The Handmaid’s Tale: Symbolism of the House
Waterford’s mansion is full of references to their family dynamics and their future
SPOILERS from Season 3
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karerina
Home is usually linked to family, beliefs, traditions, and roots. But it also represents the beginnings and endings, where we come from, and where we are going. It’s the most intimate part of our being and shows us how we express it into this world. Like people, like families, no two houses are alike.
The walls don’t speak, but it seems that they do. They tell us stories of fallen family dynamics trying to rise again. The decoration enhances our beautiful parts or hides what we don’t want to show. Even the layout of the rooms matters, because it reveals the center of the house and what we relegate to the periphery, to the last place. The language of the walls suffocates because it’s slow, subtle, hidden, and twisted.
The Handmaid’s Tale has shown us this and much more. The first two seasons served to place us in the world that has moved us to unimaginable limits. The third was presented as the season in which we would see the revolution born, and yet, it was harder to believe until the finale. Many have considered this season excessively slow. But in my opinion, this has been necessary to build what is to come in the fourth season.
The third season of the Handmaid’s Tale showed us how Fred and Serena’s dynamics have fallen, their family is destroyed and they finally must face their decisions. Could the destruction of their Mansion in 3x01 have foretold us about this?
If we analyze Waterford’s mansion, at first sight, we see an opulent decoration and a dark, melancholic, and oppressive atmosphere. You can click here if you want to know more about this and admire the photographs of the house. But there is much more. By analyzing the language of the walls and the implications that the rooms have had in the development of the plot, you’ll discover how each space tells something different.
BEDROOMS
These rooms were the central element of the first season being a symbol of intimacy and sexuality, the pillars in the society of Gilead. However, the ceremonial room isn’t the most symbolic of the house. The room is chaired by a central bed with unpleasant and outdated fabrics, as well as four posts that almost look like bars in a jail. In front, a mirror reminds us that everything that happens in that bed is being observed and imitated by Gilead society.
ATTIC
The part closest part to heaven, conscience, and soul: where they turned June away. The soul, something that the Waterfords probably doesn’t have at all. Attics, the soul of the houses, are usually full of beautiful memories, but this attic it’s austere and depressing. Even so, it contains a quote of a woman who did manage to connect with humanity and has elevated the spirit of June in the most difficult moments: ‘Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum’. It should be noted that Waterford’s house doesn’t have a basement, a symbol of the subconscious, because they evade confronting it.
LIVING ROOM
The meeting place shows how we interact with the outside. Even with Fred’s decoration dyes, the predominant tone is Serena’s blue, showing us that it’s she who is responsible for socializing and faking. The living room isn’t as large as in other houses, and, in addition, there’s very little space without decoration, so we can deduce that their social circle is much smaller than they appear, and it oppresses them.
LIBRARY
The equivalent would be the Commander’s Office, a place of knowledge and wisdom. But Fred has none of this, he’s a mere collector of data. His room contains the forbidden relics for women, one of the many details that pointed Julie Berghoff, production designer of the show, as you can read in this article.
GREENHOUSE
It was included in the second season. Serena used to flee into this space to reflect on the situations experienced. The greenhouse is relegated from the cubicle of the mansion and is located almost as far apart as Nick’s house, showing that you have to “leave” the house to connect with the greenhouse energy. Plants, flowers, and trees are nothing more than the representation of Mother Nature, a symbol of the creative and protective feminine energies. The second season, without a doubt, is focused on this space. Not surprisingly, it was the season in which Serena had the opportunity to connect with femininity, motherhood, and, likewise, with the rest of women: Eden, Nichole, and on certain occasions, even with June. Precisely, in the greenhouse, June delivers Serena the annotated Eden’s Bible, which triggers one of the most important decisions for her: let Nichole leave Gilead.
KITCHEN
It shows us how we digest and process emotions. In Waterford’s mansion, the crystals that separate one cabin from another remind us that if you express yourself out loud, you run the risk of someone listening to you. Emotions, therefore, are repressed and must come to light as muffins that camouflage hidden messages. I’m also surprised by the presence of many plants, which reveal to us how emotions are owned only by women, the only ones that handle the kitchen in this tale.
BATHROOM
The bathroom has only been shown in the series when June appears on the scene, so being a place of purification and cleaning, we can see that only she dares to clean and heal the situations lived in the house, not the Waterfords, perhaps because they cannot, although judging by the austere and gray decoration of the bathroom, perhaps it’s a simile that in Gilead it’s not allowed to question anything, much less to clean and heal it.
THE CENTER OF THE HOUSE
Which room is symbolically more important? The one that is more or less in the center of the house. It would be logical to think that it is the ceremonial room, but if you look, it’s not so. Nor does the baby’s room, surprisingly. It’s clear to me. The center of the house is the stairs.
Although we don’t have a 100% accurate house plan, it’s the first thing you see when entering the mansion, and after seeing many scenes, it’s obvious. Have you noticed that June on multiple occasions stops to caress the railing? Even in the beautiful scene of the destruction of chapter 3x01, the stairs remind us of how important they have been. Nor it’s a coincidence at the end of 3x01 when the house is already burned and the scene shows a central collapse in which the staircase still appears.
If there is something that has characterized the Waterfords, especially Serena, it has been the constant changes of side. The story of June and Serena has been a story of advances and setbacks. The Waterfords are murderers, slavers, rapists, and torturers, no one can doubt it and they will pay for their crimes. It seems there’s no salvation for Fred. But for Serena, we always had the doubt. Is she showing empathy and connection with humanity? Will she have been redeemed? And then she fell back into evil once again and again.
The staircase shows how they used June as a way to ascent and descent constantly. The true dynamics of the Waterford family were centered on turning between good and evil, between cruelty and compassion — as an abuser is used to do.
Serena began burning the most important and painful part of the house for her, the bedroom, but the last view of the fire shows us how goes up like hell, to the ceiling through the stairs — maybe foreshadowing June’s breakdown in 3x09. Now the ladder no longer exists, and that’s why Serena betrays Fred and they cannot re-form a family, a home. Serena, although unconsciously, showed us that it was time to end the ups and downs, finally positioning herself and facing the consequences of her actions. I still have hope for her future.
And now, until Season 4 comes, do you dare to analyze your own houses and the stories contained in your walls? I hope you find more beautiful things in your homes than in this tale. And in case you don’t find any, may you have the courage to “burn” and transform everything.
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