For my second reflection on The Handmaid’s Tale, I focused on the double standard that Commander Waterford had for the world he created. I think this plays an integral part of how action have consequences in regard to the world he sough to create. A world we are reaching the cusp of experiencing today.
The Double-Standard Mentality of Commander Waterford
By Kacie Fowler October 2024
Atwood’s depiction of the all too familiar double-standard mentality that men have in the face of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ regarding their desire to control women is epitomized in The Handmaid’s Tale. Commander Waterford’s role in the Republic of Gilead is not stated outright, but several passages from the text allude to him being not only the creator of this hellscape, but also, its current ‘ruler,’ if there were to be one. We know of his heinous wrongdoings in the first half of the novel, but from “Jezebel’s” chapter forward, we see just how twisted his morals and views of the outcome of his creation are. His lack of remorse is not only blatant, but not all that surprising as we see similar action (or lack there of) within our current government.
In a conversation with Offred during one of their secret meetings, Waterford asks her opinion on “how things have worked out” under the context of Gilead, not only feigning that he cares what she thinks, but that things have “worked out” leading the reader to believe that he does not understand the weight of his actions (211). When Offred replies with that she has no opinion, she stated that he knows what she is thinking and not saying. To this he responds with “better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse for some” implying that he can not only see that she is ‘uncomfortable’ in her position as a handmaid, but that he knew full well that ‘some’ would have a worse quality of life but chose to carry out the government takeover regardless (211). Despite knowing the impending ‘hardships’ that were to come, we will now look at how he, himself, goes around his own laws and policies to carry out the devious life he wants anyway.
Waterford’s double-standard mindset is exemplified best during their visit to Jezebel’s, the underground sex club where the commanders and officers meet with international diplomats to indulge themselves of the ‘sins’ from the past time. Jezebel’s is essentially a brothel with women owned by the government who are not fit to be handmaids but ‘too good’ to send to the colonies. It is here that these women spend the rest of their short lives drinking, doing drugs, and ‘entertaining’ these high-ranking officials. There is mention from Moira, who is enslaved at Jezebel’s, that she has “had him” implying that he had been there before and often (243). When confronted on the existence of Jezebel’s by Offred, Waterford seeks to justify the forbidden club by stating “everyone’s human, after all” and “it means you cannot cheat nature… nature demands variety, for men” which acknowledge that the righteous morals he sought to set upon the Republic do not apply to him and his compatriots (237). When Offred responds with “you merely have different women [now]” when bringing up the point of how “women know this [about the nature of men] instinctively,” Waterford responds simply with “[the club] solves a lot of problems” again, acknowledging that his plan only serves men and knowing make life worse for the women, that they are less than (237). As Offred continues to ask questions about the function of the club, Waterford exclaims “no nicotine-and-alcohol taboos here(!)” in an odd juxtaposition as if he is excited about the chance to indulge in the “taboos” that he himself rid the country of, leading the reader to question why he created these laws in the first place (238)
Atwood sought to make her novel a realistic dystopian. Nothing she added was new and impossible in the world we live in today. Atwood stated in an interview on the ‘bad things’ included in The Handmaid’s Tale that “when I wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, nothing went into it that had not happened in real life somewhere at some time. The reason I made that rule is that I didn’t want anybody saying, ‘You certainly have an evil imagination’” (2018). Her statement implies two things: one, the themes of this novel are those that are inherently ‘evil’ and show the reality of the repercussions of unjust actions by a government on its people, and two, that these are real world issues and ones we are seeing emerge in our own corrupt modern government. This is not only a terrifying fact, especially for the women in this country, but one that lends to the idea that The Handmaid’s Tale is more of a cautionary tale/prophecy, than it is a fictional dystopian. Let us hope that the Commander Waterfords of our world do not succeed.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. 1998. The Handmaid’s Tale. Anchor Books, 2017.
Atwood, Margaret. 1998. The Handmaid’s Tale. Vintage Books. 2017.
**there are two because I had to get two different copies due to the first having a major printing issue and missing chapters. Not all of the page numbers ended up being the same between the two.
Evens, Greg. Jul. 11, 2018. ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Author Margaret Atwood Tells Online Writing Class Those “Bad Thanks” Really Happened. Deadline. https://deadline.com/2018/07/handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood-masterclass-writing-class-bad-things-really-happened-1202424424/
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