How Does Margaret Atwood Use Symbols In The Handmaids Tale

In her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margret Atwood uses symbolism to illustrate the handmaid’s role in the society of Gilead. The handmaids are the women who had broken law of Gilead, and were forced into the role of a surrogate mother for a higher ranking couple. The handmaids had no rights or free will. They were under constant surveillance and this caused them to be very cautious. The author characterizes most handmaids as a tentative and distrustful, which is perhaps why Offred never puts in words the magnitude of her discontent with her new life, because it’s possible she doesn’t truly trust the reader. The author uses symbols such as the handmaid’s dress-code, a pigs ball, and even the handmaids names to give the reader a sense of the handmaid’s imprisonment.
The handmaids were only needed for their reproductive services, so their dresses were red, to indicate their fertility. As Offred is dressing she describes her uniform; “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us. The skirt is ankle-length, full, gathered to a flat yoke that extends over the breasts, the sleeves are full. The white wings too are prescribed issue; they are to keep us from seeing, but also from being seen,” (p. 9). The handmaid’s were not supposed to be viewed as sexual beings, (though many people thought of them as adulteresses). The main character Offred describes her and her fellow handmaid’s as two-legged wombs, and nothing more. Their only purpose in life was to conceive a child, which was represented openly by the color of their