The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
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Book Reviews of The Handmaid's Tale
Book Review: SPOILER ALERTS
Summary: 4 Stars
I had to submit a review here for my English class, be forewarned that there are spoilers.The 'Handmaid's Tale' was written by Margaret Atwood. It deals with themes of Dystopia's that were so popular in books such as '1984' and 'Fahrenheit 51'. It is labeled as science fiction, which surprised me as I read the novel. It is not at all like most Sci-Fi's you would read, with robots, time travel, aliens, or other such things. This book was labeled thusly because Sci-fi can also deal with social change, not just technological change. This book deals with what kind of occurrences could happen if the pollution problem sped completely out of control, and the human race became unsterile, with many birth defects as well. At the same time as this, an anti-feminism religious group takes over the government in a coup d'etat, and not only prevents the tide of feminist movements, but turns it back. Traditional attitudes about the status of women are enforced on penalty of death. Set slightly in the future (from the time the book was written) we are invited into a world where women are oppressed and degraded into mere objects to fulfill set purposes. To control other women, to clean and cook, and to breed. If unable to do any of these three things, they are labeled as "unwoman" and sent to the moon base to meet certain death while cleaning radioactive materials.
The main character in this book is called Offred. It literally means "Of Fred". In this society she exists as a handmaid. Handmaids have one purpose in life, and that is to breed children for their `Commanders'. Fred is the name of the man who holds her as property. Handmaids are only given to the ones known as 'Commanders', technically, they are the elite of this new society, the republic of Gilead. The Gilead is a totalitarian theocratic state, and has overthrown what was once known as the United States of America. The Commanders are the elite, so thus they are allowed Handmaids if their wives are unable to bear children for them. Since reproduction rates are very low due to radioactive levels, this practice was implemented. Once a month, when a handmaid is at the peak of their cycle (to have children) they must have intercourse with their commanders. During this time, the Commander's wife is also present, holding hands with the Handmaid while the Commander attempts to impregnate them. This sex is without feeling or love... in fact, passion is frowned upon, and intercourse is looked on as only a means to continue the species.
I felt rather disgusted by this fact. That women could be used as mere things for reproduction was appalling. Margaret Atwood shows us what could happen if traditional views upon women are taken to extremes. The women are not only repressed in this way, but they are also under constant surveillance. In a subtle way, I believe that Margaret is trying to tell us with this fact that even though women could possibly be suppressed this way, they're spirits wouldn't die down for the need of freedom, thus they have to be watched constantly.
The story is told through the eyes of Offred. She frequently slips into flashbacks, telling us of her past life and how events have led up to the point they are at the beginning of the novel. Offred used to be living with a man named Luke, and had a child with him. When their child was still young, the radicals who enforced traditional values took over America. Women were unable to work jobs, and slowly but surely all their rights were taken away from them. Those couples living together who were not married, or who had been divorced were separated. The Republic of Gilead saw such couples as immoral, and punished them accordingly.
I felt rather sad, and found myself sympathizing with Offred as she told her story in a series of flashbacks throughout the novel. That she could be separated from the man she loved, and her darling daughter is cruel. Then to be subjected into the role of a Handmaid, I cannot fathom how she withstood such treatment. I feel that most women would have been like Moira (Offred's best friend, a feminist lesbian who escapes her role as a Handmaid). They would have at least attempted to escape. Perhaps I place overconfidence in the female sex, but I doubt truly that we would go down without a fight such as Atwood depicts in this novel. She describes how the women at her work were confused and scared when they were relieved of their jobs.
The women of today give me the impression to be fighters. Surely, at least half the woman in the US would violently object to such treatment, and overthrow their would be suppressors, even with fear of punishment and death. Then again, this book was written when the feminist movement was just getting revved up. Perhaps Atwood feared that the Republic of Gilead could be Men and Traditionalists answer to women's calls for freedom.
The Women in this novel deal with constant surveillance. They are always under the steady eye of a male, and even that of other females. Fear of punishment may drive women against one another if they show overt signs of being rebellious. Offred is constantly paranoid that someone may see suspicious behavior from her. She fears being declared an Unwoman, and being sent to certain death.
