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Handmaid's Tale Identity

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The American science fiction and fantasy author Richard Grant once said that “the value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.” In both The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main protagonists search for their identities through the context of their daily lives. In correlation with the preceding quotation, in The Awakening, after a vacation opens her eyes to all that she has been missing in her life, she becomes desperate to find herself outside of the mother-woman while in The Handmaid’s Tale, the narrator must decide which parts of her identity she wants to hold on to and who she is in the trying times of the Gileadean society. The two novels demonstrate the journey of these women …show more content…

Unlike The Handmaid’s Tale, the search for herself is very much so conscious and self-empowered. Following her family’s vacation and her relationship with Robert, she realizes some things about herself that she doesn’t particularly admire. She feels as if she lives too much in the moment, has become stuck in her ways and is not showing who she actually is. She describes a feeling of having two identities of the “outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” (ch 7. pg) Edna’s inner identity reaches the breakpoint where it is necessary for her well-being that it is expressed. At this point, nothing else matters besides her intuitions and desires. This brings difficulty to her familiar relationships and friendships due to her rejection of living according to her role as a mother and a wife. Even though this conflict is addressed, it does not make an impact on her decision to remain a bit selfish through this time that she is finding herself. As a way of explaining her state of mind, Edna states that she "would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me." (ch, pg) She has concluded that her true identity of who she envisions herself to be is essential to her future

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We see another example of her trying to figure out her identity in the camp where sahe rebelled and started She pulls away from her younger brother and mother as she spends more time with friends and experiments with testing social boundaries by smoking cigarettes and staying out past curfew. We then see that when she returns from the camp, she loses this rebellious streak and becomes obedient, afraid of once again being mistaken for the enemy and being sent back to the

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Nothing, she imagined, was ever more completely sardonic” (Larsen, 98). This statement shows the change in Irene, and how her identity becomes shaken. Irene has at the beginning of the book would have easily chose race, she has even expressed her dislike for Clare, and also Clare has had an affair with her husband. Though Irene now no longer see’s things as black or white, and see’s the complexity of the grey, is now unable to make a decision that was once easy. This confusion expresses the confusion Irene now has with her identity.

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It is common for people in everyday society to conform to society’s expectations while also questioning their true desires. In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess, "That outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions." In other words, Edna outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Kate Chopin, uses this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning to build the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period. Edna outwardly conforms to society’s expectations by marriage.

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

She perpetually swaps these identities, plucking the one she wants as if it is clothing on a rack and she is dressing for the occasion. Her life is a haphazard collage of selves, or “masks”: a web of lies and truths.

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603 Words | 3 Pages

Edna even says herself, “I would give up the unessential…my money…my life for my children, but not myself.” For her life, Edna realized that means her marriage and physical life. As far as her marriage, Edna was never truly happy with her marriage with Leonce. Furthermore, Edna states she truly cares for her children, but sometimes her search for herself may conflict with this. This then further discourages readers even more due to the fact that this gives insight to her actions, and somewhat justifies them.

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She laments that she “remember[s] everything that happened that day [the day she lost herself] because it has happened many times in [her] life. The same innocence, trust, and restlessness, the wonder, fear, and loneliness” (Tan 83). Her belief in fate and individual destiny caused her to

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849 Words | 4 Pages

Often times when a person is forced to outwardly conform while questioning themselves it leads to a struggle between their inner selves and what is expected of them. Outward conformity often oppresses a character’s true feelings of loneliness and being misunderstood. In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, leads a dissatisfactory life. She is stuck in a loveless marriage, and has children, all in an attempt to conform to the social norm of the Victorian woman. However, she inwardly questions whether or not she should try to break free from this life to find her own independence and happiness.

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While reading the story, you can tell in the narrators’ tone that she feels rejected and excluded. She is not happy and I’m sure, just like her family, she wonders “why her?” She is rejected and never accepted for who she really is. She is different. She’s not like anyone else

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Throughout this poem, it is understood, as she was growing up, she did not have the same interests as her role models and those around her, but attempted to fit in with the rest of her family to please

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She realized that it was important to embrace the imperfections and complexities of the body, and reject societal norms that tell us how we should look and feel about ourselves. This is because of a moment in time where she thought how she “suddenly saw [her] body as [she] would any animal that had been so mistreated” (39). It allowed her to see her body in a new light, as though it were an animal that had been mistreated. This sudden shift in perspective allowed her to recognize the harm she had been doing to her body by trying to control it and conform to societal norms. It was a moment of realization that her body was not just an object to be manipulated but a living entity deserving of respect and care.

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In the late 1800s society assigned to women a specific role to play. The role included bearing children, caring for them, and honoring their husbands. People saw women who took jobs outside of the home or who never married as deranged. Kate Chopin highlights the female duties of the time in her novel, The Awakening, through the use of foils Edna and Adele. Adele represents the model of how an ideal women of the 19th century should behave and feel.

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1868 Words | 8 Pages

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s it was incredibly difficult for a woman to express her thoughts simply because she was not a man. The two novels, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, and The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton, use their writing to explore what it would be like for a woman to explore herself. The Awakening is a story about a woman, Edna, who is determined to find her true self no matter what it takes. In the story, Edna leaves her husband and begins living on her own, in her own house in order to find her independence. This search for independence is interesting because I believe that it is something that I can relate to, even in this day and age.

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1451 Words | 6 Pages

It is now that she started to discover herself, discovers that previously hidden spark of hope; the hope of rebellion, of freedom. Yet, she didn't let any emotions betray her expressionless façade. She knew that any hint of emotion would result in her receiving the same punishment as the unfortunate

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802 Words | 4 Pages

The majority of people ask the same question at some point in their life; who am I? The concept of identity is something many wrestle with their whole lives. Other individuals are confident of who they are. The Handmaid’s Tale follows a society that is stripped of individuality and identity. This question can no longer be asked because it cannot be answered.

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This piece is called Loss of Identity, created with watercolor and colored pencil. Complementing the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”, by Margaret Atwood, Loss of Identity focuses on one of the major themes of the dystopian world that Atwood displays through the Republic of Gilead: a loss of one’s self-image and past life. When the government in the United States is overthrown by the future founders of Gilead, they have in mind a new order in which traditional gender roles triumph in society once again. However, such a societal change quickly begins to reveal a loss of civil liberties and rights that women had fought so hard to receive.

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