AQA (A) Literature
Among the justifications for Gilead that the Commander puts to Offred is the argument that ‘the main problem was with the men’ because in an ‘equal’ society ‘there was nothing for them any more’ (The Handmaid’s Tale, Ch. 32). Consequently, men were beginning to suffer from ‘inability to feel’. Elucidating his own ‘feelings’ about ‘how things have worked out’, he dismisses the damage inflicted on Offred and women like her with his clichéd acknowledgement that ‘you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs’. This hackneyed phrase is a clue to what is the novel’s most daunting question: what price might women eventually have to pay for the claims they have made? One shocking possibility is Gilead. It does not spring out of nowhere, fully formed. It has its roots in history.
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