However, I would argue that even Nicole, who grows up in an open, democratic society in Canada and has considerably more power to make her own decisions, finds that sometimes she, too, is given little choice in major decisions in her life-especially given that she is swept up in external events that are far beyond her control, ‘I somehow agreed to go to Gilead without ever definitely agreeing.’ Nicole’s seeming lack of choice in a decision that could either irreversibly change or even cost her life is comparative to Handmaid Ofkyle’s lack of choice in whether or she or her baby lives. This complicates the concept of choice, since Nicole’s unchosen task is the best hope of defeating the Gilead regime, suggesting that an individual may sometimes need to set aside their own personal agency for the sake of the greater good, which in Nicole’s case will free the women to the patriarchal control exerted by Gilead and allow them all to and exert their own personal agency.

Aunt Lydia's narrative within The Testaments highly contrasts to how Atwood characterises her throughout The Handmaid's Tale. Throughout the former novel, the role played by Aunt Lydia and the other Aunts in maintaining the Handmaids was highly ironic. Aunt Lydia seemed to be an archetype of power and oppressive control within Gilead. Gilead made use of her and other women they selected for power in order to ensure full oppression of their voice. She however is shown to play a role very similar to that which Offred played, secretly plotting to undermine Gilead's aims. She acts as an example of how the female voice adapts and subverts the control of the patriarchal system exerted on it in order to achieve their goals, 'I've become swollen with power, true, but also nebulous with it-formless, shape-shifting. I am everywhere and nowhere: even in the minds of the Commanders I cast an unsettling shadow.'

This heavily seen in how Lydia's narrative is actually her compliance of all the evils and wrong-doings committed by those who control Gilead. We see this as she uses the one privilege afforded to her above other women, her ability to write, in order to destroy the system. Writing in this world has become the most subversive act, ‘There are several within Ardua Hall who would love to get their hands on these pages.’ We also see this in her heavy use of sarcasm when describing the regime for which she works, describing the ‘enthusiastic book-burnings that have been going on across our land.’

There is much evidence of her guilt, but she never once tries to excuse this behaviour or the actions of Gilead to which she has contributed. This demonstrates the lengths to which the female voice will go to survive, the overthrowing of the patriarchal system is something that must be patiently and slowly worked towards. Just like Offred she can only rebel as far as her circumstance allows, working towards an ultimate long-term plan and goal. Anne Enright argued that 'Aunt Lydia behaves as the novelist does, bringing people together for the purpose of plot, which in her case is also plotting. The novel is her conspiracy of one.'

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite the deeply totalitarian and patriarchal nature of Gilead and the many ways in which it exerts control over the female voice present, the female characters find ways to survive allowing them to carry out a long-term plan. Ultimately, the female voice wins out in the end as it causes the downfall of Gilead.