The Handmaid's tale

¶ … Handmaid's Tale

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." [Genesis 3:16] -- (Chapter 19)

The above verse was revealed after Eve was deceived by the serpent and she ate the forbidden fruit and made Adam eat is as well. Then God cursed Eve stating that she will have to go through pain during labor. The Republic of Gilead interprets and follows this verse in a way that God wants woman to give birth through the pain and if they try to use methods to ease the pain, then they are defying God's plan. Being extremist Christians, they prohibited the use of any pain killers. As Aunt Lydia is seen to explain that women are not allowed to use such pain killers because God wanted women to suffer and it is beneficial for the child who is to be born that no anesthetics is used. Of course God never intended it to be like this forever and the Republic of Gilead is misinterpreting the verses of God. This leads on to the fact that women do not wish to have children. They do not want to undergo severe torture when technology did give them a way to reduce the pain. What is seen then, is the decline in the birthrate even below the "line of replacement" as explained by Aunt Lydia. Such women who wish not to undergo such pain took the step of getting their tubes tied or they simply poisoned their bodies. God did not intend women to undergo such needless pain and there is no Biblical rule that women are forbidden to use any method to ease the pain. Jesus came to earth so that the original sin is forgiven through his blood. Then what law can make women suffer for a sin that was forgiven with the blood of Jesus? Hence it is only natural for women to avoid child bearing pains and thus the birthrate of the Republic of Gilead dropped so low.

'Then Leah said, 'God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.' So she named him Issachar." [Genesis 30:18] -- (Chapter 15)

The Commander reads this verse from a Bible that he keeps locked so that no one else can interpret it in their own ways. This verse, in context deals with the wives of Jacob and how they gave their maidservants to him. It is seen that they were blessed with sons. Leah is seen in the verse claiming that because she gave her maidservant to sleep with her husband, God blessed her and she became pregnant. Thus in the Republic of Gilead, the men governing the place have portrayed that it is of high honor that a woman serves to be a maidservant. Thus fertile women were made handmaidens and their job was to sleep with men to provide them with children. Offred states that her body was looked upon as just a uterus. Truly the role of women is not to just bear children. There is a lot to the purpose of why women were created but the Republic of Gilead, insists that women are just to bear children. Love is therefore not an option for the women and they are denied the three rights that is given to every woman and man as Faith, Hope and Love as seen in 1 Corinthians 13:13. Through this misinterpretation of the extremist group running the Republic of Gilead, the role of fertile women was restricted in society and they were deprived of having emotional feelings for anyone. Love was something to be made unknown to women. The Republic of Gilead aims to restore the pre-feminist world and thus they think that as God made woman for the sole purpose of reproduction, sex was only used as a tool for reproduction and the role of handmaidens was considered to be a very noble role.