ipl-logo

Summary Of The Handmaiden's Tale

812 Words4 Pages
In the Handmaidens Tale women are a minority. In a world where women are seldom fertile, but nonetheless preyed upon and mistreated, life is shown as a horrible burden upon the female part of society. Methods are utilized by the author to employ this, but the moreover important aspect of my critical response is to understand what Atwood means to bring across. My thesis statement in turn being; The Handmaidens Tails wants to show the aspects of feminism and female rights, which are slowly beginning to be taken for granted in the modern day.
In the totalitarian and theocratic state of Gilead, Woman who are fertile and thus still retain the ability to reproduce, are assigned to a Commander – A high ranking military official of the Gilead society. The only distinction between these individual fertile women is whose property they belong to. So the handmaid’s names are a combination of the word “of” and the name of their commander. That is why the main character is called Offred, as well as other handmaids being called Ofglen and etc. The aim of this is to strip these women of all their individuality. Beginning by disallowing women’s expressive rights, women not being able to have jobs or hold property, nor being allowed to leave their commanders house, as well as not having an own name, women are treated as sub-human. All of this leads to the ultimate goal, of assuming the complete control of all women, which in turn means control of reproduction.
Handmaid’s wear red color
Open Document