ipl-logo

Aunt Lydia In The Handmaid's Tale

694 Words3 Pages

In Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale," the character of Aunt Lydia holds an ideal view of the world that shapes her actions and beliefs. Aunt Lydia is a high-ranking member of the Gilead regime, tasked with training and indoctrinating Handmaids to fulfill their reproductive duties. Her idealism is characterized by her absolute loyalty to Gilead's ideology, her belief in the importance of her role in maintaining order, and her conviction that the current system is the only way to prevent societal collapse. Aunt Lydia's idealism is both positive and negative in its consequences. On the positive side, her commitment to Gilead's ideology allows her to find meaning and purpose in her role as an enforcer of the regime's rules. …show more content…

Her blind devotion to the regime's ideology prevents her from seeing the suffering and injustice inflicted upon the Handmaids. She justifies their subjugation and mistreatment as necessary for the greater good, failing to acknowledge the harm done to individual lives. Furthermore, her idealism leads her to become complicit in Gilead's atrocities, including the brutal punishment of dissenters and the indoctrination of young girls into the oppressive system. Through Aunt Lydia's character, Atwood illustrates the dangers of blind idealism and the ways in which it can be used to justify oppression and violence. Aunt Lydia's belief in the importance of her role in maintaining order and preventing societal collapse is used to justify the subjugation of women and the restriction of individual freedoms. Her idealism blinds her to the suffering of others and leads her to become complicit in perpetuating the very system she believes is necessary. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Aunt Lydia's idealism is deeply flawed and ultimately destructive. Her rigid adherence to the ideology of Gilead blinds her to the suffering and injustice that it causes, and she becomes complicit in the very system that she believes is necessary for women's well-being. Furthermore, her idealism is based on a narrow and limited understanding of what it means to be human, reducing women to mere vessels for reproduction and denying them the full range of their emotional, intellectual, and spiritual

Show More
Related
1288 Words | 6 Pages

She is additional brainwashed through the education she received from the handmaid's teachers which they call the Aunts. They use propaganda through a bible that has been rewritten to satisfy the wants of the government or society. This allows the aunts to use manipulation through religion. Power is shown through all of these methods and warns the reader of similar affairs that could happen soon. Margaret Atwood’s superfluous attention to power through symbolistic religion helps cation the reader about issues with religion, government, and education.

Read More
1255 Words | 6 Pages

Similarly to this, in The Handmaid’s Tale, the Aunts and other officials of Gilead try to persuade the handmaids that their role in society is an honorable one in which they should take pride. Even though the handmaids face sexual assault regularly, they perform what is considered an honorable task for the party almost as if it is their “duty to the Party” similar to 1984. The Aunts and other Gilead officials can manipulate these feelings in handmaids such as Janine who starts feisty and resistant but is worn down into obedience and brainwashed pride. When Janine has her child, she is full of pride because she completes a task that benefits the party, even though the child is a product of sexual assault. One last example of how the government manipulates pride is how Winston is caught because

Read More
1640 Words | 7 Pages

The Commander’s ease of speech suggests this is common knowledge amongst Gilead men, that their power allows them to dictate what is natural and what is not. Conversely, Atwood is subtly commenting on the weakness of these men, they give in to every urge and desire which leads to a society founded on corruption as their selfishness drives them to go to great lengths to have their needs met whether it be through the accumulation of material items such as magazines or unauthorised sex. Atwood enforces this through the chilling phrase spoken by Moira, a handmaid now forced to be a prostitute as punishment for her failed rebellion, as she says her outfit is “government issue”. This is the first and only time such widespread corruption is explicitly mentioned and demonstrates that Gilead was founded, and runs on corruption as the government breaks its own rules in order to fulfil the desires of men on the pretence of abiding to nature. With this quote, Atwood is highlighting the point that only men like Commanders can be corrupt, women are supposed to follow the rules and in truth they are not part of the regime for the purposes of procreation but to be used as a variable for male

Read More
918 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood portrays a world built upon the ideals of male leaders through the lens of a woman subject to the terrors that this world inflicts. In response to falling fertility rates and progressive ideologies, a group of powerful men are motivated to concoct a society based entirely upon their religious ideals to further both their reign over the female population and their success as leaders. Through the experience of a woman living at the expense of these ideas, Atwood communicates the negative consequences of idealism in the hands of a man, and the consequences of a religion-based idealistic world. Throughout the Handmaid's Tale, Atwood portrays a dystopian world by the name of Gilead, where

Read More
360 Words | 2 Pages

The characters of this novel live in a theocratic dictatorship called the Gillead republic. The goal of this republic is to re-educate women and make them accept their new lives as instruments of reproduction “Handmaids”. Aunts are the ones in charge of re-educating or I should say “brainwashing”

Read More
643 Words | 3 Pages

The Commander and the Aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead, where they are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. However, while Gilead claims to suppress sexual violence, it actually institutionalizes it. An example is Jezebel’s, the club that provides the Commanders with prostitutes to service the male elite. Another example is the Ceremony that compels Handmaids to have sex with their Commanders. Foster suggests, “...sex can be pleasure, sacrifice, submission, rebellion, resignation, supplication, domination, enlightenment, the whole works” (158).

