From these facts alone it is understandable to see why Gilead chose to enforce a new regime.
It may have been thought that in doing so everyone would benefit form a safer society. This much is true. In some sense, women especially, as Aunt Lydia said have been “given freedom from”. Freedom from all the bad aspects from the time before. Women no longer had to be afraid for their safety, rape was no more and they were free to walk the streets without being hassled, as they were now protected by the “eyes” that watched over them.
In doing so however their freedom to, had been taken away from them. “In the days of the anarchy” says Aunt Lydia; “it was freedom to” do what as one pleased, now in Gilead, this kind of freedom was no more. They weren’t allowed any form of independence. Jobs were taken away, money confiscate and so forth.
Depending on which perspective you look at it from, different people have benefited from the change in freedoms.
In Gilead now, there is a hierarchy of structure. Everyone has a defined role to play in society; they know their place and wouldn’t question it.
At the top of the hierarchy are the commanders, right at the bottom are the handmaid’s, and the others such as a the commanders wives, Martha’s, and guards fall in place somewhere in between the two.
Looking at the hierarchy, it is obvious to see that it is the commanders who benefits from Gilead’s freedom. They hold the most status within the society. It is this status which segregates the commanders from others in this society, especially from the Handmaid’s.
Whereas the commanders have the power to do as they please when they please, the Handmaid’s lives are ran by various rules and regulations that they are forced to keep to. They are not given the freedom to do as they like. They are put into place to perform a service and it is not until that service is successfully carried out that they have a little freedom from the society’s regulation.
Not only is the freedom of choice been taken away from the Handmaid’s, but also the freedom to educate oneself. Knowledge is power and if those of lower status, than the commanders are given the right to education, then they may gain enough knowledge to manipulate the system (which is exactly what Offred does at the end of the novel).
So although it can bee said that women in all have benefited from freedom from, this is not entirely true.
There is no doubt to say that, yes they are now safe from the dangers of Gileads former ways (crime etc), but now they are restrained in many ways, more than one, that it is reasonable to suggest that their former way of living was more beneficial to women as a whole, because they had freedom and choice.
