In this research we analyze the dystopic romance The Handmaid‘s Tale, originally published
in English in 1985, written by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The narrative is set in a
near future, on a fictional place known as the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is described by the
narrator, the tale‘s main character, as a totalitarian, theocratic and patriarchal State that, after
an attack to the congress and the assassination of the president of the United States of
America, stablishes a government led by religious fanatics. After seizing power, they betake
passages from the Old Testament scriptures to justify their control over female bodies and
condemn to death all who intend to scape domination. The objective of this work is to reflect
upon the transformation of a democratic society into a totalitarian society and to identify the
fundaments of the religious natured discourse that substantiates the social control over women
in the narrative. For the analysis, we resort to the subsidies of discursive semiotics, with the
update of the programming concept suggested by Eric Landowski in the book Interações
arriscadas [Risky interactions]. We believe this interaction regime helps us comprehend the
way female bodies are controlled upon the imposition of ideology. This is study of qualitative
approach, in which was utilized was the bibliographical research method and literature
analysis.
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