If the Gilead society is supposed to be focused on religion, why do they condemn and execute priests and nuns, usually thought of as the most pious people? Is Atwood just using this to show the absurdity and hypocrisy of the society?
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If the Gilead society is supposed to be focused on religion, why do they condemn and execute priests and nuns, usually thought of as the most pious people? Is Atwood just using this to show the absurdity and hypocrisy of the society?
There is irony in the amount of religious references Atwood makes in the novel. Albeit she has many references to Christianity by the Bible, there are no actual references to Christ himself. The church is abandoned and is only a museum, and right across from the church is the Wall. The wall is where many innocent people have been killed and were now being displayed for the sick reason of simply making an example of what not to do. It's quite ironic because that was the purpose of Christ's crucifixion, to show people where the real power lay and to make an example of him. For a very religious society, there is very little mention of religion. I believe the reason she may have done this is to show that what is controlling this society really isn't...religion per say, but just a very corrupt group of peoples who understood that the way to many people's inner thoughts and fears was to mention god.Quote:
Originally Posted by hello:)
Reading the Handmaind’s Tale, I think we have all noticed that the handmaid’s names are rather similar to each other. Each having the prefix of ‘of’ and then a masculine names afterwards, (Fred, Glen…). The reason for this is to make the women look like commodities, they don’t even get to retain their original name. On page 99 (Google Books version) Offred is talking about how she is forbidden to say her original name. Besides just taking away the woman’s identity, is there possibly another reason that Atwood chose the suffixes that she did?
I think the Gilead society condemns and executes priests and nuns because these priests and nuns have excessive knowledge regarding the religion the Gilead regime is trying to manipulate and use to its advantage. If the priest and nuns were still around during the Gilead regime, it would not be possible to manipulate them and change the context of the Bible because the nuns and priests would know that it is not correct. At one point in the book it says "Blessed are the silent. I knew they made that up, I knew it was wrong, and they left things out, too, but there was no way of checking" (89). Offred knows that this part of the Beatitudes was incorrect, but she does not have the knowledge to really be sure. however, if it were a nun in her place, or if Offred had access to a priest or a nun, she could confirm this, and other women could know for certain that they are being preached lies and are being manipulated. all of this relates back to the theme of manipulation of religion.Quote:
Originally Posted by merelyjoshing
To me it seems as if the regime requires them to use this greeting so that to the outsiders it seems as if they are saying under God's eye, but when the handmaid's say it to each other, it is almost a warning, reminding each other to watch what they say because they are always being watched by someone. At one point in the novel Offred mentions that everyone is supervising the other, and every person is required to report anything suspicious and inappropriate they hear or see. So when the handmaids greet each other by saying "Under His Eye" (285), they are either warning or looking out for the other by telling them to watch what they say and do. I also think that because no specific denomination of Christianity is given in the novel, it would be hard to really pinpoint who Atwood was referring to by the use of "His".Quote:
Originally Posted by weezyhaahhh
"Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like. Now that you've let me off, I'll obliterate myself, if that's what you really want; I'll empty myself, truly, become a chalice. I'll give up Nick, I'll forget about the others. I'll stop complaining. I'll accept my lot. I'll sacrifice. I'll repent. I'll abdicate. I'll renounce. I know this can't be right but I think it anyway. Everything they taught at the Red Center, everything I've resisted, comes flooding in" (286). In this quote we see that at the end of the novel when Offred suspects that she is going to be taken away, she turns to God and tries to bargain her way out. Do you think there was a reason that Atwood chose for Offred to suddenly turn to religion before she is taken away, and do you think that Offred really believed that she could bargain her way out?
In the epigraph of the novel it says "And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her" Genesis 30:1-3
If in the bible it states that Jacob and Rachel used a maid to birth their child, does this imply that Atwood is criticizing religion as well as society, or is Atwood implying that a dystopian society begins when people take a small part of religion and base their whole society around it without taking into consideration all of the other parts of the religion?
