6 Women are Forbidden to Read or Write Like the coercion of religious beliefs in
As in many totalitarian societies, females in Gilead are forbidden from reading and writing—the punishment for a first offense is having one's hand cut off—which enables the authorities to more easily maintain control over them.
A fundamental rule in Gilead forbids women from reading and writing. This ban on a basic human right is enacted due to fear of rebellion - in the eyes of Gilead, if the women can communicate in a secretive way, they can challenge authority and cause chaos.
In the story, an environmental disaster has led to most women becoming infertile, and the small number who are still able to become pregnant are forced to become handmaids, women who are owned by the ruling elite and systematically raped in order to provide them with children.
However, within Margaret Atwood's infamous novel The Handmaid's Tale, she deliberately depicts a practically loveless society, where individuals are barred from loving, to the point of emotional detachment, thus leading to superficial failed relationships.
If, after the third time, they are not able to produce a living, healthy baby, they will be sent off to the Colonies to face certain death. Handmaids that become infertile or reach a certain age without having ever conceived are also sent to the Colonies, as are women who refuse to become Handmaids.
In Gilead, a clean environment is intrinsically wrapped up with their healthy and moral way of life. By their logic, God blesses Handmaids with fertility because of their green initiatives.
For those too old to bear their own, or those who are infertile, Wives must agree to pick out a suitable Handmaid for the Commanders to impregnate. Being childless is a social taboo in Gilead, and frowned upon as though the Wives are not fulfilling their duty, coercing them into submission.
Blue is often associated with the Virgin Mary and purity and serenity - it used to be considered a very feminine colour, so perhaps that is why the Wives wear it. Red is considered the colour of life, due to the association with blood, and Handmaids are all about bringing forth new life and fertility.
This is to symbolize that they are "of one flesh" and alluding to the Bibical story of Rachel, Jacob and their handmaid Billah, who bore children for the barren Rachel "upon [Rachel's] knees".
The Handmaid's Tale has been banned many times—sometimes by whole countries, such as Portugal and Spain in the days of Salazar and the Francoists, sometimes by school boards, sometimes by libraries.
The Colonies are areas of the Continental United States that have been contaminated by pollution and radioactive waste.
Gilead seeks to deprive women of their individuality in order to make them docile carriers of the next generation. the most famous example), and The Handmaid's Tale carries on this tradition. Gilead maintains its control over women's bodies by maintaining control over names.
And the novel mentions that very few lucky wives of commanders get pregnant. (Albeit it is mentioned that some wives, like the handmaids, resort to other men). So, it seems to be that married couples are allowed sex.
June later discovers the DC handmaids are silenced with rings through their mouths. Showrunner Bruce Miller told INSIDER the rings were his idea to add to the show, and that they're actually quite comfortable for the actors to wear.
One of the most shocking elements was the reveal that Handmaids in D.C. must wear mouth covers and their mouths have been forced shut by ring piercings.
Women's Prayvaganzas are weddings for the Wives' daughters, mass ceremonies in which girls as young as fourteen get married. In a few years, the brides will be girls who do not remember life before Gilead.
Aunt Lydia's relationship with Offred symbolises the oppressive control that Gilead has over women. Furthermore, by placing a woman in such a violent role, Atwood is suggesting that women can be and are complicit in perpetuating dangerous patriarchal ideas and oppressing other women.
To symbolise fertility
The Handmaids wear red dresses and red capes, which they must wear in public. Wearing red indicates the Handmaids' fertility, symbolising their primary role which is to produce a child. Only those women who are fertile wear red.
In Gilead, wives are selected from among the daughters of respectable citizens once the girls have reached childbearing age. Their mothers arrange their marriages to Angels who have recently returned from the front line.
On the surface, Marthas are a downtrodden lot — not powerful enough to be Wives or Lydias, not fertile or young enough to be Econowives. The name "Martha" comes from the bible, after one of Jesus' friends who is a pragmatic and focused on domestic concerns; hence the Marthas' role as housekeepers in Gilead.
But what's the cause? In The Handmaid's Tale, infertility is linked to another one of Gilead's prominent problems: pollution. As revealed in the season 1 episode "A Woman's Place," inorganic farming and radioactivity are to blame for declining fertility.
According to the novel, Handmaids who are no longer fertile, or fail to become pregnant after three different Commanders, are sent to the Colonies - essentially a nuclear waste dumping ground. They are forced to clean this waste until they die. Pretty grim outlook there, but that's dystopia for you! Hope that helps!
Rather than being married to Commanders, Econowives are fertile women who are married off to Gilead's more ordinary men. As well as being expected to have children, Econowives are expected to take care of their households, and they aren't assigned Marthas to help them.
Gilead dictates that all births should take place at home by natural methods, in the presence of women only. As Offred notes with some scepticism on page 124, Gilead's emphasis on natural childbirth embraces also the idea that the pains of childbirth are women's just punishment for Eve's Original Sin.