What role does class hierarchy play in the structure of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale?
Class hierarchy in The Handmaid’s Tale serves as a foundational pillar of Gilead’s oppressive structure. By rigidly stratifying society into distinct ranks—such as Commanders, Wives, Marthas, Handmaids, Econowives, and Aunts—Gilead maintains control, divides resistance, and enforces loyalty. This institutionalized hierarchy reinforces patriarchal dominance and justifies systemic oppression, particularly of women, through both social conditioning and legally mandated roles (Atwood, 1985; Stillman & Johnson, 1994). The tiered structure not only consolidates power among elite men but also manipulates women into complicity by pitting them against each other, solidifying Gilead’s ideological and political power.
1. How Is Class Hierarchy Structured in Gilead?
Gilead’s class system is explicitly designed to enforce social order and suppress resistance. At the top are the Commanders, men with near-absolute social, political, and economic authority (Atwood, 1985). Below them are the Wives, who enjoy high social status yet are bound by patriarchal limitations. Handmaids, like Offred, occupy a reproductive caste, valued only for fertility—a stark reflection of Gilead’s reduction of women to biological function (Neill, 2002).
Marthas, who serve as domestic laborers, and Econowives—poor women expected to fulfill all roles—occupy lower tiers. Aunts, who oversee the indoctrination of Handmaids, weaponize internalized patriarchy to enforce state doctrine (Stillman & Johnson, 1994). This class stratification effectively compartmentalizes dissent and dissipates collective opposition by compelling each group to police and resent the others.
2. What Is the Role of Class in Maintaining Patriarchal Power?
Class hierarchy in Gilead institutionalizes patriarchy by creating divisions that reinforce male supremacy. Commanders control laws, military power, and access to information, using class as a tool of governance and gender oppression (Atwood, 1985). Even within female ranks, hierarchical roles ensure that elite women enable the subjugation of others—Wives command Handmaids, and Aunts enforce indoctrination.
This distribution of power among women impedes solidarity, as higher-ranking women are made complicit in the system’s brutality (Ghattas, 2015). Offred observes how Wives resent Handmaids for their fertility while enjoying privileges built on others’ suffering (Atwood, 1985). Such vertical divisions ensure that patriarchal power is protected from collective resistance, solidifying male authority and silencing dissent.
3. How Does Class Shape Women’s Identities and Relationships in Gilead?
Women’s identities in Gilead are strictly tied to their assigned social class, which dictates everything from attire to rights to mobility. Color-coding of clothing reinforces stratification—Wives wear blue, Handmaids red, Marthas green—visually differentiating and dehumanizing individuals (Atwood, 1985). This symbolic segregation conditions women to internalize their “roles” as natural and divinely ordained (Stillman & Johnson, 1994).
The divisions foster mistrust and hostility between women. For instance, Serena Joy, though oppressed in marriage, weaponizes her class privilege to belittle and punish Offred (Neill, 2002). The patriarchal system exploits these divisions, obstructing any sense of collective female power. Thus, class not only structures Gilead but distorts interpersonal relationships, killing potential alliances.
4. How Does Class Hierarchy Reflect and Critique Real-World Power Structures?
Margaret Atwood uses Gilead’s class hierarchy to critique both historical and contemporary forms of gendered class oppression. Her depiction of arranged class roles draws parallels to systems like slavery, caste stratification, and Western class capitalism (Atwood, 2017). Through Gilead, Atwood dramatizes how class can be engineered to protect elite interests by encouraging lateral oppression rather than solidarity.
The Handmaids’ reproductive exploitation echoes global histories of marginalized women’s bodies being appropriated and controlled by state and patriarchal institutions (Ghattas, 2015). Atwood warns readers of how quickly social hierarchies can arise under political and environmental crises, emphasizing the need for vigilance against policies that divide and dehumanize under the guise of protection.
References
Atwood, M. (1985). The Handmaid’s Tale. McClelland and Stewart.
Atwood, M. (2017). The Handmaid’s Tale (Introduction). Everyman’s Library.
Ghattas, T. (2015). The Politics of Class and Gender in Dystopian Fiction. Oxford University Press.
Neill, A. (2002). ‘The Body of a Woman’: Identity and Selfhood in The Handmaid’s Tale. Feminist Review, 72(1), 16–30.
Stillman, P. G., & Johnson, S. (1994). Identity, Complicity, and Resistance in The Handmaid’s Tale. Utopian Studies, 5(2), 37–49.