The environment in which a story is set, that is, the time, place and the social structure that existed in that context, is instrumental in conveying the author’s comments on the society portrayed and the parallels it may have with the modern-day world. The function of the physical, social and moral environments in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is to convey the themes cast in a dystopian view of the future where a rigid, patriarchal and theocratic society has been established. All three of these environments are interdependent and serve to illuminate the present flaws in society by representing gross exaggerations of them in a bleak and bizarre reality, in which a revolution of extremist values have become manifest.

The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the near future as the twentieth century draws to a close, in Massachusetts, the United States of America. From several references in the novel, it is established that due to environmental destruction by the emission of nuclear and other toxic wastes, fertility has plummeted whilst infant mortality and mutations have risen. In response to a rapidly changing world, faced with the prospect of the disintegration of civilization, religious fundamentalists have used military force to turn society back to ultra-conservative values. They have introduced new social practices and moral codes justified by a literal reading from the Bible. There also seems to be constant war between the Republic of Gilead and the other states. This is the context in which the central character, Offred, is placed. Her experiences and perceptions as a disempowered woman within this environment have the function of positioning the reader to view most elements of this society to be extremely negative.

As seen through Offred’s eyes, the “heart of Gilead” is described as a place where the “war cannot intrude… where nothing moves.” Society is at a standstill, in a frozen state – signifying the overwhelming level of oppression exerted by the theocratic power. Every mind has been conditioned not to think of advancement or progress, as any change would threaten the control of the regime. The facts that Gilead’s centre is in the Harvard University, one of the most esteemed educational institutions today and that it is now closed, present a great irony. The university is a symbol of knowledge, hence power, choice and freedom. Now, it is the heart of a totalitarian regime that exudes conformity, ignorance and imprisonment. All laws, including those that gave the rights of free expression and association, have been erased – “There are no lawyers anymore…” Such a physical environment poses a warning as to the extremist tendencies in some religious groups today and the possible trends in society which could install them to power.

Many elements in the physical environment are symbolic of the oppressive nature of Gilead. The “searchlight moonlight,” “Guardians of the Faith” with their machine guns and the red armbands worn by the Angels are all symbolic of suppression and total control. The first suggests a night curfew, where everyone except the Commanders are kept in their houses. The omnipresent Guardians create an atmosphere of fear and impending death. Red represents the fascist nature of the regime. The Wall is the most important symbol is this category is it is a historical allusion to the Berlin Wall, something that had existed in the reader’s world and hence, could be identified with. Totalitarianism to this extreme has been brought closer to the realms of possibility with this symbol. Bodies are hung on the Wall, as a lesson to the others – “We’re supposed to look: this is what they are there for, hanging on the Wall.” The slightest dissent will be ruthlessly crushed. Total uniformity is stressed. Such mind-control and physical suppression have existed in fascist, communist and Islamic fundamentalist governments during this century.

The difference with the totalitarian Republic of Gilead is that the Christian religion has been used as the basis of the theocracy, where all women are made subordinate to men. From this has the Handmaid system been devised in which fertile women are classified as “national resources” and valued only as “two-legged wombs.” Offred is a Handmaid and the description of her immediate physical environment, her room, shows how strictly regulated her role in society is. “A chair, a table, a lamp” is a blank, unembellished description of the furniture in her room, indicating its utilitarian and plain features, just as a Handmaid is only a utility. “They’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to” demonstrates society’s indictment of the Handmaids – they have been so disconnected from all human regard that some had chosen to take their own lives rather than live out such an emotionally barren existence. Conversely, she comes to see the room as a mental solace, her own psychological space where no one can ever intrude. It is in here that she allows her mind to roam free in her memories, a technique to maintain her sanity. Her territorial sense of possessiveness is thus aroused when she sees the Commander in it – “A flash of bared teeth, what in hell does he think he is doing?… I called it mine.”

This mental contest for territory within Offred’s severely restricted physical environment, on her part, demonstrates a subtle rebellion against the masculine ideology advocated by the elite. Likewise, as she ventures into the “forbidden” territory of the Commander, his study, what she feels is a tense, yet inquisitive fear – “It is this weakness that entices me… What secrets, what male totems are kept in there?” The study is a room barred to her and to enter it is to defy society’s strictures, something she needs to do to sustain her resistance against the regime. That the study presents “normal life” and the Commander’s first word constitutes the “old form of greeting” so terribly jars Offred’s sense of time and place, she could not but be touched and cries. Indeed, it is demonstrably an irony in that the Commander, one of the destroyers of the old world and all the social values attached to it, has maintained a sanctity, a territory for himself, that is part of the old world. This meeting with the Commander and the Scrabble game they play is a turning point where Offred revels in her physical rebellion, her first in the text – “Now it’s forbidden… Now it’s dangerous. Now it’s indecent… Now it’s desirable. Now he’s compromised himself.” Where before, it was always she who compromised for survival, now he has done so for a “whim.”

