The Role Of Sexuality In The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood took place in the time period of the New Regime. The Republic of Gilead was a totalitarian theocracy government. During this establishment the government had control over men and women and the social class they were given. People, both men and women are separated and given certain jobs in the Republic of Gilead. Handmaids wore red and there duty was to have children, and Martha 's wore green, they were servants. Also the econowicves were low class wives who wore stripes of red blue and green. As for the the commander he wore black and his wife wore blue, they are the higher classed people in this society. Not everyone in the society can associate with each other, handmaids couldn 't talk to the guardians, and but the wives were allowed to communicate freely. Throughout the novel, Atwood portrays that sexuality under the Gilead Regime is not normalized because people are segregated and isolated, lacking basic rights and have limited access to …show more content…
Handmaids are the only group of women who are given the rights to have children, but not for herself but for only the commander and his wife. Offred who was given the role as a handmaid 's would “watch every month for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure.” (Atwood 73). Offred feels as if her body is being used as a tool for pregnancy. She starts to believe that when she sees her menstruation cycle that she has failed to reproduce a child. Women who failed to get pregnant by a certain time could be sent to the colonies were “unwomen” were sent . The government 's law was “ give me children, or else I die” (Atwood 61). Which meant that whoever was given the role as a handmade were forced to give life to a child or take death. They didn 't have a choice in whether or not they wanted to do. So women had no control over there right, they had to go by what rights the government gave to