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.