A “disciplinary girl” within the context of Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Story” is a girl who enforces the oppressive guidelines and norms of the totalitarian society of Gilead. These girls, also known as “Aunts,” are answerable for coaching and punishing the handmaids, who’re fertile girls pressured into sexual servitude to bear kids for the ruling class.
Disciplinary girls play an important position in sustaining the patriarchal and misogynistic society of Gilead. They’re tasked with making certain that ladies conform to their assigned roles and that any dissent is swiftly and harshly punished. Their strategies of self-discipline usually contain bodily and psychological torture, in addition to the specter of demise.