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Lack Of Freedom In The Handmaid's Tale

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In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tales, by Margaret Atwood, the city of Gilead acts as a totalitarian society where handmaids are created to bear children for couples who have difficulty conceiving children. This novel acts as a satirical hyperbole towards “traditional values” towards women in past America. The main character, Offred, is restricted of her sexual and societal rights as a woman, much like the rest of the housemaids who are only used for their menstrual cycle. The biggest issue regarding this novel was the lack of freedom expressed for women. Although this novel is fiction and takes place in the future, this is no new issue for women. In the past, women have been restricted in human rights, especially with their autonomy and place in society. In the novel, housemaids are forced to use their body in order to give couples the children they are unable to have. Of course, this kind of restriction to freedom is exaggerated, but greatly represents the lack of rights that women experienced in the past. In the past, as this class has taught me, women have been depicted as feminine if they bore children and had motherly traits. In this book, women are viewed as child bearers and …show more content…

In the town of Gilead, traps women in the confinement of a man’s world and does not allow them to grow and prosper as intelligent beings. Women have always been treated less than males due to the stereotypes and roles that society deems to be the correct way. Of course, men have stereotypical roles in society as well. Men are expected to be strong, hold a job, support the family, and be masculine. Women are presumed to take care of the house and the children. If these roles are not followed by the specific gender, society judges the individual and claims that what they are doing is wrong. This book gives countless great examples of the roles that genders are expected to follow; specifically

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514 Words | 3 Pages

“The Handmaid’s Tale”, a dystopian fiction novel by Margaret Atwood, was written about two decades ago, however the passing of time does not change the quality of this unique story. The story takes place in a Republic of Gilead, a futuristic United States, in which a Christian theocracy has overthrown the old government and are now forcing everyone to live by their beliefs, word by word. Offred, a young woman who is assigned with the duty of being a handmaid, a person who bears children for their assigned couple, lives with her commander and his wife, Serena, in his mansion. The commander is an elderly man who has a high position in the government and he once a month has to have sexual intercourse with Offred due to the declining birth rates in the Republic of Gilead. Serena is the assigned wife of the commander, although she can’t bear children herself due to her age, she waits for Offred to hopefully become pregnant in order to finally have the child that she has always desired to have.

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154 Words | 1 Pages

The core strength for any ancient, modern or futuristic society is power. This is displayed in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale where women are belittled and striped of power, they are forced into sexual enslavement and are ascribed to stereotypical jobs. The women are subjected to harsh discrimination whilst attempting to challenge a society that endangers their lives if they fall victim to such treatments. Gilead even removes the Handmaid’s names, the women are known as Of(Male name) like Offred, since her Commander is named Fred. "Waste not want not.

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746 Words | 3 Pages

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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978 Words | 4 Pages

Rebellion; the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention. The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood is a novel. The novel takes place in Gilead a dystopian society. Everyone in Gilead has an important role to play within the society, however, it seems as if none of the characters seem content with their role, due to the restrictions they face. In the novel, the lack of freedom leads to rebellion as shown by the characterization, interior dialogue, flashbacks, and foreshadowing.

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1593 Words | 7 Pages

The suffocating society of Gilead is presented where individualism is completely taken away from them, and what it means to be human has been completely eroded away from what we know today. To be human today means, to be honest, affectionate, caring, understanding and to have passions. However, being too passionate for something only leads to chaos as seen through Victor 's overpowering desire for knowledge that led to chaotic results. Offred 's identity and individualism have been completely stripped away from her as he legal rights, name and clothes have been destroyed. She 's just another cog in a machine as she is labeled as a handmaid, only valued for her "viable ovaries".

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981 Words | 4 Pages

Some of these methods include destroying identity through classification, objectification, and indoctrination. Most women of Gilead are sufficiently repressed that they seem to accept their assigned roles, at least outwardly resigned to their fate. Atwood uses gender roles in The Handmaid’s Tale to show the lengths to which misogynistic totalitarian governments will go, to protect their dictatorships. The Republic of Gilead is a hierarchical society which requires complete submission of women to men. By taking away women’s paid jobs, confiscating their property, draining their bank accounts, and giving them no recourse, the male leadership leaves women in a fully dependent and subservient position.

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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.

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1251 Words | 6 Pages

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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1364 Words | 6 Pages

Aunt Lydia’s more relevant quote in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, is the two freedoms, who gives the reader an accurate insight of the Gilead society. This quote exposes the contrast between the freedom before and after the settlement of the Republic of Gilead, and the mentality of the brainwashed nation. It is well known that the Gileadean era is a dystopia, but the reader must study deeper into both societies –Gileadean and pre-Gileadean- to understand which one is really worse. Before the appearing of the Republic of Gilead, freedom was seen as a person’s desire, however, on the Gileadean era, freedom is a collective idea. On the current community, freedom is settled by laws based on moral and social values, but ignoring the

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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.

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1536 Words | 7 Pages

During this time period, many women were treated inferiorly compared to men. Women were thought only to be good enough to have children and run the house. Men on the other hand, were the ones going out and making the money. “Women are abused; especially Celie is raped, beaten by all the men around her…” (“The Color Purple by Alice Walker in Terms of Feminist Criticism”).

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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.

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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.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

During the 1890’s until today, the roles of women and their rights have severely changed. They have been inferior, submissive, and trapped by their marriage. Women have slowly evolved into individuals that have rights and can represent “feminine individuality”. The fact that they be intended to be house-caring women has changed.

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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.

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