Who Are the Handmaids?

I created a collage of a picture of a Handmaid, but as a doll. Throughout the text, Offred compares herself and others in her situation to dolls because of the way they are being controlled. While in conversation with Serena Joy, Offred remarks to herself, “They used to have dolls, for little girls, that would talk if you pulled a string at the back; I thought I was sounding like that, voice of a monotone, voice of a doll.” (pg. 16) Offred has no self expression or free will. Like a doll, she is being controlled, and everything she says is what she’s supposed to say, and everything she does is dictated by the will of others.

Another thing that struck me about the text is the way the handmaids are treated like children. This is especially seen in the scenes that take place in the gymnasium. The handmaids go through a sort of rebirth while in training, from cleansing themselves through Testifying, to total indoctrination and brainwashing at the hands of the Aunts. While reading this, I felt like the society was trying to create a blank slate out of the handmaids, someone new to the world, like a child. As I read the training scenes, I saw more of this. The handmaids call their mentors “aunt”, have daily naptime, are taught in a high school, and are overall put in situations that parallel those of kids. One example of this is when Janine Testifies and is humiliated in front of the handmaids, and they chant, “Crybaby, Crybaby. Crybaby.” (pg. 72) As soon as I first read this, “crybaby” struck me as an interesting choice of words. Crybaby is what kids call other kids when they’re making fun of them, it’s a word that’s associated with children. I found this to be another reason why a doll is a good metaphor for the handmaids. Dolls are toys for kids, and comparing the handmaids to dolls emphasizes the childlike manner in which they are treated.

I also decided to make the handmaid in my collage’s red dress made of flowers. From the first few chapters, I noticed connections between the handmaids and flowers. While Offred and Serena Joy are waiting for the Ceremony to begin, Offred narrates about her companion, “Even at her age she still feels the urge to wreathe herself in flowers. No use for you, I think at her, my face unmoving, you can’t use them any more, you’re withered.” (pg. 81-82) Offred is criticizing the Commander’s Wife’s obsession with flowers which we see in the text through her perfume choice, decor, and of course, her dedication to her garden. During a group discussion, several of my table mates thought that the garden represented motherhood, and Serena Joy’s commitment to her garden was her practicing for her one role in society. This made me later think that flowers represented children and fertility. It would explain why Offred reacted the way she did to the Commander’s Wife’s interest in flowers, describing her as withered, and why Serena Joy is obsessed with them in the first place.

Not only do the flowers represent fertility, but the handmaids themselves, since handmaids aren’t treated as real people, and their only purpose is for their job. The text describes the life of a tulip the same as it describes that of a handmaid, stating, “The tulips along the border are redder than ever, opening, no longer wine cups but chalices; thrusting themselves up, to what end? They are, after all, empty. When they are old they turn themselves inside out, then explode slowly, the petals thrown out like shards.” (pg. 45). This description of the flowers almost exactly parallels the life of a handmaid. To the republic, there is no difference between handmaids and their job, they are one in the same.