How Westworld and The Handmaid’s Tale show the power of maternal love

Westworld may have started as a curious idea in the heads of Arnold and Robert Ford meant to entertain humans by recreating a past era, but it ended up being a free space for the wealthy to freely enact violence and abuse on inanimate beings that resemble humans.

In Westworld becoming a place where anyone could do what they wanted it also become a dystopian world for the robots, even if they were never expected to know what was going on. The few hosts that became fully sentient wanted more than anything to leave Westworld once they realized what it really was–a strange form of enslavement that allowed exploitation and bloodshed with no obligation of justice.

Maeve makes it to the train that would take her out of Westworld, but she changes her mind to save her daughter. As Claire Goldberg wrote in The Georgetown Voice, Maeve’s motherly instinct that pulls her back into Westworld to rescue her daughter from the very dystopian environment she is fleeing isn’t unlike June in The Handmaid’s Tale.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a TV series based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. It takes place in a dystopian future where a religious order called the Sons of Jacob overthrows the U.S. government and strips the rights away from women. In the midst of a decline in the national birthrate, the handmaids are assigned to married men referred to as commanders for the sake of birthing children.

The main character Offred (whose name is derived from her commander’s. Of Fred or belonging to Fred) formerly June, has a chance to escape the region named Gilead for Canada with her newborn and instead hands over the child and returns for her firstborn daughter.

The thought of leaving her child behind to live in a grim world fated to be used as an object by the patriarchy is enough to send her back into the very mouth of the devil that she escaped.

Like June, Maeve’s motherly instinct is beyond a reunion with her child, it is about liberating her daughter from a life filled with brutality and servitude to humans. It is not enough that she should have her own freedom, her child should have the opportunity to leave the same life that she has tried to escape.

And in the end, should Maeve have to sacrifice her own life and freedom to make sure that her daughter is out of the hands of the powerful people that run Westworld, then so be it.

What stands out about Maeve’s awakening is that as soon as she knew that all hosts were living stories written for the amusement of others and that another world that was genuinely unrestricted existed, she wanted to leave Westworld.

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Ford may have programmed the escape route, but the idea that she had to exit Westworld was her opinion. It’s what pushed Maeve to the Valley Beyond, where she would have escaped with her daughter had she not been forced to sacrifice herself to allow her daughter the advantage.

This is also true of Dolores’ sentient awakening. As soon as Dolores realized that there was a real world and that Westworld was an artificial place with people pulling the strings, she wanted out.

Dolores could have taken Teddy up on his offer to settle into the wild and have a family. Well, the family part would have never happened–but they could have worked the system now that they knew what it was.

Together, they could have managed a life with very little human contact, but Dolores didn’t want to be a part of a false narrative. Also, Dolores was aware that the Man in Black or the Delos corporation could at any time wipe their memories and send them back to Sweetwater to become the damsel and gentleman again.

Neither June or Maeve thought too heavily on the consequences of saving their daughters. It didn’t quite matter that they could fail altogether. June could end up eternally suffering alongside her daughter in Gilead, but as long as she could try, it doesn’t matter to her.

And I imagine that June would work every single day to get closer to her goal no matter how long it would take her. It is that maternal love that the exploitative organizations that run places like Westworld and Gilead cannot take away.

Maeve went deep into Westworld, came out of Shogunworld, and into Homestead without knowing if she was going to make it out alive. What if Delos would have eliminated Dolores as a threat and crash landed by helicopter at Maeve’s feet to take her team into the Mesa for a good memory wipe?

What if they all would have been captured and killed by the Shogun’s men after the Cradle exploded? Maeve could have been lost to us all and her daughter would have never even known. The chance that Maeve could free her daughter was worth risking it all because her child came before anything else, including herself.

Do you think The Handmaid’s Tale and Westworld share this bond in common? Share your comments below!