Chapter 34
Conspiring Play of Life Force in Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale
Palak Arora* and Manshi**
“Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it,
so I will have enough, when the time comes”.
T
—(Offred, The Handmaid’s Tale)
otalitarian society or thoughts, for that matter anything that is too skewed
never renders a stabilized society. Dystopian fiction is one such fiction
where extremity rules, where vandalizing bodies, constant surveillance
and ultimate subjugation of civilians in the hands of government is at the
core. Though the dystopian fiction creates a world of endless misery and
downtrodden civilian rights still it’s epicenter more or less revolves around
the folly of human society. Future is one thing that kept every society thriving
but opportuning and profiteering from the very unforeseen is the working
stratagem of the dystopian societies where bleak future is supposedly
transformed into predictable statistics. Analyzing the workings of dystopian
societies lend us to one very rudiment trajectory i.e. Discipline and
Punishment as described by Foucault in his work Discipline and Punish where
channelizing humans is a matter of just appraisal and punishment. Subjection,
modification and alteration are what propels the machinery of dystopian
societies. Drawing from this, Margaret Atwood carves out a theocratic
totalitarian society of Gilead on fundamentals of misogynist religion in her
work The Handmaid’s Tale. In quest of fabricating a society with perfection, the
theocratic government was clear of the point that “Better never means better for
everyone. It always means worse for some.” (Commander Waterford)
Although, The Handmaid’s Tale has invariably numerous versions to
decipher, be it on the grounds of biblical allusion on which it rests or the
very facet of it being a feminist dystopian novel, it has something to offer
to everyone. Once, when Atwood was questioned about The Handmaid’s Tale
being an allegory or a predictable future her forthright reply was “both”:
It is an extrapolation from reality, if you like, it's a possibility for our society but
also, it's an 'allegory' of what is already happening. (A Moveable Feast)
Altering with the homeostasis the society of Gilead is positioned on
the meek submission of both women and men of the weaker social status.
There have been numerous researches on the work owing to its settlement
for the biblical allusion of Rachael and Leah which outrightly states women’s
* Independent Scholar, ** M.Phil Research Scholar English Banasthali Vidyapith,
Rajasthan
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supreme desire to procreate or absolve to death: “Give me children or else I die”.
Resorting to this status quo of the bible, women’s dress colour segregation and
delineation of each women’s function through their biological capabilities,
The Handmaid’s Tale has a lot to offer in terms of analysis. Nevertheless, these
innumerable interpretations despite solving many mysteries of the work left
us with an extremely basic question of procreation as a major goal for humans.
Which prompts us to minutely figure out an issue of procreation to which
the work is highly indebted, by weaving its intricate details on the fabric of
the life force theory. Further elucidating the motives of the work Margaret
Atwood in the epigraph herself has referred to a Sufi proverb: In the desert
there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones. Thereby illuminating the point
of proving your stances fulfilling your motives even if you have to violate the
laws of nature, which in this case is the primary goal of procreation. With the
constant conundrum of keep surviving amid the technological destruction,
the whole motive of human existence has been dragged to procreation and
survival which is in the roots of the life force theory. As Aunt Lydia said in her
Rachael and Leah Reeducation center to the handmaid’s that “What we were
aiming for is the spirit of camaraderie among women. We must all pull together”.
This very uncanny collective force of women can scarcely leave any mission
unaccomplished if they plan to do it together and in the contextual layering of
The Handmaid’s Tale this mission is bringing babies to life.
“Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” (God to Noah)
The theory of life force propounded by George Bernard Shaw drawing
a parallel between the origin of mankind in the Bible. Life force is energy
exudes by the female to lure the men into a physical connection to procure
babies, which provides fulfilment to the female. In percept of a French
philosopher Henri Bergson, this ‘life force’ is the Olan Vital i.e. spirit of life.
Facing insurmountable challenges to restore the flow of life, women prospects
over men as predators to their prey to cage them in a conundrum of daily
life by achieving their goal of procreating and hence, ensuring evolution.
Evolution that can be proved either utopian or dystopian for the society. Even
though there is a ray of hope for betterment but “the world portrayed in the
novel takes more from women than it gives, destroying the very attributes that defines
them.” (Pandey 48). Here, in The Handmaid’s Tale, not only this eponymous
task of procreating is centralized but also given professionalism to an extent of
stodging it: “A man is a woman’s strategy for making other women. Just do the job,
then you can burger off” (Offred’s mother), This doctrine of using men for the
evolution of mankind by women is the foremost thing taught in the Rachael
and Leah Reeducation center to the handmaids by Aunt Lydia saying “Men
are sex machines. They, only want one thing. You must learn to manipulate them,
for your own good. Lead them around by the nose; that is a metaphor. It’s nature’s
way. It’s God’s device. It’s the way things are.” Citing the scripture of bible for
justifying the supposed word of
God to human, lend the women to adverse situations by hovering and
stuffing in their minds that: “Blessed are the meek”. Time and again, inevitably,
the protagonist Offred tries to fill the gap between the profiteering lines to
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masculine force i.e. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the meek. Women have effluent energy for channeling life force,
but the irony contains in life when this very womanly persona is caged and
judged through the spectacle of masculine morality. Perpetuating gender
stereotyping in dystopian literature, not only plays a prominent role in
building up a conventional and submissive image of women also binds her
stature to mere “wombs with two legs”. Conventionally the image of women in
society is abstained to the fulfilment of her duty towards the continuation of
generations, though the work seems to be strenuous, the only compounding
force which keeps the zest alive is Life Force. Owing to the abounding force of
survival The Handmaid’s Tale makes a strong case for the theory of life force
thriving on the predicaments of the bible and forcing the unwoman (women
who are incapable of conceiving a child) to work in toxic colonies. Though
the theory of life force rests on the threshold of women conspicuously luring
men of higher strata and intelligence to copulate thinking of the better genes
for their children. Here, in The Handmaid’s Tale, this very conspiring theory
of life force regulates through a chain of aunts training handmaids to bore
children of powerful commanders by having a ceremony where their wives
hold the handmaids onto their laps while the commanders perform the act
of impregnating the handmaids. Since the world of Gilead is a dystopia
thereby this whole idea of procreation is impersonal and have an agenda of
survival rather than any formulation of love. Withstanding on the grounds
of procreating in the most natural way possible, while swearing on the most
unnatural setting of conceiving having misinterpreted scriptures where the
pain in labor results in women’s fulfilment of bringing a child: “I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”
(Aunt Elizabeth). The Handmaid’s Tale outshines as an epitome of most
synthetic working of the Life Force in the genealogy of Gilead.
