the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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social, symbolic and cultural activity into a simple
instrumental function. Vandelac views women who rent their
uterus as nothing more than "walking incubators" (cited in
McLaren 1988:257).
4.2.7.1. By means of allegory, Atwood satirises surrogate
motherhood and the segmentation of reproductive functions of
women - into child begetting, childbearing and childrearing
- it entails. Corresponding to these divisions, in the
Republlc of Gilead, one flnds the Marthas or domestics. the
Wives, or social secretaries and functionaries, the Jezebels
or sex prostitutes, and the Handmaids, or reproductive
prostitutes - that is, women reduced to thelr respective
roles. The narrator. Offred (who derlves her name from the
Commander, Fred), is a Handmaid recruited for "breeding
purposes". Alloted to the aging Commander, she 1s supposed
to act as a surrogate mother and bear hlm a child with the
collusion of his barren wife If the Handmaid does not
succeed by the end of her two year posting, she is declared
an 'unwoman' and shlpped off to the colonies Male
infertility, however, is unthinkable in Gilead. "There are
Only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that's
the law" (HT.61)
4.3.0. A vital question that the three texts raise is:
Is reproduction through sexual intercourse essential?
Is