Hamlet

Totalitarianism In the novel, The Handmaid's Tale, the form of government that is present in their society is a totalitarian government. Totalitarianism is defined as “a centralized government that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life, exercising control over freedom, will, or thought of others”. In Gilead all the power is in the hands of the Commander's and the Aunts. The commanders are men that were important or powerful before Gilead, and the Aunts are infertile women who work with the Handmaids teaching them how to be so called “proper women” by using various teaching methods. The government in Gilead enforces their rule through parliamentary groups known as the Guardians, Angels, and their secret police known as Eyes. The Guardians and Angels are used to regulate the actions of the people of Gilead, while the Eyes are used to combat any people that may be defying the rules of Gilead or planning to rebel against the government. One of the ways a totalitarian government controls society is by restricting their access to knowledge. In Gilead no one is allowed to read except for the Commanders. Even the signs identifying the stores in Gilead are in pictures, not words. Almost all books and magazines from before Gilead were banned and burned. The purpose of this regime is to make sure the people of Gilead stay ignorant, and because knowledge can be power. There is one book that the persons of the households are allowed to hear from and that is the Bible. However, the messages in the Bible have been modified by Gilead to support their totalitarian government. The Bible is kept locked up otherwise so the people of Gilead are unable to read what it really says, keeping them ignorant to the truth. Hitler's reign over Germany is similar to the way the Republic of Gilead controls its people in many ways. Hitler gave the Gestapo (German Police) the power to arrest anyone if they went against his word. The Gestapo are like the Guardians, and Angels in Gilead, they are used to make sure nobody goes against the government's laws and regulations. Hitler's concentration camps are similar to that of the colonies. If people foul-mouthed Hitler or caused trouble for him he would send them to concentration camps to work and eventually executed. In Gilead people are sent to the colonies if they fail to comply with the Republic's laws, where they have to do labour intensive jobs and are more likely to die. Hitler used propaganda to come into power. He was able to appeal to the emotions and pride of the people of Germany, playing on the anger they had felt after world war one, tricking them into voting him as chancellor. Although it is not completely clear how The Republic of Gilead rose to power, I am under the impression that they also used propaganda to play on the fear and emotions people were feeling towards certain issues during the time before Gilead. The events mentioned above tell us that the majority of the people in a society are unable to come up with a solution to problems by themselves and therefore turn to a government or somebody else for guidance. It also shows us how the emotions of people can blur their ability to thoroughly analyze things. This was the case with Hitler, he was able to persuade the people of Germany into making him chancellor by playing off their emotions. Hopefully society as a whole has learned from these past events and is able to act accordingly if anything like this happens again.