The Handmaid’s Tale, a television series based on the original novel by Margaret Atwood, directed by Mike Barker and aired in 2017, is set in a dystopian world whereby a theocratic totalitarian government of Gilead establishes its rule in the United States. The society is organized into power-hungry leaders and authorities along with a new, militarised hierarchical regime and a recently created social class, in which women are subjugated and are limited to only certain roles. One of the victims of this regime, June Osborne, formerly known as ‘Offred’ in Gilead, is forcefully separated from her family and objectified into a fertile childbearing servitude for the authorities. The visual text provides a misogynistic perspective of society and the government, whereby women are being dehumanized, oppressed, and stripped of their privacy through constant surveillance, moreover, the society itself is being manipulated to view this as normal. The misogynistic perspective of the dystopian society can raise controversy within its audience, which can range from extreme feminists to neutral women. This perspective is constructed through the use of character construction of the handmaids, flashbacks, and dialogue.
First and foremost, a predominant feature of the text that raises controversy within its audience is the use of character construction. Character construction comprises several possible ways in which a character is constructed within a plot. Some of its components include a character’s thoughts, actions, overall appearance, costuming, and relationships. In this case, the construction of the character of handmaids in the Republic of Gilead presents the oppressiveness under which these women are forced to live. This is evident throughout all the episodes whereby the handmaids have a specific dress code to follow, a white lady cap, with a plain red dress. While this may seem rather typical to some of the viewers, from a broader perspective, it shows how the authority had treated these women as if they were ‘all the same’, thus pressurizing them to adopt this policy whereby they have to wear this same unique dress as a handmaid. This also presents a glimpse of the perspective of the theocratic government and how, rather than considering each handmaid as a single, individual entity, they consider them as all objectified into a single mass body of servitude. This is furthermore emphasized when the viewer is first introduced to the ‘naming system’ of the handmaids, for example, June has her name as ‘Offred’ which is derived from the fact that she is under the servitude of the commander Fred and his wife, and ‘Ofglen’, June’s shopping partner, also had her name derived from the fact that she was under the servitude of commander Glen. The fact that each handmaid is named ‘of’ and following the commander’s name implies that the handmaids have officially become ‘of’ the commander (Who is always a male character), which in turn presents the repressive attitude of the government and the authority towards women. The sum of these aspects creates a misogynistic perspective of society whereby women are being manipulated to such an extent that, in today’s day and age, is considered highly unethical and violates the human right to freedom. Moreover, this also affects the viewers by making them question the current conditions of women around the world and also question the safety and conditions of women in the future, this may also produce a negative bias against some political parties that promote anti-feminist ideologies and beliefs, hence raising a controversy within the audience.
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In addition, the use of flashbacks throughout the television series also provides a misogynistic perspective of society to the viewer. Flashbacks are an important feature that can expand the presentation of ideas and perspectives to the viewer, it involves presenting, usually, the past background and information of the character to the reader, usually in the form of a narrative feature (written or visual). In this case, the viewer is often presented with flashbacks of June’s past life, before she was captured and turned into a handmaid in Gilead, she was free and living a normal, happy, and routine life with her family, while in contrast, in her current period, she is held as a servant and is objectified into a childbearing maid. This contrasting effect presents the transition of June from normal life to her current life at Gilead and also presents the misogynistic perspective of the society in Gilead which promotes forcing women to accept their ‘way of socialism’ rather than allowing them to live a well, free life, and viewing them as mere objects of sexual reproduction for the authority. How each flashback is positioned throughout the text emphasizes certain aspects or features of June that have been restricted or taken from her. For example, during the scene where June and Ofglen are on their way to shopping, June stops by to glare at the school children, who have also been disciplined to follow orders from the nearby military units, at that time, a flashback of June enjoying with her husband and her child is shown to the viewer. This acts as a ‘gateway’ leading into the mind of June’s thoughts during different stages of the plot, and this particular one represents June’s wish to reunite with her family, but given the scenario, she is not capable of doing so because the militants have taken away her child and killed her husband under the order of the authority, hence presenting the controversial actions of the totalitarian regime towards women, through which, the reader can derive the misogynistic perspective of the new ruling government in Gilead.
Finally, certain dialogues have been used to create a controversial perspective in The Handmaid’s Tale. Dialogues, particularly in a visual text, are a crucial and needed aspect of a text, they not only provide the physical relationships between the character and their surroundings but also provide many perspectives through which the character views someone or something. The dialogues implemented in The Handmaid’s Tale television series are a better interpretation of the perspective of the ruling authority towards women. Under the ruling of the new government, its citizens, in particular the handmaids, are required to say certain phrases as an alternative to the usual greeting methods or thanking words, many times during the plot, June is often heard saying “Under his eye”, along with the other handmaids in the background scenes. This replacement of normal greeting words such as ‘hey’ or ‘hello’ to an obscure phrase ‘under his eye’ presents the mysterious repressive nature of the government and how easily it can manipulate the language of its citizens, which in turn also presents its restrictive and forbidding perspective of the government towards its citizens, but this is effect is more amplified amongst the handmaids as they are women and as well as their lower social position in the society. Furthermore, near the beginning of episode one, June, also known as Offred, is shown sitting in the chair and staring at the window, and with her, the viewer is provided with a trail of thoughts in her mind as background dialogues such as, “A chair, a table, a lamp” and “I had another name, but it is forbidden now, so many things are forbidden now”. From those mentioned thoughts in June’s mind, the tone given to the background dialogues is very vague and dull, which makes the viewer imply that June’s mental state, as a handmaid, is not at its best and is very disheartened, moreover, she also emphasizes on the restrictiveness faced by the handmaids due many things being ‘forbidden’ by the government, this in turn positions the viewer to view the new government and the society as being oppressive towards the handmaids, who are women. Thus, through the use of dialogue, The Handmaid’s Tale presents a misogynistic perspective of the dystopian society, which may very well be the reality of the future, hence raising controversy within its target audience.
In retrospect, through the use of visual language conventions such as dialogues, character construction, and flashbacks, the Handmaid’s Tale television series, can construct and present a misogynistic perspective of the society in Gilead, in which women being dehumanized and has been restricted to only certain roles. The fact that this dystopian text predicts or presents its view of the future of humanity, especially with women being subjugated to various unethical treatments, raises questions within the minds of the viewers about certain political groups or ideologies that have been implemented into their surrounding and which may affect them as women and hence raising a controversial nature in some viewer’s minds.
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