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Examples Of Patriarchy In The Handmaid's Tale

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in her futuristic dystopian society shown in "The Handmaid's Tale," shows how a patriarchal culture denies women self-identity, subjectivity, self-esteem, and power. The oppressive social structure of a totalitarian theocratic state imprisons women by limiting their uniqueness, controlling language, erasing their inherent identities, and enforcing stringent restrictions on their ability to read, write, talk, and think. Like all other totalitarian societies, the Republic of Gilead uses religion to control its female citizens by brainwashing them into thinking that having children is their blessed duty and means of salvation because "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" and "she shall be saved by childbearing". …show more content…

Language without any restriction validates an individual’s existence. Without freedom of speech transformed in order to harmonize the regime’s ideology. As Gilead views language as a means to fight injustice, women are not even allowed to interact with words. As a result, the patriarchy takes use of the language to keep itself in power and subjugate women, forcing women to speak a certain way. As a result of the intertwining of language manipulation and dominating patriarchy, women are thus voiceless and robbed of their originality and uniqueness. Reading and writing were no longer choices for the people of Gilead. Beginning with newspapers that were initially censored but are now completely prohibited, it destroys all books and movies. To prevent even the Aunts from committing "the sin of reading," the Handmaids listen to prayer tapes at the training facilities, while the Aunts are permitted to read and write on occasion, such as Salvagings. Images and icons are used in place of language since they are seen to be safer than actual words. Even the Offred recorded her story instead of writing …show more content…

For instance, one day Offred smells freshly baked bread in the kitchen, and she describes it as "a nostalgic smell" that takes her back to her mother's and her own kitchens before Gilead. She suddenly remembers that “This is a treacherous smell, and [she] know[s] [she] must shut it out”. Offred self-censors such nostalgia for her safety because senses like smell frequently bring up memories in unexpected ways. Sensations like smell often conjure up memories in an unexpected manner, yet Offred self-censures such nostalgia for her

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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

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The structure of Gilead is rigid, specifically designed to oppress and reinforce dominance. Throughout Offred’s perspective of events, it is always difficult to define who the main leaders of the society are. Because of this setup, those in top power can rule as they please without fear of anyone committing assassinations or rebellions. How could a person attack something or someone they do not know? Despite the lack of a main formal authority, the world of the Gilead have maintained the structure of their social system, enforcing importance based on one’s fertility.

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