Religion In The Handmaid's Tale

Religion forms an essential role in the lives of many people establishing their perspective of the world. In the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood devastation occurs once the military alliance shoots the president as well as congress members, leading to the enforcement of Christian Ideology leaving the citizens in a totalitarian state. New regulations were formed once the United States was renamed the Republic of Gilead, resulting with new laws derived from the Bible which deprived many Gileadean citizens from their rights. Throughout the novel distorted biblical allusions and christian ideology are utilized from within the Old Testament in order for the patriarchal regime to show efficiency towards citizens. Moreover, the Republic of Gilead utilizes passages from the Bible in order to seize and deprive their citizens’ rights through the religious ideology,
For instance, the republic's name Gilead is a land exemplified in the bible as healing and soothing. Ironically, the Republic of Gilead is precisely the opposite due to Gilead being a totalitarian state which endorses new laws to have control over their citizens leading to living in constant fear of getting punished. Hence, Atwood incorporates a passage from the bible in her epigraph in distinction to the role of the Handmaids and Econowives. Atwood states, “Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her” (Genesis 30:1-3). This quote elaborates how the Econowives implicit faith to bear children is all in the hands of the Handmaids which redirects back to Offred’s position because she must attempt to bear a child for the commander and his wife Serena and if she fails she will be sent to the colonies as