Handmaid's Tale (pg. 210)

12. “The problem wasn’t only with the women, he says. The main problem was with the men. There was nothing for them anymore . . . I’m not talking about sex, he says. That was part of it, the sex was too easy…You know what they were complaining about the most? Inability to feel. Men were turning off on sex, even. They were turning off on marriage. Do they feel now? I say. Yes, he says, looking at me. They do.” (Page 210):

In this passage Atwood depicts the Commander attempting to justify the creation of Gilead. The Commander states that because women had become equal to men and because sex was so easily accessible that men had lost their meaning. His justification may seem noble to him, however, the price of men feeling important has cost the happiness and freedom of both men and women. Atwood expresses that true happiness comes from freedom not the importance of control.