colors and social status in handmaid

Colors and Social Status in Handmaid’s Tale Characters in Handmaid’s Tale of Margaret Atwood have to dress in their color-coded costumes. The Handmaids wear red robe. Commander’s Wives costume is blue. Martha clothing is green. And black for Commander. These colors express their social status, role in the reproductive process, oppression, power and privilege while masking individuality. Firstly, it is color red for the Handmaids. The Handmaids are fertile women whose social function is to bear children for the barren Wives. They dress in the red robe including the gloves and the shoes. The red color is symbolized to fertility, essential quality for the person giving childbirth to make the birth rate in the Republic of Gilead increase. Moreover, the red color can symbolize to passion or sexual sin because they have to have sex with their Commander, who are married men although they must not to have romantic feeling. Sometimes the red color refers to the blood as you can see in the book “The red gloves are lying on the bed. Everything except the wings around my face is red; the color blood, which defines us.”. And for women in the context, it means menstrual blood. Or it can mean the blood of the violence against female if disobedience occurs. Because Gilead is authoritative country that women are the important part to run the society so the Handmaids must obey the rule strictly and there are torturous punishments.
Next is the blue color of the Commander’s Wives. The Commander’s Wives is a top level of female in society. The blue color can refer to the royalty or BLUE-BLOOD, having much privilege to stay home without doing any work and having status. They have power in the house ordering Martha and Handmaid. For example: Serena Joy ordered Offred to have sex with Nick to increase change of childbirth and Offred had to do that. Besides, the Commander’s Wives wear the blue outfit as a reference to the traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary which is a