Handmaids wear red clothing. I believe that this color was chosen for the Handmaids as it can symbolize fertility. Being Fertile is all that is important to this new state, as reproduction rates are very low. Also the color of red can be said to symbolize blood, or evil. Blood for the menstrual cycle, evil for the stigma attached to sexual relations by religious fanatics. The color on them immediately identifies them to the entire world, and their status in it. This is just another form of the oppression thrown upon women in this novel, as in fact they are sanctioned whores. Surely this makes each of them feel ashamed, as wearing the red habit reminds them everyday of something they assuredly wish to forget.
All in all, I found this a very compelling novel. To think that such a thing is possible sends shivers of fright and disgust down my spine. Most likely, this is what Atwood was aiming for. She most likely feared that radical measures could be taken against females, and wrote a novel to voice her fears to the general public. I would recommend this book to all those interested in Dystopia and society's values on a whole. It makes you think and question "what if...". Is such a way of life preferable to the one we live now? Is society in such a sorry state that only a Republic such as Gilead could rectify the moral degradation we as humans have allowed ourselves to sink into? Frightening enough, there are people who think this, both men and women... Luckily, I believe that such a thing would never happen. First off, traditional values are slowly but surely going down the drain. As new generations come, their thinking changes. Years upon years ago, same sex marriages were not even thought of. In these days, states are passing laws even through much debate over the wrongness and how it is against all religious beliefs. In time, I feel that people won't even blink when they hear something like "Oh did you know, John got married to Fred". My belief is supported by the fact that sex is so freely thrown about now. Decades ago you were considered a wanton sinful person if you engaged in sexual intercourse before marriage. Now times, it is almost a given a girl or boy will lose their virginity long before they marry. As time goes on, beliefs change. That which was outrageous yesterday becomes commonplace today. Soon humans will have very little morals, but no one will remember the old ways and how wrong it is because of the subtle change in acceptance of these things over the years. And then again, women these days would never allow themselves to be treated thusly. Women each day are growing stronger as a sex and doing things which used to be classified as male only. We are on the front lines, defending our country... and beating a path to every job imaginable. Women have grown stronger over time, and we will continue to do so. I thank Margaret Atwood for making such a fine novel, and making me think.
Book Review: Well written, terrible story.
Summary: 2 Stars
This is quite possibly the best-written book I've ever hated to read. Ms. Atwood's writing skills are superb and she takes an otherwise dreadfully slow paced and hideous book of man- and woman-bashing and makes it quite a good read. Her writing skills not withstanding, the book is entirely without a single good point. One expects from feminist literature something new and interesting in the examination of the relationship between the sexes. Amy Tan in The Joy Luck Club brought us an interesting look at what feminism means to Asian-American women. It doesn't happen in this book, which is filled with trite stereotypes and two-dimensional figures. One expects strong female role models, characters worthy of emulation. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gave us both villainous and heroic women who were nevertheless fascinating studies as strong female characters. This novel, sad to say, lacks even a single female worthy of a moment's consideration. More disappointingly, it falls back on trite and overworked male bashing in lieu of actually having anything original to say on the subject of male-female relationships.Misandry is sadly to be expected from many types of feminist literature, and this novel is a good example of this trend. Ms. Atwood didn't feel it good enough to simply make a few of the male characters in her novel lacking in merit, nor did she feel it good enough to make most of the male characters poor examples of their kind. No, for Ms. Atwood nothing less than the total male population of her novel had to be self-serving, ill defined, and quite flat models for her venomous attacks.
The kindest male character in the book, the one character that Offred truly cares for, is her lost husband Luke. Even this character, under scrutiny, boils down to loathsome traits of which not all men, despite Ms. Atwood's beliefs, are predisposed. Luke, for one thing, began dating Offred while he was still married to his first wife. Moira "disapproved of Luke, back then. Not of Luke but of the fact that he was married." (171). Offred's great love, it appears, left his first wife for a "newer model," or so it would appear, as Luke is described as being older than Offred. Offred later describes him as being rather taken with the idea of her new legally enforced servility. After finding out that his wife has no legal rights to property under the new regime, he seems to take it in stride with aplomb. "He doesn't mind this,..." Offred thinks, "He doesn't mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other's, anymore. Instead, I am his." (182). Yes, this woman's great love, the man she pines for throughout the entire novel, kinda likes the idea of having his wife as property.
