In “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a novel written by Margaret Atwood, the Gilead society is largely built upon hypocrisy because it doesn’t truly follow the religious beliefs. Even though the whole society is shaped by religion, the people with authorities stealthily break rules and punish rapists due to religious beliefs when every single handmaid is trained to be pregnant against their desire which is considered rape in a way.
Raping is perceived as a sin according to every religion and the Gilead society made a justified decision to punish the rapist, but they were also hypocritical to proceed the ceremonies that involve commanders to basically demand sexual intercourse with handmaids and sexually use the reproductive slaves against their wish, permitting them no choice. At the end of the salvation ceremony, the handmaids were told to assemble a circle and anticipate for the Aunts to give an important announcement. The Aunts informed them about a rape case of one of the handmaids and how there’s another person who’s involved.
The rapist was brought to get punished by the handmaids. The handmaid had to perform violent actions and assault a stranger who was part of the resistance for something that he might’ve not done since Ofglen claims that he was familiar to her and a fine man. Offred says “I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shame full … I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely” (63). Offred indicates that her body is being used against her will and treated like an object. Her body isn’t something that she owns and knows anymore because she’s been forced to be a stranger to her body.
The purpose of her body is to reproduce and nothing else. Her soul isn’t even in her body anymore because it has no connections with it. It’s not just her identity that she lost the grip of but the body that represent her as herself. The reproductive sex slave also mentions that the handmaids don’t have a choice multiple times throughout the novel, which means that none of the ceremonies are hosted with their permission. The pre-handmaids got taken away from their families and was assigned to be a reproductive slave in the Gilead society was imposed on them.
They are given the task to get pregnant by the commanders when their heart denies but have to do it anyway because that’s their only way to survive. However, the commanders and everyone involved in the raping of the handmaids didn’t get punished. Instead, a politician got severely punished for supposedly doing the same thing. The actions of the commander clearly portray a hypocritical aspect of themselves. The Gilead society practices puritan values and beliefs. They labeled pornography and sex symbols as sin and attempted to destroy them.
However, the existence of the Jezebel’s and some saved prohibited items doubts their belief. The Commander requests Offred to meet him every night and simply spend time together. As they continued this routine, one night the commander offered her a Vogue magazine, which depicts a picture of revealing women. Offred says “I thought such magazines had all been destroyed, but here was one, left over, in a Commander’s private study, where you’d least expect to find such thing” (157). She also mentions what the commander said and says” Some of us, he said, retain an appreciation for the old things” – (157).
There shouldn’t have been any existence of such magazines when they were required to be destroyed under the Gilead law. Nevertheless, many items survived the fire, which the commander said it himself. Some commanders saved these magazines and kept them including many other items. The Commander also saved revealing clothes of Serena Joy and took Offred to a brothel called the Jezebel’s.
He knew where it was located and sneaked her there. Offred states,” He’s showing me off, to them … they review my breasts, my legs as if there’s no reason why they shouldn’t … e’s breaking the rules, under their noses, thumbing his nose at them, getting away with it” (236). The commander visited the Jezebel’s prior to this trip, breaking the rules perhaps with another handmaid, and could’ve had sexual intercourse with Moira in the brothel because she said’ I’ve had him, he’s the pits” (243). The existence of the Jezebel’s proves that not only the commander but many other commanders and high-ranked individuals are hypocritical in Gilead because they say that they need “old things” and use that as an excuse to visit the brothel.
The highranked individuals pretend to follow puritan beliefs and be pure when their behavior doesn’t conform. Another evidence is the incident with Moira that led her to the brothel. The rebel was caught escaping to Canada, she was given two options, to go to the colonies or be a prostitute and work in the Jezebels. Moira says, “I had my choice, they said, this or the Colonies” (249). According to Gileadian’s religious beliefs, practices, their general way of viewing pornography, revealing women and purity, and the fact that Moira and others were given the options of going to the colonies or to be a prostitute is extremely bizarre.
Commanders only mention that women are going to be used for reproducing purposes but Jezebel’s differentiates their words from their actions. Therefore, you can conclude that they are secretly going against the religious beliefs behind their veil. In the final analysis, Margaret Atwood wrote this book to hint many things in life and one of them is hypocrisy. Sometimes people with authority and power get away with almost anything, which isn’t justified. Individuals with less power, such as the politician who supposedly molested a handmaid faced consequences for doing the same thing that every commander practices in this new reality.
It’s something that is considered a job for them. It is raping because rape come in many forms and there are many types as well. All the power from women such as their identity, job and family were drained from them to make them vulnerable. The high ranking people of Gilead then took advantages of their weakness and forced them to make babies by hanging example on the wall to convey it as threats. When two souls aren’t connected while having sex, it’s considered a type of rape because sex is not being freely given but demanded.
A “yes” isn’t really a “yes” if you’re afraid to say “no”. This novel teaches you about hypocrisy and not to trust anyone because they might be two sided. It also teaches you how religious sanction could be used in a wrong way to approve someone’s action, such as sharing the story of Noah and reading only the parts that promote women being used only as reproduction tools to the handmaids before the ceremony to make the situation a little holy and create a purpose for their actions. They in fact made up some of the things.
Despite the Bible reading, the commander didn’t mention anything to clarify whether whatever they are doing is considered rape or not and didn’t specifically connect their situation to Noah’s. Religious beliefs can be misunderstood purposely. The Commanders breaking the rules also indicate that sin resembles freedom and purity can be a burden sometimes which is pretty unfortunate. Hypocrisy is common and there’s a little bit of hypocritical side in every human being like how there’s good and evil. Therefore, never trust anyone who doesn’t practice what they preach.
