Gilead’s women are powerless because they are utterly divided and unsupportive of each other.’ Examine this view of Atwood’s presentation of the female characters in The Handmaid’s Tale.

At first glance, Atwood’s totalitarian dystopia in The Handmaid’s Taleprojects a sense of nihilism in terms of female power, in its division of women into factions that reduce them to singular functions. Such a division demonstrably creates hostility, for instance amongst the fertile Handmaids and the infertile Wives; this lack of support and polarisation seemingly impedes a female uprising that would require the aggregate power of women. Indeed, Atwood’s feminist theme reflects upon the subjugation of women and their humanity in the Old Testament. However, this essay shall argue that the powerlessness of Gilead’s women is both overstated and uncaused by a lack of support and cohesion between them. Further, I shall also consider Atwood’s characterisation of female characters as being individualistically powerful.Atwood’s presentation and character development of Offred highlights the fact that Gilead’s women are not altogether powerless.  Prima facie, the Handmaids are literally defined by the men they are oppressed by, for example, “Offred” and “Ofglen” are names derived from the men “Fred” and “Glen” respectively. This is a clear objectification of women, and a symbolic reduction of them to reproductive instruments. Moreover, the fact that we never learn Offred’s birth name suggests the permanence of her oppression and state of powerlessness. Nevertheless, it is evident that Atwood implies that female sexuality is a power in itself: “it’s difficult for me to believe I have power over him…but I do. There are things he wants to prove to me, gifts he wants to bestow, services he wants to render.” In her relationship with the Commander, Offred uncovers a sexual power that she possesses in relation to him; this growing power is mimicked in Offred listing the Commanders desires. The power of female sexuality is manifested further through Jezebel’s, a brothel for Gilead’s oligarchs, the existence of which symbolises the ultimate failure and hypocrisy of the Republic of Gilead that connotes the sexual power of women who are morally unrestrained in a biblical sense. The coexistence of Gilead’s alleged traditional Christian values with Jezebel’s, an establishment named after an immoral biblical figure, creates a sense of irony and paradox that evokes a flawed, feeble representation of men. The Commander further concedes the weakness of masculinity in comparison to femininity: “The main problem was with the men…sex was too easy…they were turning off on marriage”. Here, the Commander attempts to convey a critique of feminism and female liberation in alluding to its consequences for the sanctity of sex and marriage. Simultaneously, this quotation alludes to the powerlessness of men; being unable to treat women as free and equal counterparts, the Republic of Gilead has stripped both men and women of basic freedom. Perhaps Atwood’s intention is to convey the dependency of feminism’s progress on both genders, her narrative device of academic reflection bolstering this concept. It is not the case that Gilead’s women are entirely powerless, as I have shown through their comparative advantages over men in the novel and Atwood’s representation of men as creatures ruled by their weaknesses.