Satire In The Handmaid's Tale

Lastly, Greene claims that by rendering Gilead in a negative light and rejecting Gileadean values, Atwood must favor our own society. In fact, Greene claims that by including discussions on the shortcomings of planned societies, like “Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse for some” (Atwood 211), Atwood is rejecting any society that could ever be planned, no matter their values and accomplishments, and thus promoting our current system. While Greene’s view does have some merit, certain arguments cannot be overlooked. The point of satire, in many cases, is to ridicule and warn against a presently-occurring phenomenon. The radically conservative regime of Gilead was likely inspired by anti-feminist sentiments in our current

This is accomplished through Atwood’s embedding of inherent ironies within the workings of the regime. Gilead, a theocracy, was set up to breed saints but instead makes sinners of its citizens through excessive control and fear mongering. The regime’s use of brutal executions and the fact that Offred encounters very few true believers leads one to believe that a majority of Gilead’s citizens are not true believers in the integrity of the regime, but that they are lying, as Offred does, in order to

Davidson characterizes The Handmaid’s Tale as a work of speculative fiction, saying that Gilead “eerily resembles our present” (Davidson 4), but she also characterizes the novel as an allegory for past, present, and future regimes based in misogyny and racism. She includes parts of Atwood’s speech to back up her claim. “There is nothing in The Handmaid’s Tale, with the exception of one scene, that has not happened at some point in history. [...] I transposed to a different time and place, but the motifs are all historical motifs” (Atwood). By using events that have happened in the past, Atwood injects a sense of realism into her dystopia. She removes the thought that Gilead could never happen in the modern world from readers’ minds to create a more eye-opening and thoughtful reading experience. In fact, when asked if the world of Gilead was imminent, Atwood responds, “The United States is where it’s going to happen first.” Atwood then expands on the revolutionary nature of the birth of America, and how by forming itself from the ashes of a revolution overnight, the United States has become humanity’s testing ground. It is also not difficult to see some of Gilead’s ideals present in the current US administration, including a