The Green Broke Women of Gilead
“Nothing walks the earth more savage than a mare enraged.” -Janet Morris
Dividing people into categories will cause animosity to build up amongst the groups. Preventing people from cooperating makes the thought of an uprising impossible. Placing a person in a position of being the only one of their kind they will eventually cause them to submit to the governing authority that put them there. A mare is the term used for a female horse. Green broke means that a horse has been trained but is not yet trustable. The women in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are living through the first generation of Gilead. These women have been green broken, they are not fully orthodox yet, thus a harsher bit is needed to keep them in check. A bit is a device used to control and direct horses. The form of bit used in The Handmaids Tale is that of isolation, in terms coined by Michel Foucault, binary division, branding, …show more content…
“She’s in her usual Martha’s dress, which is dull green, like a surgeon’s gown of the time before. The dress is much like mine in shape, long and concealing, but with a bib apron over it and without white wings and the veil” (Atwood 9). The women of Gilead are all divided into different groups and clearly labeled as to what group they belong in. Marthas wear green, cooking and cleaning is their responsibility. Handmaid’s wear voluminous red gowns and habit-like headdresses; their purpose in life is to bear children for the barren wives of the commanders. Wives wear the color blue, they manage the household and provide companionship for the husband. Econowives wear striped dresses, they are a combination of marthas, handmaids, and wives designated to serve men of lower status. The standard household of a commander would have one wife, one handmaid, and a couple marthas. The house of a man of lower status would simply have one
“Nothing walks the earth more savage than a mare enraged.” -Janet Morris
Dividing people into categories will cause animosity to build up amongst the groups. Preventing people from cooperating makes the thought of an uprising impossible. Placing a person in a position of being the only one of their kind they will eventually cause them to submit to the governing authority that put them there. A mare is the term used for a female horse. Green broke means that a horse has been trained but is not yet trustable. The women in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are living through the first generation of Gilead. These women have been green broken, they are not fully orthodox yet, thus a harsher bit is needed to keep them in check. A bit is a device used to control and direct horses. The form of bit used in The Handmaids Tale is that of isolation, in terms coined by Michel Foucault, binary division, branding, …show more content…
“She’s in her usual Martha’s dress, which is dull green, like a surgeon’s gown of the time before. The dress is much like mine in shape, long and concealing, but with a bib apron over it and without white wings and the veil” (Atwood 9). The women of Gilead are all divided into different groups and clearly labeled as to what group they belong in. Marthas wear green, cooking and cleaning is their responsibility. Handmaid’s wear voluminous red gowns and habit-like headdresses; their purpose in life is to bear children for the barren wives of the commanders. Wives wear the color blue, they manage the household and provide companionship for the husband. Econowives wear striped dresses, they are a combination of marthas, handmaids, and wives designated to serve men of lower status. The standard household of a commander would have one wife, one handmaid, and a couple marthas. The house of a man of lower status would simply have one