of the men that they are handmaids to without having the same consideration shown to them. The institute that the handmaids are trained in seems rather like the "okiya" of the Japanese geisha. There are aunties there that conform to the values and demands of a patriarchal environment and teach the students never to question them. Thus is patriarchy propagated in this society.
             The choice-between happiness without freedom or freedom without happiness-is presented by Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor, by Zamiatin's Well-Doer, by Huxley's Mustapha Mond, by Orwell's O'Brien, and by Atwood's Aunt Lydia, trainer of handmaids and explicator of the regime's rationale for its oppression. We read The Handmaid's Tale as a t
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