LEC052007. Anagha Nair. Fear and Finesse in Gilead: The Psychology of Fear and the Habituation of it in Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

 

Anagha Nair

Dr. Joseph Koyippally

LEC 5104

03 February 2021

 

Fear and Finesse in Gilead: The Psychology of Fear and the Habituation of it in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood, the widely acclaimed feminist writer in her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale presents before the readers a classist world of deprivations where women are designated as handmaids - who own nothing, neither their name nor their body. Published in 1985 and nominated for the 1986 Booker Prize it is a widely read work even after thirty five years. In 2019 came its sequel, The Testaments which won the Book Prize the same year.

Written during a time when there was a popular outcry for a “push back” and return to the past, the past where women never came out and found themselves a place in the society (“Margaret Atwood: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is being read differently now”, 01:44 – 02:22), The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a totalitarian nation which has come to power after overthrowing the government, and has itself established as a theonomic society functioning based on the Old Testaments and the rulers called Sons of Jacob. This dystopian fiction by itself aims to dispel patriarchy and chronicles the fights and plights of women for their selfhood and self-rule. The novel is structured into two parts- nights and other parts. The nights discloses the thoughts and musings of the protagonist known to the readers as Offred and the other parts describe the lives of every other handmaid in Gilead from Offred’s perspective. “Nothing was your own except a few cubic centimetres in your skull” (Orwell, 34). In Gilead, those few cubic centimetres was the seat of fear and this fear made the people submit themselves to a harsh regime that categorized them into different classes like the Handmaids, Marthas, Econowives, Wives, Aunts, who shrunk to the colours of dress they were made to wear and the duties expected to perform for the rulers who were known as Commanders – all of it under the constant surveillance of the Eye, the secret police of Gilead.

Imposed don’ts, hidden truths and fear make up a dystopia and Gilead has it all. All these shuns the growth of the people thereby gives stability to the regime. It is this fear instilled in them, that prevents the people from rising against the culpable rulers and makes them believe in the lies propagated by the people belonging to the higher order. In fact, fear makes them more alive. In Gilead too everyone from the commanders to the handmaids are pinned down by fear – fear of each other and the Eye.

            He looks at me, and sees me looking.

            …

            Perhaps he is an Eye [30]

This fear makes the Giledians act more vigilant and think twice or more about anything they want to do. There is no climbing up the classist ladder held together by discipline and disquietude in Gilead but, a misstep would definitely be a tragic fall which would end either in colonies or the wall for a person.

            “The inhumanity of the soulless state machine against the hopes and aspirations of the humanity” (Mike) expires when the citizens of the dystopian world ceases to fear like they have feared the establishment once. As discussed by Suzanne. N. Avery and Jennifer Urbano Blackford in “Slow to warm up: the role of habituation in social fear”, social fearfulness and habituation to the stimuli producing fear are in inverse relation. The more a person gets habituated there “is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations” (Kendra). Offred and everyone else in the novel gets habituated to the fear and it is this familiarity mixed with courage that fires in her the want to start a complex relationship with Nick. It is their habituation and the confidence of their class position that motivates Mrs. Waterford to arrange a rendezvous for Offred and Nick in the first place and Commander Waterford to invite Offred to his study. It is also this fear underpowered by the dreams of escape that leads to the rise of Mayday resistance- an underground union with the aim of overthrowing the current rule, all of which are illegal and punishable in Gilead.

“Fear is a powerful stimulant” (Atwood, 282), it can make one do all the things that were once regarded as fearful and deathly. And what is required for that is exposure and habituation- a combination that is so powerful that it can shake the foundations of a dystopian society. There is a certain amount of calmness that envelopes even in the worst case scenario if fear is forgotten, as experienced by Offred in the end of the novel, “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (Atwood, 309).  It is thus by getting habituated to the fear and fighting against the pseudo-finesse offered by Gilead that helps the protagonist to survive and eventually escape from the place forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. McClelland and Stewart, 1985.

Avery, Suzanne N., and Blackford, Jennifer Urbano. “Slow to warm up: the role of habituation in social fear”. Social Cognitive And Affective Neuroscience, vol 11, no. 11, NCBI, doi: 10.1093/scan/nsw095. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.

Cherry, Kendra. When and Why does Habituation Occur?. verywellmind, 2 Dec. 2020.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-habituation-2795233. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.

“Margaret Atwood: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale is being read differently now.’” Youtube, uploaded by Vintage Books, 14 May 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a8LnKCzsBw

Mike, Ashley. “Freedom or Oppression? The fear of dystopia.” Discovering Literature: 20^th century. 25 May 2016. British Library. https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/freedom-or-oppression-the-fear-of-dystopia. Accessed 26 Jan. 2021.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty Four: A Novel. Secker & Warburg, 1949. PlaneteBooks, https://www.planetebook.com/about/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2021.