The Handmaid’s Tale

The Power of Language

Language is a vital tool to impose ideology upon characters. Howells (2006, p.113) believes that “Metalinguistic play with both polysemy and paronomasia are notoriously recurrent devices in The Handmaid’s Tale to critique the institutional linguistic practices serving to promote ideology”. Debrah Raschke, in her article, “Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: False Borders and Subtle Subversions,” identifies the language and ‘how language systems formulate how we think’ (Raschke, 1995, p. 257). Raschke recognizes three language structures present in the novel: the Gilead system, the narrator’s system, and the academic rhetoric of the novel’s closing ‘Historical Notes’. Raschke examines these language systems as instruments of control. In her book, Atwood depicts a new establishment taking freedom of speech by manipulating the language for their purposes. The official language created in Gilead warps reality to serve the needs of social authority. The contrast between Offred’s memories of her previous life and her current life demonstrates to what extent the authorities have taken over and how much power they possess.

The power of language demonstrates itself, even in the title of the novel. The word a tale used by professor Piexioto is somewhat a euphemism in the context of the book. In the Historical Notes, Piexioto refers to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale as inspiration for calling the diary a tale (Atwood, 1986, p. 301). The word a tale invokes a fairytale, an old wives tale nothing significant like a report or a history. Gileadean propaganda uses euphemisms to name the roles for the populace. Handmaid meaning is: a female servant (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020), present only to serve the needs of the household in a domestic sense. In Gilead handmaids are ‘two-legged wombs’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 163)stripped of their name, forced to dress accordingly and denied literacy. Additionally, Handmaids have their new names assigned: Offred, Ofglen, Ofwayne, Ofwarren are examples of patronymic names. Gilead’s forced renaming strips Handmaids of their self-identities and labels them as the possessions of their Commanders. Butler (2010, p. 43–44) comments on renaming issue ‘the women’s identities only exist in relation to the Commander they are assigned to. […] Without such a personal identifying feature as a name, bonds of friendship cannot form, […] and it is precisely this level of uniqueness that the authorities desire to prevent. Their position is not to think or even to feel emotion, only to fulfil their tasks and obligations.’ Feminists are titled ‘Unwomen’ and deformed babies are denoted by the term ‘Unbabies’. Prefix un- adds the meaning ‘not’, ‘lacking’, or ‘the opposite of’ (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). Children of Ham a reference to black-skinned nations in Genesis, and Jews Sons of Jacob. Names of the shops are biblical echos too, such as Daily Bread, Loaves and Fishes (Atwood, 1986, p. 27), All Flesh (Atwood, 1986, p. 33). The names reinforce the feeling of theocratic dictatorship.

Gilead authorities allow specific greetings for personal encounters. Handmaids greet each other with the biblical phrase ‘Blessed be the fruit’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 27) and its corresponding response ‘May the Lord open.’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 27) as well as the agreement ‘Praise be’ (Atwood, 1986, p.29) and ‘the right farewell […] Under His Eye’ (Atwood, 1986, p.54) count as accepted expressions. The communication between handmaids is heavily restricted. They are supposed to stick to the indoctrinated phrases continually. The state of Gilead eliminates certain words and determines only a few accepted terms. Handmaid’s linguistic capital is becoming drastically low. Specially created terms define the rituals in Gilead. Hence, a ‘dutiful way’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 28) ‘Prayvaganzas’ blends the meaning of two different words: ‘pray’ and ‘extravaganza’. ‘Particicutions’ is a portmanteau of the words’ participation’ and ‘execution’. ‘Salvaging’ literally means saving (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020), in Gilead it describes the act of killing those who do not obey the laws. The sex ceremony is considered as a “sacred” opportunity, not a rape (Raschke, 1995, p. 257).

In her narrative, Offred uses the power of language and words. She narrates her diary in Pre-Gileadian style. In this way, she preserves her identity and resists against the social authority. Offred lives in double consciousness, continually slipping back into the past. Every day as she walks the streets, she is retracing the old city map in her head: ‘I’m remembering my feet on these sidewalks, in the time before, and what I used to wear on them’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 34). As a way to escape from the time trap of the present, Offred feels the need to tell stories if only to herself ‘Otherwise, you live in the moment, which is not where I want to be’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 153). In Gilead, Offred used to silently repeat her hidden name (June) to maintain her existence: ‘I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I once could do, how others saw me’ (Atwood, 1986, p. 97). She breaks through the strict rules of authoritative discourse by giving life to her inner dialogue. Offred maintains her existence by repeating her name silently. Steals (1995, p.459) recognizes it: ‘She is the grammatical subject and narrative agent of the tale, whereas Gilead reduced her position to that of a (grammatical) object and patient.’

Language is a powerful tool in itself. Atwood uses various language techniques in Handmaid’s Tale. The authorities utilize language as a tool of oppression, while Offred uses it for preserving her identity. From the Historical Notes we know that the Offred’s diary has been altered. We use words to describe everything. The choice of words we use changes the way we see things.

Reference List

Atwood M. (1986), The Handmaid’s Tale, Available at https://www.scribd.com/read/249309210/The-Handmaid-s-Tale [Accessed 01 Nov. 2019]

Butler, J. Odelle (2013), Name, Place, and Emotional Space: Themed Semantics in Literary Onomastic Research. PhD thesis, Available at http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4165/1/2013ButlerPhD.pdf [Accessed 05 Apr. 2020]

Cambridge Dictionary (2020), [online]

Available at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/un [Accessed 15 Apr.2020]

Howells A. (2006), The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood, Available at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=NaRuLnhbl2QC&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA11 [Accessed 01 Apr. 2020]

Raschke D.(1995), Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: False Borders and Subtle Subversions, Literature Interpretation Theory 6: 257–68. Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/glit20/6/3-4?nav=tocList [Accessed 15 Apr. 2020]

Steals H. (1995), Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: Resistance Through Narrating, English Studies, 76:5, 455–467 Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00138389508598988 [Accessed 15 Apr.2020]