Symbolism and Theocracy in The Handmaid's Tale

Overview of Gilead's Theocracy

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood tells the story of an America suddenly governed by a theocracy called Gilead. This theocracy is formed in the United States after the president and members of Congress are assassinated. Written in the form of a memoir, the novel is set in modern times and follows a woman who is taken into custody after she attempts to flee the regime by escaping to Canada. She is then assigned as a "handmaid" to a Commander of the Secret Police, tasked with bearing the children he has so far been unable to have with his own wife.

The theocratic regime of Gilead draws its name and its justifications from the Bible. Women who are deemed "undesirable" — such as lesbians, feminists, or those who have performed abortions — are "resettled" to the Colonies, a radioactively contaminated area left over from a nuclear war. Every fertile woman who had an affair or was a second wife before the revolution is rounded up and sent to the Rachel and Leah Indoctrination Center. The center takes its name from the biblical figures Rachel and Leah, who offered their own handmaids to their husbands so that the handmaids could conceive children on their behalf.

In the new world of Gilead, women have no rights. They are not permitted to hold credit cards or to work outside of menial tasks assigned to them by men. Each class of woman — the Wives, the Marthas, the Aunts, the Handmaids — is defined by a rigid social function. Women are classified solely by the position assigned to them rather than treated as individuals with separate identities. This stratification is enforced visually through color-coded clothing, which signals each woman's station to everyone around her at a glance.

Social Hierarchy and Women's Roles

The system is rooted in the belief that fertile women exist primarily to reproduce. Those who cannot or will not serve that function face exile to the Colonies or death. The structure leaves no room for personal autonomy, aspiration, or identity outside of one's assigned role.

The main character is Offred. We do not learn what her name was before she became a slave to the Commander. She is renamed "Offred" because her Commander's name is Fred, and she is essentially his property. Before the revolution, she was a wife and mother. When we first encounter her, she is living in the Commander's house, spending her days waiting to become pregnant in order to provide offspring for him and his wife.

Offred and Key Characters

Through flashback, Offred describes her time at the Rachel and Leah center, where she meets Moira — a strong-willed friend from her university — as well as the Aunts who oversee the handmaids' indoctrination: Aunt Lydia and Aunt Elizabeth. There is also Janine, a woman who desperately seeks approval and tries to follow every rule of the center, eventually suffering a nervous breakdown. When Moira attempts to escape by feigning appendicitis, she is beaten severely — yet eventually succeeds in getting away.

Offred, as she reveals in later sections, is living on borrowed time. She was assigned to a previous Commander and failed to conceive. Should she fail again, she risks being sent to the Colonies. Her days consist of shopping for food, attending prayer groups, and waiting in her room to be called to the Commander once per month for the conception ritual. In this grim ceremony, she has intercourse with the Commander — effectively a rape — while the Commander's wife is present in the room.

Though the Bible and moral behavior are the stated guidelines by which Gilead is run, both the Commander and his wife engage in secret arrangements with Offred that directly violate these principles. The Commander — whose previous handmaid hanged herself in the bedroom — begins meeting with Offred privately after his wife goes to sleep. On one occasion, he brings her sexually revealing clothing and makeup and takes her to a speakeasy staffed by prostitutes.

It is there that Offred encounters Moira again, now working at the speakeasy. Moira tells Offred that she saw Offred's mother in a film documenting life in the radioactive Colonies. Offred's mother would have been classified as an "Unwoman" for two reasons: she had been a radical feminist before the revolution, and she was beyond childbearing age.

The Commander's wife, Serena Joy — a former gospel singer — suspects that the Commander may be infertile, though this cannot be acknowledged openly. She arranges for Offred to meet privately with Nick, the household's chauffeur, in another attempt to achieve conception. Serena Joy's only concern is obtaining a child, regardless of how.