Offred's mother is perhaps the guiltiest party in the book to carry on misandristic demagoguery. "What do I need [men] for, I don't want a man around, what use are they except for ten seconds' worth of half babies. A man is just a woman's strategy for making other women." (121) Many of the Aunts are good for a line or two, as well. "Men are sex machines, said Aunt Lydia, and not much more. They only want one thing." (144). Elsewhere she warns her charges that "Modesty is invisibility ... Never forget it. To be seen -- to be seen -- is to be -- her voice trembled -- penetrated." (28) Even Andrea Dworkin never went that far.
Perhaps this stereotyping wouldn't be quite so bad, on it's own. It would definitely make for flat reading and an uninteresting cast of characters, if not for the outright violation, albeit mentally, of the Commander by Offred. In quite the vilest simile I have ever read in my life, Offred daydreams of knifing the Commander, of slipping a shiv between his ribs, "I think about the blood coming out of him, hot as soup, sexual, over my hands." (140) Had this passage been written by a male author, or had this passage been a man thinking this about a woman, the entire feminine press, and much of the left wing press as well, would have immediately risen in outraged indignity over the equation of this act of violence with a sexual act. Andrea Dworkin would have risen into the air and bellowed that this was just the sort of outrageous misogynistic rape that the male culture perpetually pressed on women. Since it wasn't, not a peep. It seems this type of violent sexual assault is only wrong when perpetuated by men against women, the reverse does not seem to hold true.
Far more confusing than the rather trite use of male bashing by the book's author is the author's clear misogynistic attitudes, as well. Male bashing may well be expected in a feminist novel, but the woman bashing seems intuitively counterproductive to the apparent aims of the novel. There seems, in fact, to be an utter lack of strong female characters in this novel, at least ones who aren't simultaneously misogynistic themselves. Serena Joy, the Commander's wife, certainly seems like a fairly strong character, but then she helped to create the world she currently lives in, though she may not bee too happy about the results (46). The Aunt's are certainly strong characters, but they're bad guys, no doubt about it. They are responsible for the indoctrination and enslavement of women to the purposes of the Gileadean regime. Which leaves us with Moira and Offred herself.
First, let me dispatch with Offred. While in the Red center, while still fresh from the outside, she takes readily to the indoctrination of the Aunts and actively participates on tearing down Janine, who has suffered a rape in the past, by blaming her for the rape, by claiming it was her fault. "For a moment ... we despised her." (72) Later, while holding the dirty little secret of her affair with her Commander in mind, she thinks of Serena thusly, "I now had power over her, of a kind, although she didn't know it. And I enjoyed that. Why pretend? I enjoyed it a lot." (162) Let us not forget that this isn't her first affair, either. In regards to Offred's relationship with Luke "[Moira] said I was poaching, on another woman's ground." She later becomes so self-absorbed and wrapped up in her little affair with Nick that she refuses to help the resistance when asked.
I can't, I say to Ofglen. I'm too afraid. Anyway I'd be no good at that, I'd get caught. I scarcely take the trouble to sound regretful, so lazy have I become. We could get you out, she says. We can get people out if we really have to, if they're in danger. Immediate danger. The fact is I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. I want to be here, with Nick, where I can get at him. (271)
This total capitulation, this acceptance of her slave state, this total passivity of hers is what makes her most pitiful, and hateful. Even her fantasies of escape revolve around Luke somehow making a miraculous rescue and reuniting her with her husband and daughter (106). But she takes no active role in attempting any escapes, nor an active role in much of anything that I can see. She is utterly passive and lets the world simply roll over her and then bemoans her fate when it does.
What, then, can we make of Moira? She is at least active. She cares for others actively and vehemently. In the Red center when Janine has a nervous breakdown and becomes unresponsive to real world stimuli, it is Moira who takes command of the situation and manages to snap her out of it before the Aunts return (215-17). She even manages to make an escape from the Red center (130-33) and contact the "Underground Frailroad" (another bit of misplaced misogyny) and almost manages to escape the country before she is caught. I had hope that here, finally, I might find a strong character, and I certainly found the strongest in the book. But in the end, even Moira capitulates and chooses a life as a prostitute in "The Club," better known as Jezebel's to the girls that work there. Her life span will be brief, perhaps "three or four good years before your snatch wears out and they send you to the boneyard." (249)
So, in the end, even Moira gives up. Pity. The novel would have been far more interesting if it had simply been written about Moira and left Offred as a supporting character.
Book Review: What some German students think about it
Summary: 4 Stars
The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic novel. Without warning the reader is thrown into a totally different environment including time, state and - most important- society. Women are controlled by men, they don't even have the right to go down the streets by themselves and are there only to reproduce children.