“Let the women learn in silence with all subjection” (Commander Waterford)
Studiously flipping the pages of The Handmaid’s Tale elucidates the vision
of Gilead’s government through the eyes and narrator and the protagonist
Offred. Penetrating through memory lane of Offred, one influence in Gilead
on her that overshadows a chunk of her mind workings is Aunt Lydia. In an
article “Hymens, Lips and Masks: The Veil in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s
Tale” David Coad limits the role of the Aunts by saying that they are merely
“sadistic propagandists”. The theocracy of Gilead is truly channelized by the
aunts from their training the handmaids to the regulation of the prostitutes
in the Jezebels (Moira). Officiating the political stances is the only work to the
commanders while how and when are the underpinnings regulates is totally
the task of the aunts. Suspecting friendships and objecting on the violation
of any minute rule in the Rachael and Leah Reeducation center by their
cattle prods is sheerly one of the many powers held by Aunt Lydia besides
brainwashing the girls. Bringing the women of a free nation to a constricted
misogynist dystopian world takes her extreme hatred and distasteful
comment over their dressing of the previously lived world by using words as
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“Undone”, these women “wore blouses with buttons down the front that suggested
the possibilities of the word undone. These women could be undone”.
According to her having an ability to choose your life is a contagious
option with women slowing sucking the life out of society, for which she said:
“We were a society dying, of too much choice”. Aunt Lydia’s character trails its
lines clearly through the text where her ensuing remarks filled the air with
disgust for the meek handmaids. Bestowing her inescapable reprimands on
the handmaid’s Aunt Lydia transcribes her language to her meek trainees
the national resources (handmaids) with ultimate reverence of its difficulties.
Having full knowledge of the fact that they are a “transitional generation” and
the one coming after them would have an easier life: “Because they won’t want
things they can’t have”. Bringing her motives to the life of creating a generation
of women who are completely oblivious of their rights and power they hold.
To which Thompson says “the Aunts wear army khaki without veils, befitting
their quasi-military role” where brainwashing and cattle-prod both tools are
indispensable in the hands of the beholder i.e. aunts. Further thrusting the
motto of Gilead’s life force and procreation in the minds of the handmaids
by banishing the use of pens and books from women saying “Pen Is Envy”.
By soliciting the brains of the handmaids with humming the prayer to trigger
their life force and abasing their whole point of existence to just giving birth
to a child: “Oh God, King of the universe, thank you for not creating me a man. Oh
God, obliterate me. Make me fruitful. Mortify my flesh, that I may be multiplied.
Let me be fulfilled”. In the name of the bible Aunt Lydia preaches the most
often used greetings of Gilead i.e. “Under his eyes” to reduce the existence of
the people and especially the handmaids to mere observance, a ploy in the
supposed hands of God where they start assuming themselves as “I am blank,
here between parenthesis, between other people” (Offred).
Perpetuating the world of women who are either fruitful or barren where
men aren’t bothered to be classified in such categories as they can’t be “Sterile”
as even the word is forbidden. These aunts engrave such dichotomies in the
tender minds of impressionable girls where they culminate their whole point
of exiting to be “blessed with a fruit”.
There is no end to the incessant life force which exuberates its energy in
all prospects of life. Provided the case of dystopian literature like Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale where the only role of women is being “two legged
wombs, that all; sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices.” (Offred) with an artificially
enabled will to procreate. Paving a way to women where shame, disgust and
revelation took place of love and compassion while impregnation. Building a
society where the unsaid rules of the present world bring forth as a horrible
thought piece to spark our intellect over the progression of the world. Further
heightening the nitty-gritty of the conceptual ‘Life Force Theory’ by GB Shaw,
Atwood carved Gilead truly out of a nightmare where embedded thoughts for
women are brought in full broad daylight to the extent that we start fearing
our own shadow in it.
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Works Cited
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Johnson, Tara J. “The Aunts as an Analysis of Feminine Power in Margaret Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale.” Nebula, vol. 1, no. 2, 2004, cdn.atria.nl/ezines/IAV_607294/
IAV_607294_2010_4/Johnson.pdf.
Blackford, H. V. “The Psychology of the Handmaid: Margaret Atwood’s Novel Parables
of the Possessed Canadian Character”. AmeriQuests, vol. 3, no. 1, May 2006,
doi:10.15695/amqst.v3i1.51.
Brisha, M. L. Eileen. “Ecofeminism and Politics of ‘Triple Marginalization’ in Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale.” Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 2004,
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Handmaid's Tale." Canadian Literature, vol. 148, 1994, pp. 57-73, https://canlit.ca/
article/margaret-atwoods-modest-proposal
Rhyne, Megan. “Under His Eye: Gendered Power/Body Relationships in The
Handmaid’s Tale.” University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA ), 2019, libres.
uncg.edu/ir/unca/listing.aspx?styp=ti&id=27380.