The Handmaid’s Tale Freedom To and Freedom From :: English Literature

The servants Tale Freedom To and Freedom FromIn the time before, Gilead had become a place where women were notsaved. Gilead was very unsafe and percussions had to be taken.For example women were told not to open their door to a stranger evenif they said it was the police (IDs had to be slid underneath thedoor), they were told not to stop and help a motorist pretending tobe in trouble and not to go into a laundromat at night, alone.This shows that the gild of Gilead as a whole had become verycautious. This also proves that in some sense Gilead was in dangerfrom its security.From these facts alone it is understandable to see wherefore Gilead chose toenforce a new regime.It may have been thought that in doing so everyone would benefit forma safer society. This much is true. In some sense, women especially,as Aunt Lydia said have been given freedom from. Freedom from allthe bad aspects from the time before. Women no longer had to be afraidfor their safety, rape was no more and they were free to walk thestreets without being hassled, as they were now protected by theeyes that watched over them.In doing so however their freedom to, had been taken away from them.In the days of the anarchy says Aunt Lydia it was freedom to dowhat as one pleased, now in Gilead, this kind of freedom was no more.They werent allowed any form of independence. Jobs were taken away,money confiscate and so forth.Depending on which perspective you look at it from, different peoplehave benefited from the change in freedoms.In Gilead now, there is a hierarchy of structure. Everyone has adefined role to play in society they know their place and wouldntquestion it.At the top of the hierarchy are the commanders, right at the bottomare the handmaids, and the others such as a the commanders wives,Marthas, and guards fall in place somewhere in between the two.Looking at the hierarchy, it is obvious to see that it is thecommanders who benefits from Gileads freedom. They hold the moststatus within t he society. It is this status which segregates thecommanders from others in this society, especially from theHandmaids.Whereas the commanders have the power to do as they please when theyplease, the Handmaids lives are ran by various rules and regulationsthat they are forced to keep to. They are not given the freedom to doas they like. They are put into place to perform a service and it is