Literary Criticism Of The Handmaid's Tale

There are a few literary critics that evaluate The Handmaid’s Tale to be an anti-Christian book that propagates prejudice towards Christians. These critics take the negative portrayal of Gilead’s “Christian” authority to represent all Christians. In David Robertson’s piece on The Handmaid’s Tale, he says “The Handmaid's Tale is the kind of programme made about Christians that anti-Semites would make about Jews. It demonizes 'the other.' Despite the constant citation of Scripture, the portrayal of Christianity in the drama is the antithesis of what real Christianity is. Real Christianity is not religious hypocrites enforcing their perverted teachings through the barrel of a gun.” While Robertson is right that real Christianity is not “religious …show more content…
The laws of Gilead are shaped after strict interpretations of the Bible. The laws take away the freedoms of both men and women. Men and women, in all positions, must watch what they say and are not allowed to reference their past lives. The disbandment of the Constitution meant the elimination of the Bill of Rights, which set forth the priceless rights and freedoms that all Americans may enjoy. Freedoms such as freedom of religion, speech, press, petition and assembly have been taken away and replaced with twisted scripture. While life is restricting for every member of this society it is nothing to what the handmaid’s lives are like. Handmaid’s have not only lost their freedoms and rights but have been forced into a life of confinement. These women are not only forced into living with their rapists with no chance of escape, but they are also scorned by everyone else in Gilead, including low class citizens such as cooks and maids. Although it is unclear why so many people hate the handmaids, readers are led to believe that their hate or bitterness stems from jealousy. Those who show prejudice towards the handmaid’s are jealous of their fertility. With such prejudice directed towards handmaids, it is easy to see how the mistreatment of handmaids gets overlooked. In Gilead, the laws allow for a variety of mistreatments concerning men and women, who are not protected by the laws of the land. Citizens …show more content…
In 1973, the court ruling for Roe v. Wade established that millions of women in America would have access to safe and legal abortions and ever since then conservatives have been trying to reverse this decision. Planned Parenthood helps women to avoid unwanted pregnancies, but when they occur they do offer access to safe legal abortion. Conservatives and lobbyists alike have found countless ways to mess with this law. For one there are way too many laws that allow for conservatives to block a woman’s access to abortion. State legislatures have passed numerous attacks on women’s rights through the Hyde Amendment, State 20-week abortion bans and State Abortion Restrictions. These laws make abortion harder to obtain, more costly and more traumatic than they already are. The Hyde Amendment withholds federal Medicaid funding from abortion nationwide, with extremely narrow exceptions. This amendment puts an unfair restriction on insurance coverage for millions of low-income women. State bans or 20-week bans restrict women from receiving an abortion after the 20-week mark, during a woman’s pregnancy. Those who need to end a pregnancy for serious medical reasons or a deeply personal decision would be out of the hands of a woman and her doctor. State Abortion Restrictions allow women to be turned down for abortions