In this puritanical and theocratic society, the dominant ideology perpetuated is stemmed from a literal interpretation of the religious holy book. Within this social environment, the power structure is clearly delineated through class, gender, religion and the ability to reproduce. Colours symbolize power and these are relegated to different areas of the society – “black, for the Commander, blue, for the Commander’s Wife” and for the Handmaids – “red: the colour of blood, which defines us.” The Econowives wear striped dresses, the Guardians green, the Aunts brown and the Eyes, grey. The strictness of dress reflects the stifling social constraints imposed on everyone. The reader is directed to see that the utmost control is exerted on woman and particularly on Handmaids who are forced to wear wings, veils and bulky dresses which absolutely entrap them – “We have learnt to see the world in gasps.”

The Ceremony, a somewhat perverted act that has become socially accepted, is a demonstration of the ultimate disempowerment of women in this patriarchy. The associations of love, intimacy and pleasure with the sexual act have been reversed to a detached, unemotional and horrifyingly empty proceeding – “It has nothing to do with passion, love or romance…” Society has decreed that all men and women must do their duty by reproducing, degrading the love as inconsequential and taboo. Even the elite men who are assigned Handmaids are not allowed to take pleasure in an additional partner – “This is not recreation, even for the Commander.” All movements in bed are heavily controlled – “Kissing is forbidden between us,” and even to the extent of the bizarre positioning of the Wife and the Handmaid. That both Serena Joy and Offred are left feeling utterly humiliated and denigrated is without doubt, although both cannot afford to express it, least of all to think it, so powerful has the control of the regime become. The morality perpetuated by the regime is seen to be most powerfully heinous and repulsive in this activity.

Other social activities in Gilead define the social environment, such as the Birthings, Prayvaganzas and the Salvagings. Scriptural readings are often used to justify the Gileadean social construction. The Women’s Salvagings, told through Offred’s point of view portrays a rather bestial and sadistic practice of “particicution” where the tightly controlled Handmaids are encouraged to free themselves of their rage, frustration and despair on an alleged rapist – “there is a bloodlust; I want to tear, gouge, rend.” Through this truncated use of language, the reader similarly feels such emotions – bringing about the realization that usually docile, passive people could be directed to commit violent, aggressive acts. This is an indication of Gilead’s power – it can manipulate the people’s emotions, human responses and actions to perpetuate their own metaphorical and physical oppression. It is because the people themselves are participating in the inhuman executions of deviants. The success of the oppression of women is due to this and the use of members of their own gender to control them – which the Aunts quite effectively do.

Prayvaganzas are similarly constructed. They enforce gender segregation – “Women’s Prayvaganzas are for group weddings. The men’s are for military victories.” They are also times when religious propaganda are further instilled into the population, especially when the presiding Commander reads – “I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel… Let the woman learn in silence with all subjugation… to be in silence… she shall be saved by childbearing.” These are all Biblical allusions taken out of their context and appropriated to maintain absolute control on women. The Daughters being given away to the Angels are usually clad in white – a symbol of their innocence and virginity. Yet there is now an ironic twist as their innocence is no longer something sweet, it is instead a product of the freedom-crushing power of the Republic. The youth have been brain-washed and future generations will have no memories of a different society – “They’ll always have been in white, in groups of girls; they’ll always have been silent.” This indeed signifies the ruthless and odious nature of this society – aligning the reader to Offred’s view and hence, to condemn the social environment.

Birth Days are solely attended by women – the Wives, Aunts and the Handmaids, except for the doctors and Angel escorts. The procedure of giving birth through natural means without the use of painkillers or the charge of doctors is a regression back to traditional practices where only midwives attended a woman in labour. . Women are also supposed to be absolved through the pain – “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” However, though the pain is suffered by Ofwarren (Janine), the joy of motherhood will be denied her – “she’s crying helplessly, burnt-out miserable tears.” Painting a broken, pathetic image of her indicates that Handmaids basically have no rights. This event is also one of the several references to feminist issues that had arisen in the “70″s, such as the debate on natural childbirth. Feminist issues are intertwined with the major themes of the novel and it is through the representation of a totalitarian regime that subjugated all women that Atwood has criticized some extreme stances taken by feminists in her time.

There was a tendency in the “70″s to “80″s for feminist anti-porn groups to ally themselves with zealous religious groups which opposed every other feminist issue besides that on pornography. Such an alliance is deemed unhealthy by the author who presents the Republic of Gilead as a possible result of it, where the moral to “protect women” is to suppress them, is legitimized. In the text, the stripping away of women’s rights and the classification of them according to their reproductive ability are deemed moral in the patriarchal ideology. However, the moral code has bestowed ostensible power on some groups of women such as the Aunts and the Wives.

