"I rub the butter over my face, work it into the skin of my hands. There's no longer any hand lotion or face cream, not for us. Such things are considered vanities. We are containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important. The outside can become hare and wrinkled, for all they care, like the shell of a nut. This was a decree of the Wives, this absence of hand lotion. They don't want us to look attractive. For them, things are bad enough as it is.
[...]
As long as we do this, butter our skin to keep it soft, we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire. We have ceremonies of our own, private ones." (96-97)
First off, the fact that the handmaids are considered "containers" demonstrates the society’s dehumanization of women. They are valued for their ability to have children and nothing more. The handmaids are often praised for their important role to society, but they are deprived of basic comforts. Again, they are prized solely for their wombs. Also, while the Wives do not control of much in their lives, they can control the handmaids to some extent and seem to make it their mission to make the lives of the handmaids as miserable as possible. Controlling the handmaids is the Wives’ only source of power in their personal lives, besides their gardens. The Wives further the dehumanization of handmaids by deciding they are not worthy of simple things (such as lotion). As the society is fairly new and Offred still remembers her life of freedom, she defies the Wives control in small way (like the buttering). This is Offred’s small way of controlling her life when the entire society dictates her every move. This simple buttering of skin is also a small way of rebelling as it expresses the hope that one day the society will collapse and normal life will resume. This shows that while the handmaids act submissive, they are rebellious and striving toward a better life.
No comments:
Post a Comment