In Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood introduces a society where men place domination and governance over women. Women’s bodies, particularly Handmaids’ bodies, are used as political instruments that are under the government’s complete control. The epigram Genesis 30: 1-3 provides biblical justification for the Handmaid system and serves as a prophecy for how women’s worth in Gilead is dependent on their ability to bear children. Corresponding to the novel, the character Offred from the Handmaid’s Tale resembles Bilhah from Genesis, while Offred’s higher authority, Serena Joy, correlates with Rachel from Genesis. In Genesis 30:1-3, Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid plays a similar role to Offred, both of them are both …show more content…
When Rachel realizes that she is incapable of giving birth, she becomes jealous of her sister, Leah, who bears Jacob two sons, “And [Rachel] said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.” Rachel is willing to share her husband with another women to satisfy her desire for a child only because she feels less worthy than her sister Leah, who can provide for Jacob in ways Rachel cannot. Furthermore, Rachel threatens that she’ll die if she does not have a child, which shows her overwhelming need for a child. Her desperation suggests that her worth lies in her ability to provide a child for Jacob. However, it is possible that she wants a child for herself independently of owing Jacob an heir. On the other hand, we do know Serena Joy doesn’t care about giving the Commander an heir. When Serena Joy sees that Offred has not made any progress getting pregnant, she tells Offred to try to have sex with Nick and that they will keep it a secret from the Commander: “This idea hangs between us...collusion of a sort, betrayal of a sort. She does want that baby” (205). In order to have a baby, Serena Joy is willing to betray the Commander’s trust by secretly selecting a man other than the Commander to have sex with Offred. This breaks the law, yet she wants to do it because she acknowledges that the Commander is unable to impregnate Offred. Since both Rachel and Serena Joy are infertile, they believe that they have no other option than to have a baby by use of extreme methods. In Rachel’s case, it was not necessarily important for Rachel to have a baby because Jacob has other children; however, Rachel feels insecure because she is unable to fulfill all her wifely duties the way her sister Leah is able to. Conversely, it is not Serena Joy’s responsibility to provide the