The Handmaid's Tale

Language is used as a tool of social control, and its use often provides insight into the way Gilead co-opts Christian belief systems to add legitimacy and authority to its politics. The use of names like “Angels” and “Commanders of the Faithful” to describe figures of authority presents these men as part of a religious tradition and suggests that their actions are an expression of God’s will or that they are somehow divinely appointed. Similarly, the title “Handmaid” alludes to the “mouldy [sic] old Rachel and Leah stuff” (99) as a means of justifying the oppression of the Handmaids as something with scriptural precedent, giving the acts of sexual abuse they endure a veneer of Biblical respectability and ceremonial importance.

Other euphemistic naming does not draw on religious sources but still works to further Gilead’s goals by manipulating how people or acts are perceived and discussed. The name “Aunts” presents these vicious, dominating enforcers as caring and supportive, strengthening the idea that they are actually working for the Handmaids’ benefit and making their violent indoctrination seem like familial “tough love” from wiser, older women. The description of nonconforming women as “Unwomen” dehumanizes them, making it easy to excuse the cruel treatment to which they are subjected. Likewise, naming babies with birth defects “Unbabies” both avoids the discomfort of discussing medical problems or fertility issues and, again, dehumanizes the subjects so that their deaths can be more easily kept at a distance, rather than directly addressed. A similar process occurs with the presentation of homosexuality as “Gender Treachery” (53), which suggests that same-sex desire is something sinful and malicious, again “justifying” the brutal treatment homosexuals undergo at the hands of the repressive state. 

Stories and messages are symbolically significant throughout the novel. As the “Historical Notes” reveal, the novel is comprised of the memories of an escaped Handmaid, which were supposedly found recorded on several cassette tapes. Offred makes explicit reference to this storytelling process and how important it is to tell her story and to have someone, however tenuously linked, to talk to about her experiences. After all, she reasons, if she is telling a story, then “[she] must be telling it to someone. You don’t tell a story only to yourself. There’s always someone else” (49). This gives her an opportunity to imagine an audience for her story, an audience of people outside her immediate surroundings and terrible conditions. She makes this relationship even clearer when she observes that “[b]y telling you anything at all I’m at least believing in you […] I believe you into existence” (279). This gives her a sense of connection with others that makes her isolation seem less stark and frightening. Offred’s prayer, where she says to God, “I wish you would tell me Your Name […] But You will do as well as anything” (204) recalls this moment, suggesting that this, too, is a form of storytelling that serves to make Offred feel less isolated and vulnerable. Likewise, telling herself stories about what may have happened to Luke allows her to remember him and maintain her attachment to him, and help her imagine a time where she is free again and, perhaps, reunited with him.

Other examples of stories and messages are less explicitly explored but are no less significant. The Handmaids’ secret sharing of their real names allows them to hold onto their previous identities and lives and refuse to let the new narratives and identities the state has constructed for them become the official stories of who they are. Similarly, when Offred finds the words “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” scratched into the floor in “tiny writing” (62), she is receiving a message from someone else, a fellow victim of Gilead’s abuse, something that makes her feel less alone. The stolen flower Offred plans to press under her bed for the next Handmaid is intended to have the same meaning: a silent message of solidarity “sent” from one victim to another.