Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish” provides an example of a city whose viability has been challenged by a natural disaster (plague). This situation, which could potentially result in chaos and disorder, offers agency for the government to assume total control of its populous – while acting in the guise of protector. This scenario is similar in many ways to the systemic domination and subjugation of the citizenry described in Margaret Atwood’s novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In this story, governmental chaos and natural catastrophes serve as a catalyst for a group of extreme religious fundamentalists to overtake the United States government. The newly formed government then makes sweeping changes to law and effects societal conventions.
Foucault’s text examined the power structure in society. In his Panopticon example he outlined the necessary modalities for effecting individuals to become prisoners internally, monitored and controlled by their own sense of control and discipline. He described four practices –establishment of a power hierarchy segregation, training, and military surveillance which may be seen illustrated in The Handmaid’s Tale. In the novel, the citizenry is divided into hierarchical groups and labeled – Wives, Commanders, Guardians, Handmaids, etc. These characters are designated by title and also by specific wardrobe which serve as constant reminders of their position and power level in the society envisioned in the fictional Republic of Gilead. The handmaid, who serves as narrator in the novel, describes the practice of separating the segment of society to which she belongs – essentially alienating them. The women, proven childbearers, are culled and then taken to “Red Centers” where they are then indoctrinated into their new purpose. These practices provide “the great confinement on the one hand; the correct training on the other” (Foucault 553). The handmaids are then subject to regular medical examinations and rituals which regularly reinforce their position in the new society and insinuate a global control over the lives of the handmaids. The handmaid’s are also aware of the ever-present “Eyes,” governmental spies, whose purpose is to reveal illicit behavior which is punishable by torture or death. This constant state of fear reaffirms the notion that “each individual is fixed in his place. And, if he moves, he does so at the risk of his life…or punishment” (Foucault 551).
The layered control and loss of individuality by those who are controlled by such a power structure lose any sense of agency and therefore lose any internal drive to fight against the oppressive structure or control. Foucault wrote that “he who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power… becomes the principle of his own subjection.” This notion of inability to effect control can be seen in the character of handmaid Offred who has several opportunities to shape her outcome (by spying for the resistance movement, stealing a weapon and using it to defend herself or escape, etc.), but her sense of self and power has been so meticulously diminished that she becomes complicit in her subjugation.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Random, 1986.
Foucault, Michel. “Discipline and Punish.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Rivkin. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 549-565
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