Symbolism In The Handmaid's Tale

The Power of Symbols

“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.” This is a quote from Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil that speaks of the deeper meaning of things on the surface that often goes unnoticed. It explains the idea that very simple things act as symbols of broader and more complex ideas. In her novel The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood uses symbolism to portray the themes of individuality and identity, feminism, and the power of language.

For women in Gilead there is no sense of individual identity. All women are divided into social classes on the basis of wealth and fertility and dress according to the colour coded wardrobe of their group. Wives -the partners of the wealthy Commanders- dress in
Women are banned from reading and writing as the society considers it unnecessary for women to be literate because their main role is to breed. Information is passed from one woman to another in secrecy by word of mouth, forcing the women to lip-read or “whisper almost without sound” (Atwood 4). This restriction of communication gives the government control over its people. Phrases such as “blessed be the fruit” (Atwood 21), “may the lord open” (21) and “under his Eye” (49) are all enforced by the government to show the depth of their authority where everyday conversations must be carried out in accordance to what government wants. The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood edited by Coral Ann Howells quotes an excerpt from Atwood’s lecture where she explains the aim of such systems of absolute power “is to silence the voice, abolish the word, so that the only voice and words left are those of the ones in power” (Howells 51). The government of Gilead uses language as a form of dominance over its citizens because controlling what they can and cannot say is a form of controlling what they can and cannot do. In her book Postmodern Feminist Writers, W.S. Kottiswari describes language in Gilead as “weapons that can free the people from bondage” (Kottiswari 35). The protagonist, Offred, often begins to feel more in control when she encounters situations where she reads or writes. For example, when she encounters the words ‘Nolite te bastardes carborundum’ (Atwood 56) engraved into her cupboard she feels “pleased to be communicating with...this unknown woman” (56) whose “taboo message made it through” (56). Reading the message and repeating it to herself gives Offred “a small joy” (56) despite not knowing what it means. Lisa Bonnette, in Through the Glass: A Look Into Literature, notes: “The writing creates for her a special little secret that she can keep from the