"The Handmaid's Tale": Why do women embarrass women

You must have seen the double reed, but you must have never seen such a weird double reed.
Everything is for surrogacy, but unlike surrogacy implanted by technology, this kind of surrogacy also needs to be "sex (love)" before. The weird thing is that, no matter during sex or childbirth, there is a woman behind the surrogate woman, that is, the hostess of the surrogate party. The two always maintained the same posture and performed the same actions, including the sexual behavior of the surrogate woman and her husband, as well as the breath of the surrogate woman during childbirth, and even the hissing and screaming caused by the pain, the women behind them all performed Re-engraving mechanically. But just like the double reed, although doing the same action, it is the woman behind that who really has the right to speak. A surrogate woman is just a tool for childbirth, a maid.



"The Handmaid's Tale" is adapted from the science fiction novel of the same name, but the author Margaret Atwood (Margaret Atwood) did not list her work as a science fiction. The inferred fictional work is a novel against the use of totalitarian power to abuse and abuse of theocracy to fool the people. When conceiving this novel in the 1980s, the author comprehensively combined the socio-political thoughts and religious concepts of the United States at that time, and put forward bold speculations on the further development of various phenomena, especially for the future of American women. According to Margaret's own statement, there is another evidence that the novel has nothing to do with science fiction, that is, "all the details in the book have actually happened in history."



The drama "The Handmaid's Tale" has the genes of a purely female drama. Needless to say, the original author not only participated in the screenwriting, but also appeared in guest appearances in person. In addition, four of the five directors involved in the production of the series are women, and six of the seven screenwriters are women. Throughout the series, especially the first few episodes, the male character is completely subordinate, basically reduced to "bedding", and the frequently appeared archbishop Fred Watford is just a symbol of male power. The entry point of the drama, whether it is surrogacy or surrogacy (love), is an absolute female perspective.



The plot of generational (love) appeared in the first episode, which is called the fertilization ceremony in the play. Before the ceremony, Archbishop Fred read a paragraph of "Bible Genesis", which is about the story of the two sisters Leah and Rachel.
The younger sister Rachel fell in love with Jacob at first sight at the well in Paddan Aram. Jacob promised to do seven years of coolies to marry Rachel, but Laban (also Jacob’s uncle), the father of the two sisters, tricked him into marrying him seven years later. Sister Leah. Afterwards, Laban promised Jacob that if Jacob was willing to work for another seven years, he would marry his sister Rachel. Seven years later, the sisters finally served the husband together, but they began to fight for favor in front of the husband. Because Rachel was unable to have children, in order to gain her husband's favor, she asked her handmaid Bilhah to live with Jacob instead of herself. Bilhah succeeded in giving birth to two children in a row, and Rachel had the upper hand. Soon, Leah followed suit and gave Jacob her maid as a concubine, and gave birth to two children.

Throughout Rachel's life, she always regarded childbearing as the only goal in her life and pursued it at all costs. The Bible records that Rachel said to Jacob, "Give me children or else I die." ("Give me children or else I die."). This is exactly the fragment of Fred's recitation in the play. one. The word "handmaid" (handmaid) comes from this story, and the story of this "sisters' wall" also set the tone of the entire plot.



The follow-up to the above story is that Jacob fled from Paddan Aram. Laban led people to chase him for seven days and nights, and finally caught up with him on a mountain. After a period of dispute, the two sides decided not to contact each other, so they set up piles of stones and stone pillars on the mountain as evidence. The name of this mountain is "Mount Gilead". This Gilead is the origin of the name "Republic of Gilead" in the play, which means "the place of witness".

The "Republic of Gilead" can be reminiscent of many similar regimes and behaviors, such as various slavery in history, including American slaves, the Nazi Third Reich, Islamic Wahhabi sects and East Germany, and certain forms of the former Soviet Union. Some extreme behaviors and so on. The original author Margaret said that the substantive concept of the "Republic of Gilead" came from the Puritans who fled Britain and came to the American continent. At that time, the religious leaders tried to establish a theocracy that eliminated religious heresy. On the basis of this concept, Margaret mixed the Utopian ideals of Cambodia and Romania in the 20th century to form a big background setting of anti-utopia. Among them, the atrocities against political dissidents are derived from the common atrocities in the history of the Philippines. Among them, infertility is regarded as a social normal, and it is connected with radiation, pollution, venereal diseases, etc., which leads to the importance of environmental issues in a forward-looking manner. As for Gilead’s religious theocracy, there are shadows of Iran and Afghanistan, including extreme conservative attitudes towards women, strict restrictions on women’s behavior and freedom in public, and so on.