The protagonist of this novel is a woman named Offred. She tells the story- her story. How her world and life have changed after the president's assassination and a very new governmental system was established. As a result she lost her job and her family, she was put into a so called 'Red Centre' to become a handmaid like many other women whose only purpose was to be impregnated by their commanders.
The subject of this story is very frightening in my opinion. The author based this novel on facts from the present or the past, so that there is the real possibility of this society coming true. Hopefully it never will!
At first it was hard to figure out what this book is about and the many shifts from past to present make it difficult not to get confused.. A few descriptive scenes were really disgusting to me but make you feel sympathy with the protagonist.
Once I got used to the style and the way the story is presented it was exciting to read to the end.
(Finnja)
Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaids Tale"is a very good book to show how a world could be, if it's controlled by only one gender.
The young Handmaid Offred lives in the totalitarian state Gilead, which is controlled by men.
She lives in the household of the Commander Fred and his wife Serena. Offred is only accepted because she can give birth to children. On the one hand having a child is a kind of status symbol for the wives and on the other hand Gilead needs children after an atomic accident. The children should be conceived in an inhuman ceremony with Offred, Fred and Serena.
Don't wonder when you begin to read the book. The first chapters are really complicated to read because you get so much information you can hardly cope. But after a while you understand it.
The ending is like is like the beginning: very abrupt.
The only critical aspect for me is that the book has an open end. I would like to know, what is going to happen to Offred after she is being taken away by a van of the secret police.
There are a lot of parallels between the book and reality as we know it. When you read about Offred's way of clothing you think often on wives in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries with there veils about their faces.
For me "The Handmaids Tale" is a very good book. It's interesting, exiting and very instructive. I would recommend the book to everybody, young and old people.
(Ann-Kathrin)
When I first saw this book I was really shocked. "It has so many pages", I thought. Also when I started to read I didn`t feel better because the book starts with a flashback of the Red Centre and that really confused me. Right away you are in the story and flashbacks tell you what happened in the past. But then when I had read a few chapters I was really surprised that I started to like the book.
The characters are really good and credible. I had the feeling that some day when leaving the house I could meet Offred or Nick.
The whole story is credible, I think. The story includes facts of the history but it is a story about the future and how the future could look like. The future according to Margaret Atwood will be governed by men, and women will be only tools, but is this so incredible? I don`t think so because it`s like in the Bible, and religion is more and more important for us and our lives.
The structure of the story is very good and interesting. Flashbacks tell about the past of Offred in a non-chronological order so that the tension is increased.
All in all I think the book is good and believable. The future could be like that.
(Lisa)
When I started to read this book by Margaret Atwood, I was really confused at first. You don't know, where the story is set and what's happening at all.
But when you've read on a bit, the way of narration is very interesting, because you only know, what Offred, the main character is thinking, all the time. The things you have to know to understand the story aren't explained.
The themes of the story are old one's like the position of the women or the status of power of some "higher" people. But it's an unusual setting to deal with such themes. The story is about a state in the future, where the women are completely oppressed. Everybody has their assigned job and there aren't individuals anymore.
What I didn't like is the way Margaret Atwood deals with the Christian or Jewish religion. Thegovernment justify the state of Gilead in "The Handmaid's Tale" by saying it's based on the Old Testament. It's right, that the situation with Rachel and Leah and their maids looks like that situation Offred is in. But, actually, it's not comparable, because the background is completely different. Also some other parallels that are taken from the Bible are "right", but they're taken out of the context and completely misunderstood. That's okay for the state of Gilead, because the regime wants the people to believe those wrong things, but what I am dissatisfied with is, that it doesn't become clear enough, THAT these passages from the Bible are used in a wrong way. You would think, if you lived in a state that's like the one the Bible tells us about, it would be like Gilead in the book. And that's sad, because Jesus teaches opposing principles.
(Nora)
When you want to read the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood you need a lot of stamina. But when you get throw the first phase of boredom and confusion, you will recognize that Margaret Atwood gives an interesting and gripping portrait of a society which is shaped by inequality and injustice.
Because they are afraid of the women who get more and more emancipated, the men create the state of Gilead, a dictatorship, where women have the lowest social standing.
Offred, the protagonist and first-person-narrator of the novel, shows in a sensitive and impressive way how the women suffer in this regime.
