The Power of the Word in Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

In Gilead, the dystopian setting for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," it is clear that the authorities place a very high value on language and writing. The inhabitants of this place seem to value the spoken and written word, as well as the power and information one can gain from them, quite highly. Those who are in power are able to garner their own thoughts and information to influence their actions, whereas those who are not have to rely on being told only certain scraps of information. It is through this that Atwood shares with us a belief that the pen truly is mightier than the sword.

In this setting access to form of written language is very tightly controlled, with only power figures such as the Commander being able to own books and legally being able to read. If the people of this highly authoritarian Gilead do not have access to information such as books, then they can be guided and led very easily by the powers that be. They will not be able to learn other than that which other people want them to know and they will be unable to think for themselves. Such an incident occurs when Offred, the main character, is listening to the Beatitudes and "...knew they made it up... knew that it was wrong, and they left things out, too, but there was no way of checking" (pg 110). Offred, and almost everyone else in Gilead is forbidden from writing and from most reading. Nearly everyone, with the exception of the Commanders, is forbidden from reading, even the Aunts, the only female power figures, must listen to the Beatitudes "Played... from a tape so not even an Aunt would be guilty of the sin of reading"(pg 110).

The Commander, a male power figure, and others like him are some of the only ones who have enough power to be legally allowed to read. This gives him a kind of increase in power over the others because "He has something we don't have, he has the word. How we squandered it, once" (pg 110). They seem somewhat resentful because of this. The Commander also has a private den, in which he is able to keep "Books and books and books, right out in plain view, no locks..."(pg 172). While the only reading material Offred has available to her are things that have been overlooked by the authorities. Things such as her "petit point FAITH cushion"(99) that has been left in her room because it is still useable, as well as, written in her cupboard, "...in tiny writing, quite fresh it seemed, scratched with a pin or maybe just a fingernail, in the corner where the darkest shadow fell: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"(65) Even though Offred "...didn't know what it meant, or even what language it was in...Still, it was a message, and it was in writing, forbidden by that very fact, and it hadn't yet been discovered"(pg 65). Almost all written words anywhere have been removed, even the shops have had "...the lettering... painted out, when they decided that even the names of the shops were too much...for us. Now places are known by their signs alone"(pg 31). The Commander also has another type of word horded in his private den, the word game Scrabble. "This was once the game of old women, old men..."(pg 174) but not because of the restricted access to words in Gilead, "Now...it's something different. Now it's forbidden, for us. Now it's dangerous. Now it's indecent"(pg 174). At one point Offred gets a chance to write out a sentance while in the Commander's den and "The pen between [her] fingers"(pg 234) is described as "sensuous, alive almost, [she] can feel its power, the power of the words it contains"(pg 234). Offred "env[ies] the Commander his pen"(pg 234) and this implies that the power it has that he controls is envied by her as well. By keeping access to reading and writing materials tightly controlled, the Gileadians are able to control the flow of power from one person to the next.

Almost all books, writing and other literature from before the current government and way of thinking took control have been burned or destroyed in some other way, so as to limit available information that might be able to contradict the current government and alter the current way of thinking. Offred at one point in the story even describes the Commander as "...an ad for rural democracy, as in... some old burned book"(230). Most of the old literature that existed in pre-Gileadan times"[was] supposed to have been burned..."(pg 196) and the Gilead government went to great lengths to ensure that this happened, even so far as having "house-to-house searches, bonfires..."(pg 196) to make sure that all pre-regime sources of information had been destroyed and thus to effectively put intellectual blinders on the civilization. Even every day items such as "Newspapers were censored and some where closed down, for security reasons..."(pg 218). Before the regime had even taken full control of the society, the librarian at Offred's old place of work, the library that is now described as "like a temple"(pg 208) had been afraid to make trouble because "the books might be lost"(pg 222). However, some of the old literature managed to escape being destroyed this was, because according to the Commander "What's dangerous in the hands of the multitudes...is safe enough for those whose motives are...Beyond reproach"(pg 196) although it was illegal even in his possession. He does own some such material though, such as "a women's magazine... a model on glossy paper, hair blown, neck scarfed, mouth lipsticked..."(pg 194) even though it was "thought such magazines had all been destroyed, but here was one... in a Commander's private study..."(pg 194). Items such as this contradicted the regime's policy of trying to protect the trivialization of women and to make them precious, and as such were for the most part destroyed in books burnings and similar activities. Gilead can be described as a synthesis of other authoritarian regimes and there is certainly a large amount of suppression of information that has occurred beforehand to make precedent for Gilead's actions. Destroying books and sources of information allows for the tailoring of available information to fit the needs of those in power and to limit anything that might contradict them.

In Gilead, those with authority are able to learn and keep up to date with information that is not just the propaganda fed to the masses, which they are unable to contradict with any other sources of information. They are able to learn and think for themselves and use this knowledge to influence the less informed. Through the denial of material to both write with and to read from, the Gilead regime is able to keep the general population at the bottom end of the power structure. Where a sword was once used to keep ones position in medieval society, it is information gained from literary sources and the power of the written word that is able to keep someone on top of the Gileadan power structure.

Bibliography

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Toronto: Seal Books, 1998