The women in "The Handmaid's Tale" are divided into several levels, which are distinguished by various colors.
The servant girls are the bottom of the oppressed, walking wombs, all wearing red robes. However, red does not represent "lucky" as Mrs. Watford said in the play. Red here is the color of blood during childbirth. At the same time, like the red color in Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", it represents licentiousness and uncleanness, alluding to the inherent infidelity of the fertilization ceremony in the play. In contrast, the ruling class ladies of Gilead are dressed in blue. This should be an ironic setting, because blue is the color of the Virgin Mary in the Bible, symbolizing fertility and purity; the gray-robed mothers are followers of the ruling class, responsible for enlightenment and punishment; The maid in light green clothes is also at the bottom, responsible for daily housework and cooking.

The surrogate maid was completely deprived of any rights, and even the name was forcibly changed to "belong to someone" (Of...) according to the name of the surrogate seeker. For example, the heroine's name is Offred, which is "Offred", and another important role is called Offglen, which is "Ofglen". This is a concrete expression of the supremacy of patriarchy and the attribution of women to men. This view is not only shown in the maid’s body, but in the flashback clip of Mrs. Watford, through the words of the Watford couple, “God made men and made women with men’s ribs”, once again Emphasize women's subordinate status and reproductive functions.



In the second half of the series, the plot of the flashback extends from Overred to a variety of perspectives. Mrs. Watford used to be the spokesperson of feminism before. "Never confuse the gentleness of women as weakness" is her work. The golden sentence in "The Status of Women". But it was also when she was watching a movie with Mr. Watford, she undertook "to regard fertility as a national resource and reproduction as a moral responsibility". It was also that she abandoned other colors of clothes and used blue as a female. Respect the status label. Mrs. Watford is the instigator behind the patriarchy of the entire "Republic of Gilead". It is she who initiated the oppression of women by women.



The role opposite to Mrs. Watford is the heroine Ovred. The setting of this role is unbiased, not only has the various demands of the protagonist's aura, but also shows the cowardice and hesitation of human nature that has to bow its head in the face of power. Her feminist consciousness is not innate at all. When meeting a foreign ambassador, she will take it for granted that the ambassador should be a man; because of the rare opportunity, she will ask for liberation when she is in a one-night stand with Luke. Female superior. The subordinate status of women is actually deeply ingrained in her heart. Although the maid status is humiliating, she can also flirt and be ambiguous.
Elisabeth Moss, who plays the heroine, obviously continues and surpasses the performance in "Mad Men", and the delicateness and intriguing in this play. In one scene, after asking Offred to kiss emotionally, the archbishop left a cold "rest" and walked away. At that moment, from flattering and flattering to blank stare, to embarrassment and disappointment, the corners of Alfred's brows and mouth, and his eyes were all dramatic.

The complexity of Overred's role was also reflected before the establishment of Gilead. The flashback in the play reveals that Overrider interacted with Luke as a third party. Although it later became a positive result, it cannot be said that there is no moral flaw. Interestingly, this flashback is intertwined with a conversation between the archbishop and Offred. The theme of this conversation also involves love. The archbishop said that "love is just lust in a beautiful coat" and "love is ultimately a tragedy."



The content of this conversation finally moved towards politics. The archbishop told Offred: “All we do is to make the world a better place, but we certainly cannot make everyone’s lives better. Some people will live better. Bad." Kate Millett said in "Sexual Politics": "The ideal politics should be to completely eliminate the idea that some people exercise power to another." The archbishop's words are high-sounding, but there are indeed people who buy it. Many maids are willing to "get used to the inherent side of things", and gradually agree with this identity positioning, and even feel sad that they cannot go to the diplomatic feast to decorate the peace.



The name of the resistance organization in the play is Mayday (Mayday) from the French homophone "help me" (m'aidez). And Offred’s real name is June, English is June, that is, June, which exists on the premise of May, and the existence of June means future victory. At the end of the series, the maids did not succumb to the lewd power of Mother Lydia, and Ovreid became the spiritual leader. Facing Jenny's stoning, the maids finally showed signs of awakening. The Latin "Don't let these bastards ride on our heads" (Nolite te bastardes carborundorum) is no longer just the words carved by the predecessors in the dark wardrobe, it has truly become the inscription in the heart of every maid.

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