Diego Pérez 10-2 August 29, 2003
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Societies Assignment
“The Handmaid’s Tale”, written by Margaret Atwood, is set in two different times simultaneously, both being separate societies, with unlike moral principles. While Atwood describes the pre-Gilead society as one dealing with an unmanageable amount of injustices regarding women, since pornography, prostitution, and violence against women were getting out of the government’s hands. Nevertheless, women were allowed to read in the pre-Gilead society, and had a wide amount of liberties compared to the ones handmaids in Gilead receive. Also, the society before Gilead was formed suffered from conflicts between religions and racial tensions, also known as the “Sect Wars”. On the other hand, Gilead, being the present society in the novel, shows a much more distant difference in liberties between both sexes. Women are used as procreation tools, and cannot have privacy whatsoever with the laws enforced by the system, such as not letting handmaids close their bedroom’s door completely. Also, women aren’t allowed to read, like in the previous society, so that they cannot gain any knowledge. Ironically, it seems that both genders were having a better life in the previous society, which is described as chaotic, rather than in Gilead, even-though men have complete control over the law. Atwood writes about the reason of Gilead arising over the old society being an exponential decrease in birth rates. Another notorious difference between Gilead and pre-Gilead is that pre-Gilead tolerated homosexuality up to certain extent, while Gilead’s law declares the extermination of homosexual humans. As if the Catholic Church has lost the “Sect Wars” in the old society, priests or believers of such religion are also killed by the new system.
