Handmaids Tale Chapter 13 and Notes on the Body

In what ways is the control of women’s bodies reflective of the totalitarian control of the regime in Gilead?

• We initially tend to think of our bodies as instruments, something that is. When the state takes control of one’s body, it seems to gain much more importance and meaning. 

“I sink down into my body as into a swamp, fenland, where only I know the footing. Treacherous ground, my own territory. I become the earth I set my ear against, for rumours of the future. Each twinge, each murmur of slight pain, ripples of sloughed-off matter, swellings and diminishings of tissue, the droolings of the flesh, these are signs, these are things I need to know about. Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure. I have failed once again to fulfil the expectations of others, which have become my own.”

• Her body is no longer a type of material, it is now like an alien space, a territory. Dangerous, swamp like, treacherous. 
• ‘Rumours of the future’. Time is important in the book. She has a lot of time in the book, not much to do so it moves slow. But in this case she races against time as she needs a baby, or else she is sent to the colonies and won’t come back.
• ‘Watching for blood’, repetition of the word failure. Blood is associated with failure.

• When she had freedom, her body responded to the function required of it. An instrument connected to her will. 
  • ‘Now the flesh arranges itself differently’. The body has control over itself. 
• ’The shape of a pear’ ‘grows red’. As if she stands inside her own womb and looks around it. Empty ‘huge space’

• Offred is a standing, walking womb and it is her, along with all the other handmaids’ only purpose
• Her entire identity is congealed around the one central aim of pregnancy, as such alienation is obvious
• Exacerbated by the ceremonies, which are essentially state-sanctioned rape. 
  • She describes herself to be disconnected from her body during the ceremony
• Whether for sex (in Jezebels) or babies (handmaids) or menial labour (Marthas or colonies), women’s bodies belong to men. 
  • Rhetoric in the alt-right US is similar to the ideas about control of women’s bodies as there is in Gilead. 

The control of women’s bodies in Gilead is reflective of the totalitarian control of the regime because of the pressure that women experience to fulfil expectations of their gender roles. A totalitarian regime is where the government or governing body controls every aspect of the lives of the citizens, which is reflected through the fact that all women are subject to specific roles cast upon them by those in power in the society, which are men. Bodily autonomy and choice of sexual partner are both controlled by men and are tailored to suit the men’s needs in the society. The feeling of losing individuality and control over one’s body is shown through Offred’s internal throughts about dehumanising her own body. She conforms to the agenda of the government by referring to herself as a red, huge space; Viewing herself the same way that the government views her value. Additionally, she reflects on failing to fulfil expectations cast upon her by others, revealing the pressurising nature of the totalitarian regime on one’s own sense of self, where they feel as though they are failures to not be able to achieve what those in power want. It should be noted that her sense of failure may arise from the fear of being sent to the colonies, which is an example of the totalitarian power of the government on women and their bodies.