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A Comparison Of 1984 'And The Handmaid's Tale'

1002 Words5 Pages

The society of both novel, “1984” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” shares familiar methods in order to maintain higher power to control lower class citizens. Their absolute goal to gain complete dominance is through removing or destroying a piece of humanity in order for disobedience or rebellion to be impossible. Gilead and Ingsoc constantly condition citizens by monitoring and invading their privacy. Both regimes employed similarly styles of monitoring, such as spies organisations or simply through the surveillance camera. In 1984, people of Ingsoc are constantly monitored through telescreens as all members of Ingsoc, the inner party and the outer party, have a telescreen in their house with the exception of the proles - because the government are unimportant to the …show more content…

Although Ingsoc employed used on spies, they went to a further extent to control people - using children to distort the sense of relationships through individuals. Similarly in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Gileadean citizens are constantly surveillance through camera and spies. Both Gilead and Ingsoc have resembling aspects in monitoring, they both have an organisation - The Eyes and The Thought Police - that surveillance citizens. The Eyes in “The Handmaid’s Tale” are secretive enforcers of Gilead’s law, representing surveillance, the citizen’s paranoia, and Gilead’s authority. The Eye’s reputation is so fearsome that it creates an atmosphere of paranoia and fear as it creates a delusion that anyone could be spies. The main reason citizens fear the Eyes is that their presence can be seen anywhere, and if an individual were to break Gilead’s law they would be sentenced to death. Thanks to the organisation, Gilead has successfully created a paranoia and distressing mood so powerful that it make citizens self-monitor, demonstrated how Offred is distressed by Nick’s winks, fearing that he might be an

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After reading a select few words of science fiction from the twentieth century, one of the most recurring themes was the power of words and literature. Or rather, the fear of the power that literature and words may have on society. In the dystopian novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451, and The Handmaid’s Tale, the envisioned societies were all controlled by governments that disvalued books. It could be assumed by readers of these novels, that the reasoning behind the prohibition of novels in these works is due to the ideas that could influence those in their so-called utopias. The symbolic representations of the newspaper in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the pillow in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and the temperature at which paper

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The Party thrives on controlling the minds of its citizens from an early age. The Party implements an organization known as the Junior Spies, which encourages children to comply and spy for the Party. The importance of technology is also a recurring theme within this book. There are telescreens and microphones in every citizen’s room and hidden throughout the country. This implements a level of fear within the inhabitants and in doing so creates an atmosphere of compliance.

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Through many dystopias, the argument shown is the theme of power, fear, religion, and education. Books like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale show a strong government figure or idea by showing an appeal to fear. Both have a problem with propaganda through corrupted education. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, has a strong focus on religion and using it to justify rape. The main character in The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred, is a handmaid for the Republic of Gilead.

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In the dystopian society of 1984, the people, separated by class, are all under the Party’s monitor. Telescreens, microphones, Big Brother posters, and the lack of privacy are common to all classes. Through these advanced technologies, the Party not only prevents rebellious actions, but they also deprive society of individual thought. In 1984, fear, punishment, and the deprivation of privacy are the controlling methods of cruelty that the Party utilizes to assert complete dominance and force both mental and physical obedience among the proles, Outer Party, and Inner party.

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(Orwell 3-4). In 1984, telescreens are everywhere, they speak, record, and scan all areas within its reach. These are designed to spy on people, never allowing anyone to ever be alone, lessening the number of people that will rebel against Big Brother. Society is constantly around technology (not much of a choice), people are thought police that will see that you are guilty of committing a thought crime (thinking any bad thought against Big Brother). In this novel, thoughts are not private anymore.

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‘Positive characters … usually prove miserably ineffectual when contending with ruthless overwhelming powers’ claims Amin Malak, noting on such protagonists as Winston Smith and Offred in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and, when looking at the dystopian genre as a whole, he certainly seems to be correct. Dystopian fiction does seem to portray the worse side of human nature than the better, leaving the positive traits to the struggling protagonists. While utopian writers seemed to think that the essence of human nature was to do good, dystopian writers seem to think very differently and it is from this notion that these novels seem to be written. Nineteen Eighty-Four certainly seems to do this, with almost every member of the society representing one or more negative aspects of humanity.

