THE RELIGION AS A POLITICAL WEAPON

“The religion is the opium of the masses” Karl Marx

The handmaid’s tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. Atwood

is a Canadian writer, consider one of the main representative figures of the literature

nowadays, recognized for writing novels in which criticized society in different ambits. The

book is narrated by its protagonist, Offred, in which tells the radical political transformation

United States has in a future society, in which a new social organization raised and Offred

is involved in a new development to adapt and survive in it. These new society is known as

the Republic of Gilead, which characterized by the physical and mind manipulation in each

individual by means of religious factors. Therefore, this essay will show how the religion is

an important factor for the construction of settings.

To begin with, it is important to understand that the religion is presented explicitly in

different ambits in society. The first thing that can be brought to coalition is the social class

of women called handmaids, this social class is an allegory to Rachel's handmaid, within

the genesis chapter of the bible. Within society they have the duty of the preservation of

human race, an act that they are forced to carry out in a religious sexist ritual where the

handmaids impregnate the baby of the wives by having sexual relations against their will

with the commander, "Before I used to have a better vision of myself" (Atwood, 1998, page

57), where it is possible to demonstrate the degradation suffered by women within this sect

by building their social and own identity like an "ovary with legs" (Atwood, 1998, page 85)

and not as human beings. Being a hierarchy, there can be no opposition against the

ceremony, so it leads to understand that the government, which unlike other castes, do

not primarily control handmaids actions, though through dominance over their bodies
devalue their dignity and sense of belonging, making them insecure in their own skin,

generating a meaningless. In the same way, it can be analyzed, that the government uses

of the feminine body to political and dictatorial ends, since by means of them, the ideology

of the values and the family is established, field by which the individuals are governed.

On the other hand, it is possible to mention the salvaging, term that is used inside the

republic to make reference to the murders that are carried out. From which the religious

influence can be identified by the name, since it refers to the divine salvation being exempt

from sins, however, this refers to the suppression of opinion and action freedom, which is

characteristic of totalitarian governments, nevertheless, whenever the government is

mentioned in the narrative it is referred to as the Republic of Gilead, so it highlights the

false democracy in which citizens have been convinced that they lived in, by spreading the

idea of sins that are punishable by sacred standards, nonetheless, "do not be silly, he was

not a rapist he was one of us, they just told that to kill him "(Atwood, 1998, page 216), it is

observed that what is or is not a sin is censored by the government, and is sanctioned for

the infraction of the fear for those who are not negligent of the situation.

From another perspective, paradoxical language can be identified as a means of

manipulation and brainwashing, used under a distorted environment with the purpose of

causing the opposite effect, this is shown in Janine in “But whose fault was it? Aunt Lydia

says holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault” (Atwood, 1998, page 45)

stylistic that can be related to the prayer "I sinner" which is used to redeem from the sins to

God, but in this case the society uses religious dialectics as a weapon of manipulation and

personality breakdown “Janine had been broken, and fails to understand that Janine would

‘tell anything, just for a moment of approbation” (Atwood,1998, page 127), showing the

little human value they have.

 To conclude, it do can be said that religion is a crucial factor for the construction of

space, the Gilead republic, in which the government and the church unite for the unveiling

and maintenance in power, where a macho society is presented , manipulative, elitist and

corrupt. In the same way, the power that the doctrine has can be unveiled to be a key

element in the daily life of the individual and the way in which it governs their actions and

philosophies of life.