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Margaret atwood the handmaid's tale characterisation
The handmaid's tale women's oppression
Margaret atwood the handmaid's tale characterisation
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I found the clerk to be interesting because he was different from most of the characters at that time. The clerk did not care about worldly things like most of the other characters in the tale. Instead of spending his money to look like he is from a high social class, the clerk spent money on books that help him expand his knowledge. Through the knowledge he gained from the books, the clerk was wiser than the other characters in the tale. His actions were different from the actions of other people during that time.
In this scene, we learn that Antonia’s mother is ill, she blames herself for how her life has turned out, and her deplorable home life has become “normal to her. The most obvious and prominent take-away a reader may receive from this scene is the illness of Antonia’s mother, Patrice. This is incredibly significant to the story, as it has shaped Antonia’s entire life, as well as the lives of her brothers. As Antonia arrives home, it is evident (through inference) that her mother is not present, since no one is monitoring the quarreling boys.
The society itself is called Gilead, which is a name derived from the Bible and is known for being a mountainous land valued for its fertility. In light of fertility rates dropping, this world reverts to traditional forms of thought to coerce women like Offred into submission and childbirth. With this focus on the male desire for children and fertility, Atwood portrays the subsequent objectification of Offred to the extent that her worth diminished to only her womb. An adjacent consequence is its harmful effect on Offred's identity as in the wake of this new society Offred was forced to abandon her name from before Gilead. The name Offred represented that she was Fred's handmaid, and she was only to be referred to as such.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Ofglen is a very Mysterious character. Her true intentions are never revealed, and we don’t know much about her. Ofglen is a handmaid that resides in a house near Offred. The two walk together every day to complete their daily tasks, as handmaid’s are not allowed to walk alone. Ofglen is portrayed as being part of a rebel group entitled, “Mayday,” though we never know what the intentions of this group are or if what she says is true.
Conflict can be described as the struggle between two opposing forces, whether the forces being person vs person, person vs self or person vs society. Good examples of conflict can be found in almost any book. Margaret Atwood’s novel, the Handmaid’s Tale is a source of all three types of conflicts. The Handmaid’s Tale is about a society where females are given specific duties and are restricted from reading, writing, talking to others and looking at themselves in mirrors. The protagonist, Offred whom is also the narrator in the novel faces conflicts with herself, with other people, and the society that she lives in.
The American science fiction and fantasy author Richard Grant once said that “the value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.” In both The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main protagonists search for their identities through the context of their daily lives. In correlation with the preceding quotation, in The Awakening, after a vacation opens her eyes to all that she has been missing in her life, she becomes desperate to find herself outside of the mother-woman while in The Handmaid’s Tale, the narrator must decide which parts of her identity she wants to hold on to and who she is in the trying times of the Gileadean society. The two novels demonstrate the journey of these women
The protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale is referred to as Offred (of Fred). Through the manipulation of literary devices such as juxtaposition, allusion, and descriptive diction, Margaret Atwood voices her concerns about our future, and reveals just how quickly and completely our present could transform. As chapter 33 begins, the Handmaids are off to the Women’s Prayvaganza (a portmanteau of pray and extravaganza). The event, juxtaposed to the ‘fun festival’ it resembles, is really a mass wedding with girls as young as fourteen married off to Angels (troops).
In the Handmaid 's Tale power is used to control the women and sort them into certain gender roles. Each women in the society of Gilead is assigned a certain job that is stereotypical of a woman 's job such as cooking, sex, and reproduction. These women are the lowest class in Gilead and have no control. The men have superior power of the women but the women such as Ofgeln and Offred gain control in power in their lives. Men have an upper hand in the control of these women.
Symbolism can be defined as the use of symbols that an author uses to suggest more than the literal meaning of the object .Symbolism often allows the reader to understand the text better and connect with the story on a different level. In The Handmaid’s Tale, symbolism can be seen in various parts of the novel. One of the most common type of symbolism that can be identified in the text is through the use of colours. One of the most obvious symbols in the novel is the uniform that every Handmaid is supposed to wear.
Offred is suspicious of what the handmaid 's did. She looks at their hands, and a clue is given to her when she sees “black gloves”(Atwood 275). She ponders what they could have possibly done to have warranted such action from the authorities. Her speculation shows how the society of Gilead functions. The government of Gilead wants the handmaids to see that the prisoners are being hanged, as their suspicion is how Gilead gains control of them.
Offred initially feels a sense of loss due to her position as a fertile woman since the independence and individuality she once enjoyed has since been stripped from her by the Republic of Gilead. It is only through rebellion that Offred is able to slowly regain her sense of self and reject the role that Gilead forces her into. By rebellion, however, it is often more dangerous for the perpetrators than to the government’s grip on the people. Offred’s societal role as a handmaid in Gilead forces her to first obey, then causes her to question, which finally allows her to realize her
There are two ways people will react to when their freedom is taken away. They will either accept it or rebel against it, which is what a lot of the female characters in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale accomplished. Shown through Offred’s repetition of certain events, Moira’s tone of being a fighter, and Serena Joy’s desperation, the reader can see that lack of freedom leads to rebellion. Offred, the novel’s narrator, now lives in a world where women are powerless. She has had her freedom taken away, and at times follows the rules, but ends up rebelling in many powerful ways.
Women’s Body The Figuration of the female body is well described in both Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Both novels show that the women bodies are not their own and controlled by others which it turned into an object in order to survive. In this paper, I would like to argue how the objectification of the female bodies in both novels resulted in their oppression and sufferings. Moreover, what is the definition of the figuration of a body to both Offred and Firdaus? And is there a way out to survive this tragedy in both novels?
In this written text, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and as well as the way Atwood portrays women and how it can be argued to show the oppression of women. The main purpose is to analyze the way women are treated throughout this book and depict why they are represented this way in the society in Gilead. Then, comparatively, observe the men’s domination over women and how they govern this society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are stripped of their rights, suffer many inequalities and are objectified, controlled by men and only valued for their reproductive qualities. The Gilead society is divided in multiple social group.
BAKER, K. (2016). BURNING BOOKS. History Today, 66(9), 41-46. This article relates to censorship in many ways, especially the history of book burning.
