Commentary on "The Handmaid's Tale"

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale presents a world that may seem foreign to many Western people, but is akin to some very real cultures that exist today.  The novel describes a society based upon fundamentalist religion, however, the elements of faith and emotion are missing in Gilead.  The senseless descriptions of Offred’s world portray the effects of such a society controlling people.  The allusions to the Bible are interesting in this novel because in Gilead, the government twists what is said or meant in the Bible to suit its own needs and preaches morality according to the Bible, yet ruthlessly tortures and murders those who oppose it. In this world that is devoid of faith, religion contradicts itself to the point where it becomes a despotic ruler rather than a spiritual experience.  The details in this novel, from the various words played in Offred’s games of Scrabble to the descriptions of common punishments in Gilead to the monotony of Offred’s every day, play a key role in the meaning of the novel. Many subtle jeers toward religious, social, and cultural issues exist in the novel, often displaying the idea that anything in an extreme form- be it liberal or fundamentalist- is detrimental and leads to deviation from the original, decent cause.

Passage from "The Handmaid's Tale"

“A chair, a table, a lamp.  Above, on the white ceiling, a relief ornament in the shape of a wreath, and in the center of it a blank space, plastered over, like the place in a face where the eye has been taken out.  There must have been a chandelier, once.  They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.” (Atwood 7)

This quote from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale exhibits, in just a few short phrases, the suffering that women face in Gilead.  A scenario in which death is thought to be preferable to living would be considered terrible by any standard.  The writing in the novel does not contain a great deal of emotion; Offred blankly names objects in the room without further descriptions that would tie any sort of feelings to these things.  This absence of emotion conveys the senselessness that is experienced by Offred.  The statement that, “They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to” is disturbing in its lack of feeling, and it is a more powerful way to express the hopelessness of the women in Gilead than saying that women often hang themselves in order to escape the society.  The quote incorporates this idea, yet the utter indifference that Offred displays is frightening and depicts the desensitization that occurs after enough exposure to something, regardless of how unsettling it may be at first.

Religion versus Faith in "The Handmaid's Tale"

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, there is a great disparity between religion and faith.  The society of Gilead claims to be based upon religious doctrine and advocates a lifestyle that strictly adheres to scripture. For example, the Aunts in the Red Center and the Commander read Bible stories to the women of Gilead.  The government also urges the Wives to call in and purchase Soul Scrolls, prayers that read off by machines, supposedly for religious purposes.  However, these actions are not received with the warmth, understanding, and hope that often accompany religion, as faith is not evident in Gilead.

The lack of faith in The Handmaid’s Tale is made clear by Offred’s disinterested attitude on the subject of religion.  She says, “FAITH is a faded blue, the leaves of the lilies a dingy green.  This is a cushion once used elsewhere, worn but not enough to throw out.  Somehow it’s been overlooked” (Atwood 57).  This quote exemplifies the fact that in Gilead, religion and devotion are not interconnected and that while structured religion has a firm place in the society, faith is not considered.

Before the Ceremony, the Commander reads stories from the Bible, some accurate and some modified to suit the whims of Gilead’s leaders.  Offred responds to these stories by stating, “It’s the usual story, the usual stories… Then comes the moldy old Rachel and Leah stuff we had drummed into us at the Center” (88).  This world where religion, which is typically a spiritual experience, is said to take precedence over almost everything else is virtually devoid of emotion.  During the Salvaging, Offred describes her hopeless surroundings, “We don’t sit on chairs, but kneel, and this time we have cushions, small red velvet ones with nothing written on them, not even Faith” (273). Here, the presence of a governing body based upon religion in the absence of faith contributes to human existence that is stripped of all sentiments, and this ultimately contradicts the purpose of religion as a whole.

Commentary on "We"

 Overall, We was a very intriguing novel in its depiction of a future society and its expression of a troubled mind.  The novel’s setting was not entirely realistic and even the characters themselves seemed only brainwashed minions of a totalitarian government.  This certainly lends itself to the detachment felt in the novel as the protagonist D-503 is struggling to understand his identity and purpose in his world.  The form of the writing contributes greatly to the sense of confusion felt by D-503, as many thoughts are cut off and never finished.  The style of writing made the narrative unclear, which was frustrating at some points, but it typically allowed for a distinct feeling of isolation and despair that was a key aspect in envisioning the torment that D-503 was experiencing.

A Quote from "We"

“Somehow this never entered my head before, but this is really how it is: We on this earth are walking the whole time above a boiling crimson sea of fire, hidden down there in the bowels of the earth.  But we never think of it.  And then suddenly the thin shell beneath our feet seems to turn to glass, and suddenly we see….” (Zamyatin 56)

This quote encapsulates the idea of an awakening in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We.  D-503 has come to question the firm regulations of OneState and begins to acknowledge his own unique thoughts, rather than acting as a mechanical part of the society as is expected by the government.  Rather than merely stating that D-503 has come to realize that he has ideas of his own, Zamyatin constructs a parallel between the soul and “a boiling crimson sea of fire.”  This analogy depicts D-503’s inner self as yearning to escape from the dark confines of his previously structured existence.  The quote exhibits a certain amount of unrest, as the instability of D-503’s personality is compared to a boiling sea, conjuring up images of inevitable outburst from the “thin shell” that surrounds it.  Throughout the novel, D-503 struggles between an outer, conformist identity, and his inner self that is perceived.  Ultimately this radical identity is unable to break through the shell that OneState constructed between D-503’s exterior and his not-so-unconquerable soul.

Mathematics in Zamyatin's "We"

The society in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We is driven by the world of mathematics.  The protagonist, D-503, describes the mission of OneState as attempting to “… integrate completely the colossal equation of the universe. Yes: to unbend the wild curve, to straighten it tangentially, asymptotically, to flatten it to an undeviating line. Because the line of OneState is a straight line.  The great, divine, precise, wise straight line…” (Zamyatin 4).  However, while D-503 claims that OneState is a “mathematically perfect” society, it is clear that a vital element is missing in this world, and its absence cannot be resolved by an equation.
 
To D-503, all aspects of mathematics are beautiful and simple except for one- the irrational root.  This concept troubles D-503, “That irrational root grew in me like some alien thing, strange and terrifying, and it was eating me, and you couldn’t make any sense of it or neutralize it because it was completely beyond ratio” (39).  The irrational root’s existence demonstrates to D-503 that not everything in mathematics, and correspondingly the world, can be calculated with proportions or expressions; it indicates that not everything makes sense in his terms.  His struggles with this notion intensify throughout the novel, “For irrational formulas, for my √-1, we know of no corresponding solids, we’ve never seen them…. But that’s just the whole horror—that these solids, invisible, exist.  They absolutely inescapably must exist” (98).  After all, if D-503 cannot accept that √-1 is a value, then how will he possibly comprehend something as abstract, as absurd as a soul?

While mathematics is a very structured discipline, and is referred to often as a thing of beauty and necessity in We, mathematics ultimately fails to explain to D-503 his purpose and the answer as to why he loves I-330, the personification of the irrational root.  With this, Zamyatin is displaying the idea that life cannot be systematically consolidated into a set of numbers and symbols that definitively determine its meaning- there will always be irrational root preventing this.