In the previous post entitled Gilead's Dehumanization of Women, I talked about how the totalitarian society of Gilead dehumanized women, especially the Handmaid's as a babymaker. But now that I think more about Gilead and its strict laws, I've come to realize that women weren't the only antagonists in this dehumanization, but men were also affected.
Adding on to my previous argument that women were only important because they were the babymakers, Gilead dehumanized them to the extent that women began to consider themselves as 'containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important' (107). It's really horrifying to see these women transform and slowly deteriorate as 'two-legged wombs, that's all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices' (146).
I thought it was even more terrifying when the Commander invited Offred to his office for a game of Scrabble but he himself didn't really understand as to why he invited her. When she see's him she says that 'his motives and desires weren't obvious even to him. They had not yet reached the level of words' (163), suggesting that because men became the sex-machines in Gilead, he didn't know how to act normally anymore. It seemed like all he knew how to do was have sex with the Handmaid's because Gilead dehumanized him to fulfill that specific duty. I think it's evident that dehumanization not only affected women, but also the men as well.
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