BY DESTROYING SEXUALITY, THE GOVERNMENT IS ALSO BREAKING DOWN EMOTIONAL BONDS AND THE EMPATHETIC HUMAN NATURE
Offred lives in a society that prohibits women from working, reading, and owning anything. They believe that women that are still fertile should be conceiving children for the couples of higher class. The government has banned all types of pornography and has executed all homosexuals. The government's destruction of sexuality breaks down emotional bonds and the empathetic human nature.
The emotional bond created between mother and child after birth is unparalleled. Despite this, after a child is born in this community, it is placed in the hands of the wife that will eventually take the place of the mother. When this happens, the Handmaid doesn’t spend any time with the baby unless it is time to breastfeed. As a few months pass by, the Handmaid gets relocated to another house to repeat this cycle, never to see her child again. By tearing apart this necessary connection, the government is brainwashing the mothers to lose feelings for their child early on. This creates apathetic citizens that won’t challenge the power of the government.
Once a month at a specific point in the Handmaid's menstrual cycle there is a ceremony held after dinner. The Handmaid must lay down between the legs of the Wife, holding her hands, while the commander has sex with her. There is nothing personal about this sex, it is all about fertilization. There is no romance or seduction, that is strictly prohibited. The interaction between the commander and the Handmaid is minimal besides this ceremony to make sure that the commander doesn’t find anything appealing about Offred. This destroys any kind of love that there might be in the house. The wife has to watch the commander have sex with another woman which forces the wife to be jealous, the Handmaid has to have impersonal sex with an old guy that she doesn’t know once a month, and the commander has a wife that hates him. Nobody can be happy when they are in a situation like this. This causes the husband and wife to distance themselves from each other, destroying the relationship.
The Handmaids are only allowed to leave the house once a day to shop with an assigned partner. These partners are not their friends. They are trained to sniff out anyone who may try to challenge the governmental power. The Handmaids have to be very careful when talking to one another and find it difficult to see what side the other is on. If they by chance do find someone who seems to be on the same side, there is always a possibility that person could be an Eye, or working for the Republic.
The Republic of Gilead made sure that there was no room for love in these homes. The government’s destruction of sexuality breaks down emotional bonds and the empathetic human nature. Humans are social creatures, and without friendships, physical relationships, or family how are they supposed to continue to act in the ways expected of them?