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The Use Of Motifs In The Handmaid's Tale

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This gives the reader a greater understanding of one way in which the Party controls the citizens of Oceania, through the abolishment and manipulation of history. Perhaps the most significant literary device found in the novel is the use of motif. As the mathematical equation 2 + 2 = 5 is repeated throughout the novel it becomes a motif linked to the theme of psychological independence. ‘In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.’ Winston considers the Party’s exploitation of its fearful inhabitants as a means to supress the intellectual notion of objective reality. ‘For after all, how do we know that two and two make four?(…)Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?’ This same concept is repeated throughout the novel and is once again used at …show more content…

Religious references are a recurring motif throughout the novel. As Gilead is a theocracy—a government in which there is no separation between state and religion - the Gileadean vocabulary repeatedly incorporates religious terminology and biblical references. This provides a ubiquitous reminder that the founders of Gilead act on the authority of the Bible. This then causes a manipulation of Christian values in order to fit the goals of the regime. For example the use of Handmaids is justified by a reference to the Old Testament where Abraham impregnates his domestic servant with his wife’s permission since she is unable to reproduce. The ultimate irony of Atwood’s fiction world is that Gilead is a theocracy where not one person is devout and where notions such as faith have no meaning. A supposedly profoundly Christian society turns every citizen into a sinner as in order to exist within the system each character becomes a liar and a

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