Power and Envy

Power and Envy

As is the case in any society, a big issue in the clouded society of 'The Handmaids Tale' is that of power. We see the story through the eyes of Offred the Handmaid, a character who has every aspect of her life controlled by certain forces. Some of which we see, some of which we don't ( as of yet ). As someone from our current society in Britain, it seems a very harsh way to treat someone that your society depends so heavily upon.  It almost reminded me of the way footballers and actors earn insane amounts of money for the seemingly insignificant work that they do, yet doctors and teachers (to name but a few) earn almost nothing compared to that for the vital work that they do. Both societies seem to treat people they depend upon as dispensable when in fact they are the opposite. This is taken to pretty much the extreme when you consider that handmaids are not only shipped to 'the colonies' (the location of which we don't yet know) if they fail to have a baby by a certain age, but they also can be executed (along with the rest of the society) for seemingly meaningless actions, many of which we wouldn't think twice about in our world. While we only see it from one characters angle, so we don't know the whole story, the society seems to work in a very self destructive way.
             Their entire society depends on the handmaids yet they don't seem to have any power or rights. In a way this makes sense, why leave the future of your people uncertain when you can take measures to ensure it. However, in my opinion, their society still seems to be shifting towards that of a complete dictatorship.
             In fact there are multiple similarities between the Gilead and Nazi Germany. The main one being the way they treat different types of people. Catholics, Jews and assumedly people from other non Gilead religions are hung and some have their bodies strung up on a wall. Men are sectioned off from women on a social level. Women are treated as inferior to men and the work of the handmaids could be compared to that of slave labor in camps like Auswitch.
            A lot of the women actually envy men. The line "Pen Is Envy" seems to be using the an actual pen as a metaphor for a mans penis. As pens and writing is forbidden, Offred gets a rush of power when she is allowed to use it. This seems to reflect the power that men have as the superior gender in this society.
         All of which reminds me of the power the Church used to have, especially in Western Europe. Mainly because how in both societies, logic seems to have been surrendered to ensure complete and utter control over regular people.