Gileadean

Strictly speaking, it was not a manuscript at all when first discovered, and bore no title. The superscription “The Handmaid’s Tale” was appended to it by Professor Wade, partly in homage to the great Geoffrey Chaucer; but those of you who know Professor Wade informally, as I do, will understand when I say that I am sure all puns were intentional, particularly that having to do with the archaic vulgar signification of the word tail; that being, to some extent, the bone, as it were, of contention, in that phase of Gileadean society of which our saga treats.

It is certainly no accident that Offred emphasizes the large collection of books she observes in her first secret unofficial visit to the Commander's study, thus linking books directly with this serious transgression of Gileadean law.

To equate the Gileadean repression of Offred's voice with Pieixoto's reconstruction of it is to narrow the set of possible meanings too much.

The central preoccupation of the Gileadean society is human reproduction, because most members are sterile or infertile due to the build-up of toxic wastes and nuclear fallout.

If I may be permitted an editorial aside, allow me to say that in my opinion we must be cautious about passing moral judgement upon the Gileadeans.

Not surprisingly, the Gileadeans immediately distanced themselves from this act by blaming the massacre on Islamic extremists.

The classification of the Gileadeans, for example, is explicitly based on the biblical story of Jacob, Rachel, and Bilhah (Genesis 30:1–3), with the Commanders officially assuming the role of Jacob, the Wives thereby being given the role of Rachel, and the Handmaids that of Bilhah.

Both Gileadeans and contemporary want-to-be parents foster genetic information as the imperative condition to define the baby belonging to its family, its identity, and, in consequence, familiar relationships.