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

What would become of the world, if our current societal flaws, such as sexism, racism, and classism were ingrained and executed at a systematic level? This is exactly what The Handmaid’s Tale set out to explore. The novel, which claims to be speculative fiction, is set in the theocratic Republic of Gilead (formerly the USA), where birth rates are rapidly declining and women have been marginalized by the patriarchal regime, forbidden to read, write or love and valued only if they are able to procreate. They are separated into classes, including Wives, Marthas, Aunts, Unwomen, and Handmaids, distinguishable only by the color of their clothing. The Handmaids are renamed by combining ‘of’ and the name of the Commander that they have been assigned to, stripping them of any individuality.

Read More
1107 Words | 5 Pages

Often, we see a society’s cultural values reflected in its citizens. For example, the United States values equality, a standard that is shared in all facets including gender. The opposite is true of Gilead, a fictional society in Emily Bronte’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel’s main character, Offred, is subjected to degrading treatment simply because she is a woman. It becomes apparent that this repeated degradation has affected the protagonist’s mind.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

She knows that there are laws, but she is so desperate that she is willing to break them by suggesting this to Offred, “Maybe you should try it another way”(Atwood 204). She encourages Offred to break the law and have sexual intercourse with another man and plant it as the commander’s child. Her desperation make her take desperate actions and how she achieves to rebel against the government. The Commander the one above all and on top of the official classification of Gilead-Men. He has power and in control of the household.

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

Some of these methods include destroying identity through classification, objectification, and indoctrination. Most women of Gilead are sufficiently repressed that they seem to accept their assigned roles, at least outwardly resigned to their fate. Atwood uses gender roles in The Handmaid’s Tale to show the lengths to which misogynistic totalitarian governments will go, to protect their dictatorships. The Republic of Gilead is a hierarchical society which requires complete submission of women to men. By taking away women’s paid jobs, confiscating their property, draining their bank accounts, and giving them no recourse, the male leadership leaves women in a fully dependent and subservient position.

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

This year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Atwood 's dystopian classic, The Handmaid 's Tale. The novel is told from a first person account of a young woman, Offred. In an age of declining births, she is forced to become a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, the imagined future in the United States. The Handmaids are to provide children by the substitution of infertile women of a higher social status. Through the creation of different characteristics of female characters – ones who are submissive yet rebellious, and like to take advantage of their power - Margaret Atwood portray themes of love, theocracy, rebellion, and gender roles.

Read More
996 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1141 Words | 5 Pages

Furthermore, the author displays a dystopian society completely dominated by a totalitarian and theocratic state. The main subject of this novel is the role assigned to women, mainly represented by the handmaids. In Gilead, the made-up country where the novel takes place, women are completely subjected by the government, and especially by men, who clearly have a higher status than women. Moreover, women’s freedom is entirely restricted, as they cannot leave their house at their will, they are forbidden to hold properties or jobs, they cannot read or write, and they are treated as sexual slaves whose only purpose in life is to bear children for elite spouses. The other option is a miserable, short life at the Colonies (a type of concentration camp), and death.

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel critiques gender inequality and autocratic authority. The hierarchical class of men consists of Commanders, Angels, and Guardians. In particular, the Commanders are the highest-ranking social group in Gileadean society. The Commanders are represented as powerful men. They have leadership roles, autocratic governance, and are oppressors controlling the Gilead regime.

Read More
1472 Words | 6 Pages

Atwood connects the political events to show how Gilead gained control and keeps their control by establishing fear into the women. Gilead stays in control by limiting speech to religious references, keeping the women from talking about the oppression they are suffering. Additionally, women are blamed for the social issues that were present in a pre-Gilead society such as rape, abortion and adultery. Women get the blame for the issues and men do not suffer consequences since it is in their nature to cheat. Atwood uses allusions to the Old Testament and historical events to satirize the oppression of women in political, religious and social

Read More

More about Aunt Lydia In The Handmaid's Tale

Related Topics

Open Document