Gilead's Dehumanization of Women

In history, women in the United States have constantly fought to achieve freedom, equality, and independence and have been successful in many ways. But what if that was all taken away within a year, a month, or even a day? Would they slowly deteriorate back to their old inferior lifestyle? Well, that is what the women in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale experience in the totalitarian society of Gilead. Women, especially the Handmaids, are dehumanized to an extent that they are no longer individuals in society, but more an important 'national treasure' (75).

    ‘I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation,

     or an implement for the accomplishment of my will. I could use it to run, push buttons,

     of one sort or another, make things happen. There were limits but my body was 

    nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me’ (83).

     ‘Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central 

      object, the shape of a pear, which is hear more real than I am and glows red within its 

      translucent wrapping’ (84).

In these two passages, it is evident that the roles of women have drastically changed in Gilead. They are basically thought as baby makers and if they fail (to have a miscarriage) to fulfill their duty, they are 'shipped off to the Colonies, with the Unwomen' (71). So if they fail their one task, they're no longer considered women? This makes me so angry because miscarriages are something uncontrollable and something that can happen to anyone and if that happens in Gilead, women are basically viewed as useless non-human beings. The Gilead government is to blame for the decrease in children because they are the ones shipping away women who are still capable of bearing a child.

This passage, ‘He rests a moment, withdraws, recedes, rezippers. He nods, then turns and leaves the room, closing the door with exaggerated care behind him, as if both of us are his ailing mother’ (106) was interesting because once the Commanders are done having sex with the Handmaids they just simply walk out of the room, as if nothing ever happened. I mean I understand that their job is to bear a child for their Commander but for him to just simply do what he came to do and walk out of the room as if nothing ever happened...? Well I thought that was quite interesting. I think this also relates to the passage, ‘I cannot avoid seeing, now, the small tattoo on my ankle. Four digits and an eye, a passport in reverse. It's supposed to guarantee that I will never be able to fade, finally, into another landscape. I am too important, too scarce, for that. I am a national treasure’ (75) because again, it manifests the idea of women as central objects.

I also think that the environment of Gilead itself already makes women feel as if they aren't human beings because the narrator implies that, ‘There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere. Who knows where they are or what their names are no?’ (113). This makes it seem like women are so detached to their old world that eventually they alienate themselves. Gilead has changed these women so much that they can't even love anything in their lives because society has taken everything they cared about away from them.