In the novel, Margaret Atwood uses the literary device of symbolism to point out the symbols that represent gender roles for women that they need to follow or else they start a conflict between genders and become outsiders in society. Being a maid in the nineteenth century, symbolized one of the roles for women that they need to conform, but there are some women who did not want to work as a maid. Dora, a maid that works at Dr. Jordan’s hotel is an example of someone who does not appreciate working as a maid and Dr. Jordan can see this in her. “It’s obvious that she detests being a maid-of-all-work; he wonders if there is anything else she might prefer. He has tried imagining her as a prostitute…but he can’t picture any man actually paying for her services.” (Atwood 57). The maid-of-all-work …show more content…
Even though sex workers are huge in this century, the idea of prostitution began in the nineteenth century. Sticking with the same article from the British Library, Professor Kathryn Hughes looks at their roles during the nineteenth century. “The prostitute was the shadow that haunted the well-run middle-class home. She serviced the needs of the men of the house, not just before marriage but sometimes during it too. Just like the men she slept with, but unlike their wives, the prostitute was a worker in the economic market place, exchanging services for cash.” (British Library). Prostitution was a new role that women began to try out during the nineteenth century as it allowed women to become more independent by selling their body for sex and tried to earn a living for themselves by becoming sex workers. But becoming prostitutes were not roles for women in the nineteenth century as they would become