Under His Eye
Gilead's farewell, and its reminder that everyone is watched.
"Under His Eye" is the farewell exchanged in the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale. The novel article describes Gilead as a textbook panopticon in Michel Foucault's sense: people under constant observation, or the threat of it, start to police themselves. The word "eye" is used constantly in Gilead as a subconscious reminder that everything is observed, tying God and religion to surveillance, and the greeting "Under His Eye" spreads that terror in everyday speech.
Background
The "Eyes" are also Gilead's spies. In the television series June discovers that Nick Blaine, Commander Waterford's driver, is an Eye who played a significant part in the Gileadean takeover; in the novel, when the secret police come for Offred, she cannot tell whether Nick and the men are Eyes or members of the Mayday resistance.
More in Lore & History
Elsewhere in The Handmaids Tale
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