ipl-logo

Dystopian Women In The Handmaid's Tale

934 Words4 Pages

Unrestrained government control; limited or absolutely no freedom; no power to make your own choices. These things sound like the makings of a nightmare, which luckily is all they are. However, this is the reality that protagonists in dystopian novels must face. There are many other methods used in dystopian novels that fit this nightmarish life, including, a gender hierarchy, arranged marriages, and women having children to give to other families. Dystopian societies, conveyed through The Handmaid's Tale and Bumped, often control women’s relationships and bodies to stay in power.
In Handmaid’s Tale, there is a hierarchy based on gender, where the men are placed at the top or near the top. Women are lower, thus tend to end up being treated like property and have many more restrictions placed upon them. On page 28, Offred mentions, “Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen-to be seen-is to be-her voice trembled-penetrated. What you must be, girls, is impenetrable. She called us girls.” Women have to have their entire bodies covered up, something the men don’t have to do. The society wants the women to be invisible; hidden until they’re needed, usually by a man. Other restrictions include replacing names of women with a brand of sorts, and they have to have a partner whenever they leave the house. This is, …show more content…

Methods include, a gender hierarchy, arranged marriages, and women having children to give to other families. Though these are just works of fiction, we as a society can learn from them so we don’t make the same mistakes. Dystopian societies lead to unjust treatment of certain people that live in it, whether it be based on gender, age, or even race. Sometimes, the governments of these societies manipulate and control everyone regardless. Whichever way they go, fear and death tend to be the

Show More
Related

Harrison Bergeron And Fahrenheit 451: An Analysis

1268 Words | 6 Pages

Since the age of Thomas Moore, intellectuals have been fascinated by the idea of an ideal society where all is well and total happiness is readily available to all of its members. Such ideals of a ‘utopia’ continued throughout the centuries until it reached a major pivoting point in the nineteenth century. Historical events such as the Second World War, the Cold War, the emergence of McCarthyism, and the creation of a nuclear bomb left people with a heavily misanthropic view of the world. People started to question the practicality or realistic possibility of a utopian society, thus creating the genre of dystopian literature. (Gerhard, 2012)

Read More

Women In Patricia Mccormick's Sold

908 Words | 4 Pages

As a girl today, I am well aware of the adversities for women in the world. Inequalities in our society are undeniable, but we focus on our own lives rather than women’s lives in the horrific world of human trafficking. The novel Sold by Patricia McCormick explores this terrible world and its implications. McCormick has experience with this world through extensive research and time spent among third world country red light districts. Reading this text, I began to think about gender and its large role on society.

Read More

Idealism In The Handmaid's Tale

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

Control Of Women In The Handmaids Tale

678 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Motifs In The Handmaid's Tale

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

How The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood Dehumanize Women

981 Words | 4 Pages

In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the Republic of Gilead actively represses women by forcing them into very narrowly defined, ultra-conservative gender roles. This totalitarian government strips women of all rights and protections, and imposes severe punishments for defiance. Pollution and disease had caused severe infertility in this society, drastically reducing birth rates. In an effort to reverse a drastic population decline, this thoroughly misogynistic and power-hungry regime, takes full control over the human reproductive process. Furthermore, the leadership uses various dehumanizing methods to achieve complete subservience of women to men.

Read More

Dehumanization In The Handmaid's Tale

783 Words | 4 Pages

“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body”. When Margaret Sanger spoke these words, she was expressing her belief on a woman’s right to have an abortion. This quote, however, speaks to the fact that women are oppressed on more than just abortions. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Atwood portrays the dehumanization of sexuality through both the characters and events within the novel, therefore proving that women will always be considered less than men will. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1939.

Read More

Essay On The Oppression Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale

1620 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout history, women have often been subjected to prejudice and an inferior status to men. Due to sexist ideologies of men believing that women are not capable of controlling their own lives, women have often been reduced to the status of property. This concept is prominent in many pieces of literature to demonstrate the struggles women have to go through in a predominantly, male structured world. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author illustrates a woman’s battle in an extreme society ruled by men to express the misogyny occurring in the time period when it was written, 1894. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia summarizes Atwood’s story as one that “depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property.”

Read More

Gender Roles In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale

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

Objectifying Women In The Handmaid's Tale

1209 Words | 5 Pages

At work, schools, on television news, in magazines...women are enclosed in this ideal image and set of standards that is far off from the average

Read More

Oppression Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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

Patriarchy In The Handmaid's Tale

1122 Words | 5 Pages

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, argues that women are instruments of the patriarchy, that women know this, and that women allow the system of oppression to live on. Her fictions ask, “What stories do women tell about themselves? What happens when their stories run counter to literary conventions or society’s expectations?” (Lecker 1). The Handmaid’s Tale is told through the protagonist, Offred, and allows readers to follow through her life as a handmaid while looking back on how life used to be prior to the societal changes.

Read More

Femininity In The Handmaid's Tale

1008 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the novel, aphorisms play a large role in depicting the role of women as subservient to their male counterparts. By altering distinct aphorisms from the Bible and then locking it away from women, the male leaders of Gilead use the Bible to impose their rules and views. These modified sayings are instrumental in the effort of the subjugation and indoctrination of Handmaid’s. Although Offred resists conforming to such brainwashing, her constant references to Aunt Lydia's precepts are indication of the success of such tactics. One saying in particular, “Modesty is invisibility” (Atwood 28), is so indoctrinated in Offred that she conforms to the doctrines and rules of Gilead without hesitation.

Read More

' The Handmaid's Tale: A Dystopian Society?

807 Words | 4 Pages

How would you feel if you were controlled by a society? In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Gilead is a dystopian society where people are told what to do and what not to do. Margaret Atwood demonstrates that restricted expression leads to rebellious actions by showing the rules being broken by the Commanders and Offred’s relationship as it’s developing. Although, society tells them they are restricted to certain actions, they disregard these rules and do what they desire.

Read More

Political Issues In The Handmaid's Tale

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

More about Dystopian Women In The Handmaid's Tale

Related Topics

Open Document