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Using fear and intimidation in a regime influences citizens to conform to their ideals.

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“Once, though, I heard Rita say to Cora that she wouldn’t debase herself like that. Nobody asking you, Cora said. Anyways, what could you do, supposing? Go to the colonies, Rita said.  They have the choice. With the Unwoman, and starve to death and Lord knows what all? said Cora.” (10)

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Rita and Cora’s discussion of the consequences of defying the Gilead regime shows how creating fear of the outside world forces people to conform to society. Defiance could lead to death or being sent to the colonies where survival is impossible.  By creating a fear of the outside world, Atwood displays how a regime can use fear to maintain control early in the novel. It helps the readers to begin to understand why the women allow themselves to be forced into these roles.

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“I know this can’t be right but I think it anyway. Everything they taught at the Red Center, everything I’ve resisted, comes flooding in. I don’t want pain. I don’t want to be a dancer, my feet in the air, my head a faceless oblong of white cloth. I don’t want to be a wingless angel. I want to keep on living, in any form. I resign my body freely, to the uses of others. They can do what they like with me. I am abject. I feel, for the first time, their true power.” (Atwood 286). 

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Throughout the novel Offred faced the internal struggle on how to handle the changes to her life. After the Salvaging towards the end of her story, Offred witnessed the death of three women and watched the other handmaids tear a man apart.  She finally broke down, as she says “I resign my body freely”; showing how fear and intimidation can destroy someone's resistance.

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Similar to the reigns of dictators like Hitler of Nazi Germany, The Republic of Gilead instilled fear in the citizens forcing them to conform to their new society. By creating fear of both the outside world and consequences of resistance, Gilead was able to create what was in their “eyes” and ideal utopian society. However, having a completely moral, structured society is not realistic. They understood that without some sort of leverage, people would not allow themselves to be forced into submission. Although some people including the commanders, wives, aunts and some handmaids truly believed in living the Gilead lifestyle, fear is the only thing that kept handmaids like Offred in line. Throughout the novel, Atwood follows Offred's struggle as she is forced to try and abandon her old self in order to survive. Readers see how fear drives her to do everything she is told in order to save herself and keep the hope of one day being reunited with Luke and her daughter alive.

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“. . . she could not walk for a week. . . It was the feet they’d do, for a first offense. They used steel cables, frayed at the ends. After that the hands. They didn’t care what they did to your feet or your hands, even if it was permanent. . . Her feet did not look like feet at all. They looked like drowned feet, swollen and boneless, except for the color. They looked like lungs” (Atwood 91). 

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Moira's harsh return to the Rachel and Leah Center shows the consequences of escaping to all of the Handmaids. Moira's noticeable injuries frighten her fellow handmaids because they show the discipline and order needed to prevent such abuse. Looking at Moira, the women now are alarmed never to attempt to escape or bypass the law of Gilead. The use of fear and punishment is used to intimidate the women and Moira was used as an example to show how to not act within Gilead.

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“‘She hanged herself,’ she says. ‘After the salvaging. She saw the van coming for her. It was better.”’(Atwood 285)

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Ofglen being better off dead than being taken by this van, shows the fear implemented by the regime. As the eyes were coming for Ofglen, the fear-filled inside of her was so strong she turned to hanging herself. To her, this seemed like the only option instead of being brought to a place that was described as tortuous. This shows how the regime put terrifying consequences into place if the citizens did not follow the rules provided. Ultimately, the act of instilling fear into the citizens led to complete control over them. Where a handmaid would rather kill herself than endure the consequences planned out for her after breaking the rules.

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“We’re supposed to look: this is what they are there for, hanging on the Wall. Sometimes they’ll be there for days, until there’s a new batch, so many people as possible will have the Chance to see them” (Atwood 32).

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Throughout the novel Offred and Ofglen purposely walk a certain route to be able to see the wall. The wall consists of dead bodies hung on display for citizens of Gilead to view and spectate as to why and how these people violated the regime and faced the punishment of death. The wall's purpose is to scare the citizens not to go against the regime or break the laws, showing the severe consequences that can occur if any of them do. This further proves the control and manipulation the regime has on the citizens by putting new bodies on the wall to show the seriousness of reoccurring punishments if any rule is violated.

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“Then Luke got back into the car, too fast, and turned the key and reversed. He was picking up the phone, he said. And then he began to drive very quickly, and after that, there was the dirt road and the wood and we jumped out of the car and began to run”.(Atwood 224)

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When Gilead was being taken over, Luke and Offred knew that their only option was to try to escape. Luke’s actions of driving “too fast” and “very quickly” showed immediate panic and then urgency from the regime’s control. Luke and Offred’s decision to run symbolizes their trying to stay as far away as they can from the regime and their laws. The dirt road and woods symbolize how they are isolated by only each other. This scene shows how they are left feeling powerless and constantly on edge, and willing to risk everything to escape Gilead.

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“I have to let you go, he said. It’s the law, I have to. I have to let you all go” (Atwood 176), “But I could see out the corridor, and two men were standing there, in uniforms, with machine guns. This was too theatrical to be true, yet there they were: sudden apparitions, like Martians”. (Atwood 177)

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In this moment Offred’s world was completely flipped upside down. The line “It’s the law, I have to. I have to let you all go” shows how quickly societal norms can collapse. The men in uniforms with machine guns show the use of fear and force to make the women feel vulnerable, and couldn’t fight back for their rights. Offred describes the men with machine guns as “Martians” and says that they were “too at odds with their surroundings”. This moment in the book is one of the first that she starts to feel powerless, as her rights and freedom are getting stripped away from her. Resistance is impossible when she is faced with force.

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 “I’ve seen it before, the white bag placed over a  “I’ve seen it before, the white bag placed over a head, the woman helped up onto the high stool as if she’s being helped up the steps of a bus, steadied there. The noose adjusted delicately around the neck, like a vestment, the stool kicked away. I’ve heard the long sigh go up, from around me, the sigh like air coming out of a mattress, I’ve seen Aunt Lydia place her hand over the mike, to stifle the other sounds coming from behind her…” (Atwood 276)                                                                 “Women’s Salvaging are not frequent. There is less need for them. These days we are so well behaved.” (Atwood 273)         

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Offred and the other handmaids have been shown this salvaging many times before. The act of hanging women who have broken the rules in front of everyone fills innocent women with feelings of fear. Seeing these other women hung for breaking rules prevents others from doing the same. By doing this the regime is keeping control over the citizens using their idea of fear. These tactics are working at keeping this control. Fewer salvagings are being done, meaning that fewer people are going against the morals of the regime. The more tactics the regime uses to implant fear in the citizens, the more controlled and well-behaved they are.

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“We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semidarkness, we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren’t looking, and touch each other’s hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other's mouths” (Atwood 4). 

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The women of Gilead are prohibited from having normal conversations with each other. This includes anything that does not talk about praising the regime and obeying the laws forced upon them. The women in public do not converse and live lives of silence, anything that they say, can be used against them and can ultimately end their lives. Living a life of silence and fear of speaking up engulfs the Gilead society. Handmaids are simply taught to obey all orders, with no say against them. Silencing the people and imposing fear to speak, is what allows the autocracy to rise of terminal power.

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“I guess that’s how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand” (Atwood 174).

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The regime was able to conquer the people easily because no one took a stand to fight back. When the laws were put in place many men such as Luke went back to their old ways of the former patriarchy, as Luke did not urge Offred to join marches and fight back. He would also silence her worries, ultimately undermining the issue at hand. This ultimately aided the regime and gave them more power to put in place their laws in such a quick amount of time. By the time the regime had a more serious effect on people's lives was nothing anyone could do about it.