The Power Behind Words

Gilead has turned a blind eye to reality and has created its own language and terminology in order to subjugate its occupants. Firstly, every class is given its own name. Females can either be Handmaids, Wives, Daughters, Aunts, Marthas and Econowives. Men on the other hand are designated professions  that have to do with military position. With such a system of naming combined with how a handmaid is named after her commander is symbolic in depriving someone of their liberty, rights and identity. When Offred is waiting for what she thinks is her Ofglen to arrive in order to go shopping she realises that this is a new handmaid and says that "I never did know her real name. That is how you can get lost, in a sea of names"(295). Furthermore sterile women and feminists are called 'Unwomen' and babies that are born physically deformed are called Unbabies. Gilead uses this to naming system purely to segregate and isolate them from the rest of the community.

Furthermore, stipulations exist for meeting other members of Gilead's society. When Offred is meeting Ofglen for the first time, "blessed be the fruit she says. Straight-faced, straight laced. May the Lord open"Offred replies. (294) This makes it really hard to share real emotions, and even Offred replies without showing surprise. And throughout the novel, names are created for Gileads different ceremonies such as 'Salvagins', 'prayvaganzas' and 'Particutions'. With this creation of such a vocabulary, Gilead is able to take over their minds, erase their past and make its occupants think that the situation in Gilead is normal.

The commander lures Offred into his office because he tempts her with the game of scrabble, which"is as if he's offered her drugs", Offred remarks. It is symbolic that they are playing scrabble as they compete for the construction of words. In Gilead its whoever has authority over language that controls society. Handmaids for goodness sake aren't even allowed to read and write! While Offred examine her room she finds an engraving carved in latin into the woodwork by the prior Handmaid. 'Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Although Offred does not know what it means, it serves as a symbol of her resistance to Gilead, as well as a connection between her and the previous Handmaid. Although the phrase does loose meaning to Offred in the end, the phrase once held the 'magical power' to create a rebel out of Offred.

When Offred is contemplating how Luke was able to kill the cat before they're attempted escape, Luke refers to the cat as an 'it'. Offred acknowledges that "you have to create an it, where non was before. You do that first, in your head, and then you make it real".(202) With changing 'her' to an 'it', Luke is now able to devaluate the significance of a cat as being alive, to simply an object. This symbolises the power of words, and how words can transform our thinking, alter our human nature and transform our emotional sentiments. With Gilead "they force you to kill, within yourself"(203). Gilead uses the power of language to subjugate society to meet the requirements of the elite, this means deceiving women into thinking of themeselves as objects, made to do what society requires them to do.