HANDMAIDS IN ATWOOD’S GILEAD VS HANDMAIDS IN THE HOLY BIBLE

Abstract

In her dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood reveals handmaids as the products of the patriarchal society of the Republic of Gilead which considers women’s existence related to sex and childbearing, thus depriving them of their human qualities and rights. Also, in the patriarchal society of the Old Testament (Book of Genesis & the Book of Numbers), women who couldn’t bear children for their husbands had handmaids who served their masters through childbearing. The present paper is an attempt to reveal the relation of Atwood’s Republic of Gilead where Serena Joy had handmaids to bear her children to the City of Gilead in the Old Testament, the book of Genesis, where Rachel and Leah also had handmaids to bear them children.