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In ‘1984’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, the destruction of the individual is due to a combination of the destruction of independence, language and totalitarian monopolistic control. Complete collectivism, despite separate political beliefs, is presented throughout dictatorial societal jurisdiction as being the predominant way to maintain eternal power. The regimes seek to control individuals and therefore engage in continuing reconnaissance or surveillance of the populace. The mind is the most individual source of power to any person and totalitarianism aims to create complete orthodoxy by controlling and manipulating the mind. Both Orwell in ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ and Atwood in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ are examples of how dystopian literature presents

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Language is a major themes in both novels “1984” by George Orwell and “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwool. Language are heavily reshape in both novel in order to crave a goal to control individuals. “1984” creates authority over citizens through altering and reducing the English language to its most basic form. To “return” to the root of English, the Party have to eliminate the complexity of the language - synonyms and subtle meaning of words -from the existence of the people minds in the apparent belief that there is no justification from antonyms and ‘shades of meanings’, and only one concept should only subsist . However the true purpose of simplifying language and destroying words is to eliminate concepts that might led to the idealism of rebellion and disobedience; The Party does not want the thoughts of rebellion and disobedience to exist therefore they have to destroy and simplify to a huge extent.

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Imagine being followed everywhere by a government agent. They’re watching your every move, and they’ll report you if you even make a wrong facial movement. This is essentially the case in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. Run by an English socialist government called the Party, the people’s every move is watched through telescreens. Citizens are not individual, but rather an extension of the Party.

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George Orwell’s 1984 is a precautionary tale of what happens when the government has too much control in our lives. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is at odds in a world in which he is not allowed to counter the government’s surveillance and control. Perhaps more striking is the noticeable relationship between the novel and modern society. In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the book predicts the surveillance of Big Brother in modern day societies.

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Throughout the novel, Offred constantly feels watched and anxious about people’s views of her. The secret police in Gilead are called the Eyes, and they patrol around, looking for anyone who goes against the country’s values. The motif of eyes represents the surveillance as well as the lack of freedom women face in Gilead. Offred must be careful about what she says around members of the eye, and is always cautious as to what persona she exudes in public. An instance of Offred’s fear of the Eyes in when she converses with the interpreter of the Japanese tour group.

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates a quizzical protagonist, Offred, in a dystopian, totalitarian society where fertile women are only a mere vessel for child birth. Every month during Offred’s menstrual cycle her Commander, Fred, and his wife Serena Joy perform detached intercourse while Serena holds Offred’s hands. The handmaids of the Republic of Gilead are not allowed to use their mind for knowledge nor take part in formal society. They are but the vacuous-minded property to their Commanders and their infertile wives. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred discloses the day to day moments and her commicalOffred had once lived in a world where she was her own person with a job and a home with a family of her own but now she lives under unfortunate circumstances that disable her from being a true, soulful human.

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The Handmaid 's Tale is one of Margaret Atwood most famous novels written during the spring of 1984, when the Berlin wall was still standing. Atwood creates a dystopia, which mostly consists of gender gap and oppression. The Handmaid 's Tale effectively portrays the United States as the modern-day totalitarian society of Gilead, which was illustrated as perfect by using the book of Genesis. Although the authors ideas are inherently and completely fictional, several concepts throughout his book have common links to the past and present society which the author herself calls a speculative fiction. The author uses a totalitarian system which includes aspects of Soviet system, to describe, deprivation, repression and terror with the use of

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The novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a story about a society set in a future world where women’s rights have been revoked. Many values change with this new regime of controlled women and strict laws. Despite the changes in the world it maintains many conservative, religious beliefs while also containing liberal, feminist beliefs simultaneously. Society in the futuristic world of Gilead is structured heavily off of readings from the Bible and traditional views of gender that have been in place for a long time. An example of the Bible being an important part of society is the idea of the Handmaids came from a passage in the Bible about two women, Rachel and Leah.

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Dreams thus are a projection of the world that is perceived through the senses. Literature too is an imitation of the perceived world but with a dash of creative imagination. Dystopian imagination is one such mode of writing where the real world is juxtaposed with the imaginative world that is governed by certain prevailing tastes. The twentieth century saw an amalgamation of various political doctrines such as Communism, Capitalism, Democracy etc., changing pattern of women’s position in society and dominance of science and scientific research which caused emergence of ‘dystopian fiction’ , a new type of imaginative writing that was a blend of modernism and social realism in one form. It reflected the currents and forces that were

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