Freedom to choose

The phrase "Freedom to choose" surfaces in Offred's recollection of a protest march her mother participated in, captured in a documentary film shown at the Red Center. The banner, painted on a bedsheet, is part of a larger demonstration carrying signs like "EVERY BABY A WANTED BABY" and "RECAPTURE OUR BODIES." This memory, triggered during a Birth Day, underscores the vast gulf between the pre-Gilead era's aspirations for women's autonomy and the regime's systematic denial of choice.

The Protest and Its Context

In the film, Offred's young mother, wearing overalls and a kerchief, marches with a group of women holding a banner that reads "TAKE BACK THE NIGHT." Behind it, other signs include "Freedom to choose," "EVERY BABY A WANTED BABY," "RECAPTURE OUR BODIES," and a graphic drawing of a woman's body on a kitchen table with blood dripping from it. The camera briefly captures these slogans, which the Aunts have not blacked out, allowing the Handmaids to read them. Offred notes that the women in the film are "happy, ecstatic almost," their faces ruddy and cheerful in the firelight as they burn magazines. This moment of collective joy and defiance stands in stark contrast to the controlled, fearful existence of the Handmaids.

The Loss of Choice in Gilead

The ideal of "Freedom to choose" is systematically dismantled in Gilead. Offred reflects on the pre-Gilead world where women could choose their clothes, jobs, and partners, a freedom that now seems "almost weightless." The regime replaces this with a rigid system where Handmaids have no say in their bodies or lives. Offred's internal monologue reveals the burden of the few choices she still has: "There wasn't a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose." This echoes the existential weight of choice, where even limited options carry immense consequences. The Commander's request to kiss him "as if you meant it" further highlights the perversion of choice, reducing intimacy to a coerced performance.

The Irony of "Freedom from"

Aunt Lydia's teaching that there are two kinds of freedom—"freedom to" and "freedom from"—frames the regime's ideology. She claims that in the "days of anarchy" there was "freedom to," but now women are given "freedom from" danger and uncertainty. This rhetoric is exposed as hollow when Offred recalls the pre-Gilead rules women followed for safety: "Don't open your door to a stranger... Don't stop on the road to help a motorist pretending to be in trouble." The so-called freedom from is actually a prison of control, where even the choice to walk alone is forbidden. The slogan "Freedom to choose" thus becomes a bitter irony, representing a world that has been erased.

The Persistence of Desire for Choice

Despite the regime's efforts, the desire for choice persists. Offred's secret meetings with Nick, her Scrabble games with the Commander, and her small acts of defiance—like saving butter for her skin—are all attempts to reclaim agency. The phrase "Freedom to choose" lingers in her memory as a symbol of what was lost, but also as a reminder that the capacity for choice, however constrained, remains. In the end, when the black van arrives and Nick whispers "It's Mayday. Go with them," Offred faces the ultimate choice: to trust or to resist. She steps into the darkness, choosing uncertainty over the certainty of oppression, embodying the fragile, contested nature of freedom in a world designed to deny it.