The Handmaid's Tale- Analysis

What to analyze, what to analyze...so much to choose from... ... How about the Ceremony? Well, not quite the actual Ceremony, and by that I mean the...well, THAT part, but...more of the stuff leading up to it, and the reasoning behind it. Surely there's some special meaning to the reasoning and not just the act. That act definitely has a large reason, but I overwhelmingly see it as a part of society that just about everyone hates, which accomplishes a purpose that really was meant to be reached through other means.

Well, beginning with the fact that everyone has to gather for the prayer part of the Ceremony, it is apparent that it is exactly that, a prayer service, as much as it is another chore that everyone's got to go through. Everyone gathers in the room and waits for the Commander to read from the Bible. Perhaps it stands symbolic for the church service. This is the new religion of procreation through handmaids, which Gilead in the name of God commands due to the rising infertility of women. He is the one that reads, for the purpose that the women do not have the right to read. However, it is kept in a box, locked up tight. It is referred to as an incendiary device. Only the Commander has the key. This reemphasizes the fact that the only people who are allowed to speak religion are the ones that have been told what to say, the ones that dare not say anything that would conflict with the twists of law the women have been taught. As is stated offhandedly, who knows what the women would think if they ever managed to get ahold of it. Perhaps this is emphasis on the fact that the truth is kept under lock and key, along with the freedoms that it now imprisons. The Bible itself, which does not actually command any of this, which stands for the warping of the pinnacle of holiness and goodness, is also the freedom of speech which no longer belongs to the women. Moving on, the Commander reads only the bookmarked pages. They do not skim through the books, looking for the correct page and possibly seeing something that defied Gilead's iron regime, contradicted their orders. Even the men do not have freedom of speech, but rather the responsibility of keeping the women away from the very thing that gives them that right.

As he reads, he reads only that parts that dictate to be fruitful and to replenish the earth. There really is no main message here, other than that women are vessels that are meant to make babies and then more babies after that. The Bible is meant to give more important messages than that, and God's main focus was not to just make more humans. He could do that Himself with little effort. The Bible is merely being used as a tool to fit the purpose Gilead intended for it. As the readings continue, the story of Rachel and Leah is read. The novel only mentions the part where the wives offer their handmaids as substitutes for birthing. Now there's a whole lot more than that to the story. Rachel was the wife that was supposed to be married off to Jacob, but due to some trickery he married Leah instead. He then works and eventually married Rachel as well, but then neglects Leah. As a result, God, who was not very happy with Jacob nor Rachel for this treatment of Leah, made Rachel barren. Rachel, if anything, did this to get around God's curse, and then the handmaids were used in a sort of competition to see who could make more babies. Really, it's not as if God commanded that the handmaids be used to make more babies. In this way, the Bible is cut and pasted into a different version that allows Gilead to enforce a practice that would otherwise have gotten an overwhelming response to go shove it where the sun don't shine. It seems to reemphasize the fact that the government had used a holy writ to achieve its own evil ends, to show a destruction of a good religion into something that completely warps the original message in the opposite direction. In this light, the almighty Republic of Gilead is nothing more than a gigantic hypocritical fake.

With the false command from God, the Commander then concludes and asks for a moment of silence, at which Serena Joy ends up crying. This "good news" doesn't exactly make people happy, or result in any large level of goodness. Rather it does the opposite and creates much hatred and sadness. Serena's crying seems to emphasize the fact that the new version of the old story is more of a reminder that she's worthless to Gilead, that a replacement is necessary because she's nowhere good enough. Women again are depicted to be nothing more than decoration, and this shows that really no woman has a purpose except for that sole reason stated in the forbidden Bible. Also, it seems to be an omen of bad things to come, where a silence for hopeful prayer results in some dread of what is to come. In the end, the Bible ends up being the exact opposite of what it should really be. Gilead has completely changed the meaning behind it, and has made it into a weapon against the people rather than the saving word. The interruption Offred mentions reminds that even the Beatitudes had been changed to ensure that the women followed orders as expected, and that there was a justification for the rule. This passage points out primarily the hypocrisy of the holy society of Gilead and what the Bible has become as a result of the new powers in charge. And the new Bible is as effective as the old one, albeit the effect opposite from what it should be.