Contrary to the connotation of an aunt as an affectionate person, the role of the Aunts is a vital mechanism by which control on other women, especially Handmaids, can be institutionalized. However, they really have no great power outside the area of “domesticating” fertile women to their duties as “sacred vessels” – “even [the Aunts] are not trusted with guns.” Similarly, the Wives also hold ostensible power as the charge of all women in a household is given to them – “transgressions of women in the household… are supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the Wives alone.” Still, they are morally not allowed to kill the Handmaids or to hit them with any implements besides their hands.

The submissiveness of women as part of the moral environment can be shown by the other groups of women who generally have no power, ostensible or real. The reader is positioned to sympathize with members of these groups and to see their plights as unjust. The Econowives, women who can conceive but cannot carry the babies to term, have been relegated to the lowest echelons of the Gileadean power structure – “have to do everything themselves.” Marthas, such as Rita and Cora, are older women or those who had been sterilized, are made servants in the houses of the higher class. Their worlds are shown to be narrow with a future that could easily be changed for the worst as they age or should they fall ill. Usually, widows, old and sterile women are classified as Unwomen and sent to the Colonies to clean up nuclear waste. Such a moral, deliberately sending a person to a painful and degenerating death, is shown to be horrendous. Also repugnant, is the way it has been made moral for fertile women, trained as Handmaids, to participate in denigrating sexual acts and to be mentally conditioned to desire pregnancy – “I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own.”

Men mostly abuse power in the text. Their ability to do so underlines the masculine morality that empowers men. Morality has been redefined through the appropriation of Biblical passages such as the story of Rachel and Bilhah, taken from the Books of the Patriarchs. The archaic language and morality of the Patriarchs are used as propaganda to instigate men’s power. For instance, in this moral environment, “There is no such thing as a sterile man any more,” yet, there are “women who are barren, that’s the law.” Yet the infertility of the Commanders is sensuously suggested by the doctor, who offers his services to Offred. Though Offred sees his “sympathy” for her plight as genuine, he is also shown to enjoy taking advantage of her. Hence, as a man, the doctor has fewer rules infringing on his powers although if he is caught, the penalty is death. But the fact is, he has not been instilled with the mortal terror of death by execution whilst Offred has – “I’m a coward. I can’t bear torture.” Therefore, the doctor presents an aggressive masculine image who lets nothing stand in the way of his desires, contrasting with Offred’s image of a submissive women who obeys the rules to survive.

The Commander subverts a long list of the Gileadean moral laws. This of course shows the double standards of society. It is moral for the system, set up by the Commanders, to crush the slightest deviation of the lower classes and women, yet it endorses the Commanders’ breaking of their own laws. The Commander having women’s magazines in his possession, consorting with his Handmaid and especially, bringing his Handmaid to Jezebel’s present evidence of such hypocrisy. The first “transgression” contradicts Offred’s knowledge that all such magazines have been destroyed long ago as they were considered immoral by the perpetrators of the theocratic state. Similarly, Offred has been indoctrinated on her sole “breeding purpose” – “We are not concubines, geisha girls or courtesans.” Yet the Commander wants something more of her – of some human contact that was not only physical but also emotional. Such a desire on the part of the Commander reveals the fundamental flaw in the Gileadean moral environment. The existence of Jezebel’s ultimately shatters the foundation of the puritanical morality. The aim of Gilead had been ostensibly to protect women from demeaning acts such as prostitution. Yet it has set up a brothel for the Commanders’ personal pleasures and international relations.

However, men, though having an empowered status relative to that of women’s, are also taught military discipline, obedience to authority and conformity. Such groups of men include the Angels, the Guardians and the Eyes. All have been brainwashed and mentally conditioned to give utmost loyalty to the state – “The young are often the most dangerous, the most fanatical, the jumpiest with their guns.” All are only given brief, detached descriptions at frequent intervals – signifying their permeation in the lives of every Gileadean citizen and the military oppression of the moral environment. However, Nick, the Commander’s personal Guardian, who bends the moral rules, subverts the apparent discipline of all Guardians – “he too has something to trade on the black market.” He eventually shatters these rules when he continues his relationship with Offred and is finally revealed to be part of the Mayday Resistance, working within the ranks of the Eyes and acting as a spy on the Commander. This also shows that despite all the powers of the Commanders, no one is above the system. The Eyes, used as a method of terror to perpetuate unstinting obedience to the Republic, could lead “purges” among even the elite.

These aspects of the physical, social and moral environments of this anti-utopia illustrate the negative points of a society dominated by extremist masculine ideology, religious fundamentalism and puritanical indoctrination. Offred’s place as a disempowered and disenfranchised Handmaid within this totalitarian regime, highlights the inequity of a society that artificially classifies people according to their gender, class, reproductive ability and religion. Her tone shifts from bitter irony to sardonic cynicism and at times, to suicidal depression, positioning the reader to sympathize with her and to view the social structure as fundamentally flawed. The description of Gilead’s confined physical spaces, their related social values and redefinition of the power structure within a hypocritical moral code – all serve to convey a serious warning as to the possible outcomes of the feminist, technological, environmental and religious issues in the modern society.