Separated from her husband and her daughter, she lives the life of a Handmaid, who has the task to give birth to a child. The only right she has is to live. But even this right isn't granted under any circumstance.
Especially the way Margaret Atwood describes the beginnings of Gilead is impressive and alarming at the same time. How fast and smoothly a democratic country, the USA in this case, can be turned into a totalitarian system is shown in this novel.
(Sabrina)
Book Review: Oppression of the Self
Summary: 4 Stars
In the novel The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the main character, Offred, struggles for independence as a woman, sexually and socially. She lives in a world in which the basic rights of women are taken away, and a power struggle over their sexuality quickly develops. Women have become objects of fertility whose worth is determined by the number of children they bare. It is a captivating story of not only the frightening possibilities of the future, but the feministic opinion about society. The book begins in the near future, when the world is in the midst of a war. The constitution has been suspended and women have become the property of their husbands. The book begins several years afterwards, when a handmaid named Offred moves into a new Commander's home to have his children. In the novel, handmaids are young, fertile women used solely for the purpose of having children for those wives who cannot. Confused in an asexual, male dominating world, Offred tells the reader two stories, one of her current situation, and one of her past. Atwood uses flashbacks and allusions from her past to emphasize the extreme division in Offred's two lives. The fact that Offred's real name from her past life remains a mystery is a constant reminder of how much of her true self she has lost because of her personal oppression. Offred lives for only one purpose, to procreate. "Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure. I have failed to once again fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own" (95). In a life without enjoyment, she yearns for her past, and begins breaking rules to live as herself. Regardless of the consequences, her goal is to break free and become the woman she once was again.
Margaret Atwood's distopian story is a tale of the dehumanizing of women and sexuality. It provides commentary on the possibilities of the future, and the importance of standing up for one's rights. It makes one appreciate his or her personal freedoms and also makes one realize how quickly these freedoms could disappear. While the novel is enjoyable, it leaves the reader with several unanswered questions. Atwood does not directly tell the reader how and by whom the rights of women were taken away. It leaves us wondering whom Offred's frustrations are directed at. Perhaps Atwood purposely left out this information to prove the point that it is possible for anyone to take away a woman's rights.
The story also leaves the reader questioning the characterization and motivation of men in the story. Their opinions on the situation are hardly recognized; the men seem to have no ideas of their own at all. Atwood portrays the Commander as a sleazy, sexually driven man who abuses his position and Nick as a sexual object for Offred. The reasoning behind the lack of the male characters' development is perhaps to illustrate the minimal amount of personality their society allows. Or possibly to emphasize the idea that men have become mere objects for Offred. None of them have much depth behind the outside façade, and we can only guess at the motivations for each.
While Offred keeps the reader hoping she will overcome, it is apparent that she will never be able to totally stand up against authority. There are too many obstacles in her way and there seems to be no way out. "Ever night when I go to bed I think, in the morning I will wake up in my own house and things will be back the way they were. It hasn't happened this morning, either" (257). It is possible Atwood uses this hopeless pessimism to emphasize the fact that society's rules sometimes have no escape, except death. Or for instance the idea that it takes more than one person to challenge a system.
The solemn yet minutely optimistic tone has any reader on the edge of their seat as he or she waits for Offred to break free as an individual and challenge the system in which she is a victim of. The two stories told at the same time, one of Offred's past life leading up to her "career" as a handmaid and the other of her present life is very effective. They convince the reader of the situation's injustice, especially since past her life and rights were taken away. Similar to George Orwell's 1984, The Handmaid's Tale takes us on a nerve-wracking, authority challenging journey in search of liberty from the social standards and rules the government imposes. Both stories use the idea that as hard as the authority figures try to eliminate the past, it will never go away. Any woman will be able to put herself in Offred's shoes and appreciate what they have, while at the same time sympathizing for Offred's situation. Atwood does an incredible job of making the reader feel frustrated and oppressed right along with Offred. If the story were told in a point of view other than first person through Offred, it would lose its personal nature and we may not be able to relate as well.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is a fascinating story of sexuality, feminism, and individuality. Her writing captivates us as we follow Offred, the handmaid, through her current life as an object of procreation. Atwood clearly makes a pointed statement about women's rights and sexuality as she fascinates us with the characterization of Offred. However, regardless of how enjoyable the read may be, the reader is left with unanswered questions. We can only guess at Atwood's purposes in her tale. The story, told through the combination of Offred's two lives, one in current day and one in memories, is effective to relate the story to the audience. Overall The Handmaid's Tale is a novel highly recommended to any reader willing to place themselves in Offred's shoes for a captivating journey toward independence.
