What is the real protection and violence?

Chen Piao (Christine)

Dr. Marquardt

ENG 2403

March 30, 2015

Word Count: 727

What is the real protection and violence?

The Handmaid’s Tale is a long novel. It is dystopian. It shows the society in the Republic of Gilead through Offred’s eyes, and it triggers people’s thinking about gender conflict, politics, violence, freedom, etc.

 Gilead is a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the former regime. The environmental pollution leads to the low reproduction rates. So handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples that have trouble conceiving. Women cannot have personal property. They are not allowed to read or write. And handmaids even cannot have their own names. Offred is one of them. She serves the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy. Offred must have impersonal sex with the Commander every month, while Serena is behind her. The Eyes are everywhere, and Offred can leave the house only on shopping trips. There are many flashbacks about the former life she had. She actually had a family before. But when the new politics is on, they were caught and separated. She was sent to the Red Center and was indoctrinated into Gilead’s ideology in order to become a Handmaid.

Later in the Commander’s house, the Commander invited Offred to his study and play Scrabble together secretly. Without being pregnant, Offred is suggested by Serena to have sex with Nick, the Commander’s gardener and chauffeur, and pass the child off as the Commander’s. Soon they begin to sleep together frequently. Offred becomes caught up in the affair and ignores Ofglen’s requests that she gather information from the Commander for Mayday. Later Nick says the Eyes are Mayday members and coming to save her. Offred leaves, without knowing her future.

This novel actually contains a lot of information and thinking, such as the experience of Offred’s friend, Moira, from a resistant to one satisfies with the life in the club. But I only choose one of them to discuss. What I am going to discuss is the “protection” and “violence” in Gilead.

First, as Aunt Lydia says, a woman does not need to be worried about walking along at night any more. It is Gilead that protects all the people from horrific potential danger. There is less violent accident. The society becomes more and more orderly and safe. It is true on the surface. However, violence just permeates into the life. The bodies hanging beside the main gateway, the punishment to people who violate their obligation, the Colonies, and the Salvaging… Men are defined by their military rank, while women are defined solely by their gender roles as Wives, Handmaids, or Marthas. Common people have no right to read or write. People in Gilead actually have no freedom anymore. It is not protection or order. It is restraint. And it is a kind of mental violence.

Next, it is claimed that women are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. The official punishment for rape is extremely terrible. Nevertheless, Gilead just institutionalizes the sexual violence. In order to protect the multiplying of elite couples, handmaids must provide their wombs. They do not have the right to enjoy sex. They are just machines for multiplying. It is also the violence under the mask of protection. And it is a kind of sexual violence.

What is more, there is such a sentence in the novel, “We were a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice”. It tries to convey that it is many possible choices that make people confused and slower the development of the society. Now people in Gilead do not need to worry about making choices any more. Their life will be scheduled well. And what they only need to do is to follow the track and contribute to the human’s development. Is this really a protection for human society? I dare say no. It deprives people of the right to make choices. It is also a kind of terrible spiritual violence.

As we can see, Gilead is totalitarian and theocratic. Its ideology cannot be set up in a short time. And it also cannot be destroyed in a short period of time. People need revolution. And a successful revolution also needs the gather of people’s hearts. It takes time. If people are not aware of the society nowadays and do not try to make it better, maybe the society will just become another Gilead, having to use violence to protect the society itself.