Flowers and Fertility

After reading The Picture of Dorian Gray this summer, my mind's been primed for recognizing flower symbolism in literature. Because of this, I instantly recognized the use of flowers in The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This novel explores an alternate, dystopian future in which women are stripped of power and are only valued for their reproductive abilities. The main character, Offred, is a "handmaid," whose sole function in society is to produce a child for the Commander with whom she lives. Flowers are interspersed throughout the text, and serve as symbols of beauty, fertility, and impermanence.

Atwood explicitly reveals this symbolism to the reader with the Handmaid's form of greeting: "blessed be the fruit," and "may the Lord open" in response (25). This simple exchange hints at many important elements in the book: women's loss of power, so that they must speak only in formal, stiff salutations; the prevalence of religious control in government and society; and how fertility and reproduction shape even everyday actions in their country, Gilead.

In addition to using flowers as an explicit representation of fertility, Atwood beautifully weaves in floral imagery to enhance the book's meaning. Serena Joy, the wife of the Commander, keeps a garden, "in which the daffodils are now fading and the tulips are opening their cups, spilling out color." Offred notes that "many of the wives have such gardens, it's something for them to order and maintain and care for" (16). In a time when fertility is so valued—to the point where women can be exiled for demonstrating infertility—flowers represent a form of fertility over which the characters can have control. Flowers serve as a substitute for children to wives who have none. Beyond simply fertility, flowers also represent impermanence: the impermanence of fertility, as well as of beauty and youth. Serena Joy shows her desire to capture some of her fleeting youth through the costumes she wears: "She's in one of her best dresses...flowers and fretwork. Even at her age she still feels the urge to wreathe herself in flowers. No use for you...you can't use them anymore, you're withered. They're the genital organs of plants" (104-105).

In Gilead, men are never considered infertile: legally, only women can be infertile. Because of this, many Handmaids are capable of conceiving yet are punished for something that's out of their control.
Offred demonstrates her desire to have power over her actions by trying to steal a flower: "I want to steal something...something that will not be missed...a withered daffodil" (126). However, this is a minor offense. Here, a withered flower is compared to an infertile women. This comparison illustrates the lack of status that infertile women hold in Gilead. Infertile women are disposable: many of them live must live in a wasteland known as the "Colonies," or others choose to become prostitutes for upper-ranking officials at the hotel Jezebel's.