Why Atwood chooses to name the stores after biblical events and other such allusions is to make the setting of the book a new city upon a hill as the Puritans declared they would. I believe that with the all seeing government that Atwood creates is similar to the city upon a hill the puritans wished to achieve. "that we shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us". This is from Winthrop's sermon on creating the new Jerusalem in Massachusetts. This quote can be interpreted that all other governments will model theres after this newly created one, but it can also be interpreted that all of the people of the city upon the hill will be in the eyes of the government as well. Atwood could be alluding to the terrible end of the Republic of Gilead as well as happened to the Puritans who also took biblical context and used it for their benefit in controlling a newly assembled mass of people.
With all of it's controlling ways, can the republic of Gilead be considered a "stable" society? What factors in the society's structure show it to be stable?*
Why Atwood chooses to name the stores after biblical events and other such allusions is to make the setting of the book a new city upon a hill as the Puritans declared they would. I believe that with the all seeing government that Atwood creates is similar to the city upon a hill the puritans wished to achieve. "that we shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us". This is from Winthrop's sermon on creating the new Jerusalem in Massachusetts. This quote can be interpreted that all other governments will model theres after this newly created one, but it can also be interpreted that all of the people of the city upon the hill will be in the eyes of the government as well. Atwood could be alluding to the terrible end of the Republic of Gilead as well as happened to the Puritans who also took biblical context and used it for their benefit in controlling a newly assembled mass of people.Quote:
Originally Posted by weezyhaahhh
The reason Atwood gives both the soldiers who are powerful and the handmaids who are not powerful at all the same symbol is to represent protection. The Soldiers, referred to as "Angels" are there to protect the well being of the people of Gilead from any infiltrators with ill will. The wings of the handmaids' outfits is also to demonstrate their purpose to keep away unwanted eyes of men as Offred explains on P.21 as she thinks about what her provocative swaying must do to the guardians. The wings are symbolizing protection Gilead tries to promise. Though, it is also ironic that wings also symbolize freedom and what Gilead has to offer its people (mainly the women) is the opposite of freedom.Quote:
Originally Posted by VintagaGirl
"And so I step up, into the darkness within: or else the light." (295)
"Did our narrator reach the outside world safely and build a new life for herself? Or was she discovered in her attic hiding place, arrested, sent to the Colonies or Jezebel's, or even executed?" (311)
Why is it important that Offred's fate remains anonymous? Is it merely just a plot device to ponder her plight after the covers have been closed? Or is it to demonstrate the human capacity to have faith in the unknown or something completely different? Why does Atwood do this?
In the Historical Notes section at the end of Handmaid's Tale, the historical research characters review the tape's created by Offred and scour them for any historical tidbits left by her to create a better understanding of Gilead and its inner workings. They treat her memoirs just as an unfortunate event in history that has come and passed. Why does Atwood create this end section? It seems to lessen Offred's plight in the grande scheme of things and alludes to the possibility that history is liable to repeat itself again. Is Atwood doing this as a warning to us, that societies like Gilead and others are doomed to fail eventually?
Quote:
Originally Posted by merelyjoshing
I believe the other Puritan references made were more subtle than the soap itself. The other references were made in the way of the fact that this society presents itself as perfect society with no vice. Such as on page 118, the Aunt is showing them pornography and videos where women are treated violently, only to compare them to the Gilead society and to proclaim that their land is perfect, that their world is the little 'city on the hill' as the Puritans struggled to achieve.
There is the point in the novel where the first Ofglen committed suicide because the van was coming for her. Gilead has also removed anything that may be a used a suicidal device for the women. Even more ironic is the fact that their freedom is further obstructed by 'wings' and 'angels'. If Gilead is well aware that the women wish to escape so badly, why does the government continue to make women suffer? What is their perspective on the light at the end of the tunnel? And furthermore, how do you think they explain the suicides to the other women?