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The Handmaid's Tale Comparison

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The differences and similarities between Offred and Ofwarren aka Janine two characters featured in Margaret Atwood 's Handmaid 's Tale exhibit the conditions one has to endure in a dystopian society, and the challenges one has to face within the society. Ofwarren and Offred are two characters that have many things in common which consists what they are were currently in their lives of being handmaid 's. However the still do have differences between one another due to what they endured in their past lives prior to when Gilead was in existence. Ofwarren life prior to when Gilead came into existence consisted of her being gang raped at the age of 14. Due to this incident she became pregnant and had an abortion. After the creation of Gilead, Ofwarren …show more content…

Nick and his commander share many differences between one another due to what their status are in the Republic Of Gilead. However the two still have similarities between one another which consists of both of their relationship with Offred and them both committing adultery with Offred in hopes to produce a child for the commander and his wife. The commander has one of the most highest positions in the Republic Of Gilead and is unable to produce a child with his wife Serena Joy due to her being sterile. The commander is then required to commit adultery with there handmaid Offred in hopes to produce a child through her. However Offred had no signs of becoming pregnant through the commander suggesting that the commander was possibly sterile himself the whole time. Nick on the other hand having the lowest position in the Republic of Gilead, him being a chauffeur and of complete low status in the Republic Of Gilead who lives above the garage in the commander 's house. After Offred realized that she was unable to become pregnant through the commander. Serena suggested that there only hope is to use Nick. Nick has intercousre with Offred, and she thinks she is pregnant however the novel ends so its not known whether Offred has had the child

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The first chance he had to leave he took it. In all the disarray of that situation Nick just slipped out the back and proved that he can’t be trusted to be there when you need him. This neutrality impacts the

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Nick was perfectly sane before he was put through this situation, but between the lies, death, and destruction, it left him with a degraded mental state, and a fleeting grip on

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Eventually Nick stops trying and leaves the decision up to Trent and that’s when he starts to listen and realize. Throughout the book Nick goes through a lot of challenges. There was a good amount I enjoyed, a few I disliked, but I liked it so much because of the

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However, Nick doesn’t question the situation and even goes on to get as debauched as everyone else at the party. Nick’s “bystander complex” is further cemented when he sneaks out of the party amongst the chaos and spends the rest of it with McKee. Socially, Nick wasn’t in any position that would hinder him from offering to help Myrtle or even to stop Tom from abusing her. He was after all closest to Tom in

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Therefore, even the people around Nick noticed his behaviors, which led them to consider him as

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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.

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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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Offred struggles between her attraction to Nick and remaining faithful to Luke. In the end of the novel, Offred ends up giving in to her attraction to Nick, however she does not feel that she has betrayed Luke in any way. Both gentlemen fulfill needs of Offed at different times of her life. Luke only exists in her past life, and most of Offred’s memories with him are fading away as she struggles to remember certain details of her past. Offred thinks, “The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom.

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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.

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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.

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The Commander’s wife, Serena Joy, is shown to be living a horrible life, and we can see she despises Offred. In fact, through an act of desperation, Serena tells Offred, “ I was thinking of Nick” (Atwood 205). Serena previously had said that maybe the Commander couldn’t have kids. She then does something risky by suggesting Offred sleep with Nick, to see if she then gets pregnant. By Serena’s actions, we can tell she desperately wants a baby, so that way Offred can leave as soon as possible.

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“What it really means is that she is in control of the process and thus the product. If any.” (109). The society of Gilead wants to make sure that the child is the Commander’s wife’s child as much as possible, and they believe that by having Serena Joy hold the hands of Offred, then that is possible. In this way, Offred, and all of the other Handmaid’s are sexually dehumanized.

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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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Nick is an example of society’s double standard, as he has no problem with the

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In the 1980s, United States was experiencing the rise of conservatism. Under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, conservative religious groups were gaining popularity. In response to the social and political landscape, Canadian author Margaret Atwood published a fictional novel The Handmaid’s Tale in 1986; a genre of dystopian novels. The storyline projects an imaginary futuristic world where society lives under oppression and illusion of a utopian society maintained through totalitarian control. Dystopian novels often focus on current social government trends and show an exaggeration of what happens if the trends are taken too far.

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