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Handmaid's Tale Feminist Analysis

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Chauvinism and Feminism in Handmaid’s tale Introduction This paper explores the relations between women and men in a context of a dystopian society which is very well depicted by Attwood. Debates raised since society acquired language and nowadays is still a hot debate. Radical, feminists point men as the 'main enemy’ and they say that, patriarchy is considered as a form of domination imposed by men on women. Feminists are dealing with how to understand the relations between patriarchy and how to confront to oppose male chauvinism. “You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself.” ― Margaret Atwood’s saying at her official facebook page. This previous line tries to explain how society judge women …show more content…

Feminists have also worked to promote autonomy and integrity, and they want to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Types of feminism In the late 60’ 70’ and 90’ several waves of feminism appeared. The first one to be taken into account was “Radical feminism”. It is seen as the beginning of their revolution and its ideas of freedom have been spread in other branches of feminism that have appeared through the time. This type of feminism helps women to set themselves into the social structures. It starts taking social contract with the American government setting a revolution. There are other stages for feminism like; “The new wave Feminism”. It has its own slogan: "A woman's body, a woman's right". Feminists believe that women has a complex diversity and they respect all sexual choices, from maternity to prostitution. Feminists accept the responsibility for their own lives. They try to not look for government privileges. Feminists want legal equality, and they offer the same respect to …show more content…

I compose myself”. “Myself is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born” (12.25).The narrator feels divided into two parts: "Offred"and herself, the other version of herself is what she calls "a thing". She she simply can’t follow her emotions; she has her role, the role of a tool. Conclusion To conclude we can say that it is important to find gender equality. History gives us the clues, and it is our responsibility to not judge or discriminate people by either sex. Everyone should be able to access learning, there is nothing wrong with the different abilities which characterize each sex. We must help young people to do good things and to put their grain of sand in this world. Little by little this great discrimination can be changed in the world. A small detail makes the difference, we have to help people to express themselves in a not offensive way to find a path to live better. Equality is the clue that must be taken into account if we want to evolve as human

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According to Eastern Kentucky University on women and gender studies, “feminism is the issue of equality based on gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political activism”. Feminism

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Handmaid’s tale is a novel about dystopia in which women’s rights and freedom are totally taken away. After a terrorist attack, the U.S. and its social order has restored. With the new law, women cannot have access to work and economic independence. They are now considered to be a possession of men and under men’s (their husbands’) control.

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Chauvinism and Feminism in Handmaid’s tale Introduction This paper explores the relations between women and men in a context of a dystopian society which is very well depicted by Attwood. Debates raised since society acquired language and nowadays is still a hot debate. Radical, feminists point men as the 'main enemy’ and they say that, patriarchy is considered as a form of domination imposed by men on women. Feminists are dealing with how to understand the relations between patriarchy and how to confront to oppose male chauvinism.

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates a quizzical protagonist, Offred, in a dystopian, totalitarian society where fertile women are only a mere vessel for child birth. Every month during Offred’s menstrual cycle her Commander, Fred, and his wife Serena Joy perform detached intercourse while Serena holds Offred’s hands. The handmaids of the Republic of Gilead are not allowed to use their mind for knowledge nor take part in formal society. They are but the vacuous-minded property to their Commanders and their infertile wives. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred discloses the day to day moments and her commicalOffred had once lived in a world where she was her own person with a job and a home with a family of her own but now she lives under unfortunate circumstances that disable her from being a true, soulful human.

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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.”

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The Handmaid’s Tale is based in a futuristic world and it contains a strictly enforced control. This system is called The Republic of Gilead. All must follow the rules set in Gilead and not dare to over step them. The laws are due to the decreasing number of fertile women and based on biblical teachings. Both men and women 's roles in this novel are significant with their responsibilities and actions.

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In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores how the structure of a dystopian society, the Republic of Gilead, that severely oppresses women relies on female characters’ internalized misogyny. Atwood investigates how both men and women contribute to the perpetuation of a vicious cycle. While critics and readers alike recognize the cruel treatment of women at the hands of men in Atwood’s dystopian society, the novel illustrates how women’s complicity allows misogyny to run even deeper in society. Atwood’s novel showcases the cruel treatment of women in society. By exploring the range of ways women contribute to the perpetuation of Gilead, Atwood’s fictional dystopia, Atwood asserts that women contribute to their own oppression.

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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.

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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.

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Feminism has always been one of the most controversial issues in history. It is the ideology that women should be equal to men in terms of political, economic, personal, and social rights, and many feminist movements have been started worldwide in order to define, establish, and achieve those rights for women. Margaret Atwood is one of the writers who fully support feminism, and she has shown many different aspects of feminism throughout her novels. As one of the most notable novels of Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts feminism through an antifeminist environment where female characters are dominated by patriarchy, giving readers multidimensional feminist viewpoints.

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Research on the following literary theories: • New Historicism - New Historicism is a school of literary theory that first developed in the 1980s, primarily through the work of the critic and Harvard English Professor Stephan Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s. - When I looked for a definition for New Historicisms I found that it is seen as the every expressive act that is embedded into a network of material practices. - When we look at the Historical Criticism in a novel or a movie it is important to look at the author’s biography and social background, the ideas circulating at the time as well as the cultural era. - New Historicism is concerned with the political function of the literature and also the concept of

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In the novel The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, an idea of the future is shown through a dystopian society in which women are solely used for their ability to procreate as they are to please men. Men, needless to say, also have some restrictions they have to comply with, but in this dystopian society, as one would expect, women have it the worst. Yet people are just accepting what society tells them to do. And accepting what society wants you to, leads to the lack of fulfillment in life as shown through the novel’s flashbacks towards the narrator 's memorable past, and through the narrator 's interior dialogue. Women had to give up everything they had pursued in their lives to end up in the lives of those who then owned them.

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Thesis- Margaret Atwood criticizes what we all know and have, Women's Rights, but Atwood takes them away even the most important parts of all women, being able to own a house, or having a bank account, even being able to speak your mind. In The Handmaid's Tale everything was normal equal rights between women and men, and than all of a sudden women can’t own any property, bank accounts get shut down, you can't leave without permission, as well as getting cut from jobs. In the new government commanders wives have to wear blue, and the handmaids wear red, it keeps them apart from each other and as well as people knowing who's who.

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The first wave of feminism has been a revolutionary social movement in terms of that it could lead to an overcoming of the previous social order (Newman, 2012 p. 487) through its social agents and create, through this, a new social ordering of time and space. Moreover, through reaching their previously described aims, the first wave of feminism has been able to literally “overthrow the entire system itself, (…) in order to replace it with another one.” (Skocpol, 1979, as cited in Newman 2012, p. 487). Thereby, one can even state that a new ordering of time and space by which routines and routinised behaviour has been challenged as well as changed took place. The interactions influenced the way how societies work today.

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For many, feminist movement is about giving women liberty, equal opportunity and control over their own destiny. C. ISLAMIC FEMINISM In many Muslim countries, the “f” word (feminism) has sparked tensions, conjuring images of domineering, family-hating woman; similar to other labels such as “Muslim” conjuring images of subjugated woman in the mind of the West. Although these stereotypes are true in a specific historical context, these may not be so when compared to a larger reality. Thus, this does not justify the hostility that follows.

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