Book Review: Not Realistic Enough to be Scary
Summary: 3 Stars
The time in the book is more or less now--but a now if things had gone horribly wrong a few years ago. The narrator, a woman in her thirties, used to have a successful career. Shortly after college she started dating a married man, who then divorced his wife and married her. The two of them had a daughter together and were happy. They were aware of some troublesome things--there was a toxic waste problem, and reduced childbirth rates, possibly due to sterility caused by the toxic waste. Life was still livable, though. Then the country fell apart. The president was gunned down, as were all other top-level government officials. Those now in charge decided to go back to the Bible for advice on how to live.
The first changes happen together--women are no longer allowed to work or to own anything, including money. The narrator finds her bank account frozen and herself without a job. Bigger trouble seems to be looming on the horizon, so she and her husband decide to escape with their five-year-old daughter before things get any worse. Their plan seems foolproof, but something terrible happens. Instead of escaping across the border, they are caught. The narrator loses her husband and doesn't know if he has been killed or arrested. She and her daughter run for it, but then her daughter is taken from her, to be raised by a suitable family. The new government does not recognize divorce and has dissolved all second marriages and taken away the resultant children.
The narrator is lucky, because she still has a viable reproductive system, a commodity truly valued by the new government. This fact saves her from being labeled an "Unwoman" and sent to work the fatal job of cleaning up toxic waste. Everyone is desperate for healthy children. She and many other women like her are sent to live in a sort of brainwashing center, where they are taught that they are nothing but wombs to be filled with the babies of those more worthy, the children of Commanders and their Wives. When an important couple is unable to have children, they will be assigned one of these women, a Handmaid, who will live with them, meekly and silently. The Handmaid, who is not allowed to converse with others, to read or to do anything without permission, will be permitted out of the house to do the grocery shopping every day, where she will be paired with another Handmaid who will presumably tattle on her if anything inappropriate happens. The Handmaids wear long red dresses and head coverings with blinders to prevent them from looking around. Once a month an elaborate ceremony is performed, culminating in a weird sexual act involving the Commander, his Wife, and the Handmaid.
Such is life for this narrator, who is currently assigned to a Commander named Fred and is therefore called Offred, as she is considered his property. She is told that in a couple of generations things will have worked out and Wives will no longer be jealous and resentful of Handmaids. She is told she will get used to her life, her solitude, her newly reduced place in society. But she dreams of freedom, of escape, of her husband and her daughter and of the million things she should have been grateful for before she was made into a sex slave.
There were a lot of things I really liked about this book. The attention to detail was admirable; I felt like I knew the characters and had a good grasp of the rules of this society. I could understand how the words of the Bible could have been twisted around to make such a society possible, and I could see how people were controlled by this new government. The story was poetic, the thinking of the narrator beautiful and heartbreaking. I liked the ambiguous ending and wish she'd left it at that, instead of adding the horrible "Historical Notes" to attempt to clear up the story. There are much better ways to do so, although I don't think in this case it was necessary.
However, there was one major problem with this book. Nobody was benefitting from the new system of government. Women were certainly not benefitting. Everyone, from the Wives, to the servants, to the Handmaids, was miserable and resentful of the others for some reason. In any situation in which one group of people is exploited or marginalized, there is generally some corruption at the top layers of social heirarchy and someone is getting something out of the deal. In this story, it seems that men ought to be getting something out of allowing women to be treated as objects and property.
Even the men in this story, though, who are sneered at and villainized by the author, are living miserable lives. They have to wait to be assigned a Wife and they have no choice about who she is. Perhaps many years later if they are unable to have a child, the couple may be assigned a Handmaid. It seems that this would be a reward--one man allowed two women with whom to have sex! However, the sex is so regimented and scheduled that it has been stripped of all of its passion and excitement. Even in a time when things are so backward that men would not want women to be able to read or to carry on a conversation with them as equals, I'd bet they wouldn't be in favor of these new rules about sex.
So, although there were a great deal of things about this book that touched me and made me think, I found it simply unbelievable that anyone, male or female, would have tolerated this social system for very long.