Bilhah and Zilpah

Lore & Background

The regime of Gilead latched onto this specific narrative to construct its own dystopian reality. By invoking Bilhah and Zilpah, the Commanders and Aunts claim a divine mandate for stripping fertile women of their autonomy and forcing them into sexual servitude for the sake of 'saving' humanity. The names are often whispered in religious instruction or used as symbolic references, reminding every Handmaid that her suffering is merely a reenactment of holy history, a necessary sacrifice to continue the lineage of the faithful.

In Their Own Story

The Aunts gather the new arrivals in the stark, sun-drenched room, their voices echoing off the bare walls. 'Do you know why we are here?' one asks, her eyes scanning the frightened faces. She points to a faded illustration on the wall depicting two women standing before a man. 'Bilhah and Zilpah,' she intones with terrifying reverence. 'They did not choose this path; they were given. And in their giving, they secured the future of the tribes.' The woman looks down at her own red cloak, feeling the weight of history pressing against her shoulders. She is no longer a person with a name; she is a vessel, a modern echo of an ancient bargain made in blood and sand.

Reader's Guide

The regime of Gilead relies heavily on literalist interpretations of the King James Bible to justify its totalitarian laws. The story of Bilhah and Zilpah is central to this theology because it provides a direct precedent for surrogacy, albeit one that was originally consensual or arranged between families rather than state-mandated slavery. Margaret Atwood selected these figures specifically because their stories highlight the commodification of women's bodies in ancient patriarchal structures. By elevating Bilhah and Zilpah to saints of fertility, Gilead obscures the violence inherent in their original narratives, reframing forced impregnation as a spiritual duty. Historically, this reflects how religious texts have been manipulated throughout real-world history to enforce social control. The fictional precedent shows that when a society faces an existential crisis like population collapse, it often reaches for ancient, rigid traditions, twisting them into tools of oppression rather than liberation.

Did You Know?

• The names Bilhah and Zilpah are the only biblical women explicitly referred to as 'handmaids' in the context of bearing children for their mistresses.
• In Gilead's twisted theology, the biological motherhood of these ancient figures is erased; the children belong entirely to the wives who provided them.
• The Handmaid system effectively institutionalizes the private arrangement of the Old Testament, turning a family solution into a state-enforced mandate.
• Atwood chose these specific names because they represent the intersection of infertility, power dynamics, and female solidarity gone wrong.