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Symbolism in the handmaid's tale
Plot and structure of the handmaid's tale
Symbolism in the handmaid's tale
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Symbolism in the handmaid's tale
Plot and structure of the handmaid's tale
Symbolism in the handmaid's tale
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood shows the significance of Offred's role as a rebel by highlighting her transition from powerless to powerful. She makes this transition by investing in specific relationships which build up her societal standing and increase her power. Offred shares information with individuals in order to gain power over them, and in all things she has a specific motive before acting. Offred is seen manipulating people through building seemingly deep relationships, while making some mistakes on the way with the Commander, Serena Joy, and Nick.
The Handmaid’s Tale Text-to-text “The Angels stood outside it with their backs to us. They were objects of fear to us” (Atwood 4). This quote strongly relates to the peacekeepers in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
In Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, one of the many social issues explored was the rebellious actions of humans when their independence, freedom, and nature is taken away and controlled. In the theocratic government of Gilead fights to keep sex and sexuality apart by destroying pornography and sexual clothing, killing gays, lesbians, and abortion doctors, and force the society to participate in sexual rituals under the impression that they are supported by the Bible. This control causes a nation-wide fear of giving into human impulses and expressing freedom of speech, however due to the rebelliousness of human nature, this control and fear doesn’t hold. Atwood portrays this through symbols, simile, and humor.
Conflict can be described as the struggle between two opposing forces, whether the forces being person vs person, person vs self or person vs society. Good examples of conflict can be found in almost any book. Margaret Atwood’s novel, the Handmaid’s Tale is a source of all three types of conflicts. The Handmaid’s Tale is about a society where females are given specific duties and are restricted from reading, writing, talking to others and looking at themselves in mirrors. The protagonist, Offred whom is also the narrator in the novel faces conflicts with herself, with other people, and the society that she lives in.
She is used by Commander for sex and companionship and had an affair with Nick (higher preganancy chance). Most of her actions are being forced “Which of us is it worse for, her or me?”(151) meant the sex between the narrator and commander is unbearable to the point of watching your husband having sex with another women right infront of you. Her only defiance done totally by herself is “I will use the butter later that night.” (113), everything else including escaping the Gilead, having an affair with Commander, having an affair with Nick and leaving the Commanders house are all stimulated by others. Offred represent those who does not stand against oppresion, being pushed around and used for sex.
It is narrated by the protagonist, Offred who is a handmaid forced into sexual servitude. Facing a plunging birth rate, the fundamentalist regime treats women as property of the state. Handmaids are the few of the remaining fertile women and their sole purpose is to help the government into re-populating their society, where a lot of people are left sterile. The Handmaid’s Tale deals with the theme of women in subjugation to misogyny in a patriarchal society, primarily. It shows the struggle that women have to go through in that society, as a Handmaid or as not being able to be one.
Often, we see a society’s cultural values reflected in its citizens. For example, the United States values equality, a standard that is shared in all facets including gender. The opposite is true of Gilead, a fictional society in Emily Bronte’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel’s main character, Offred, is subjected to degrading treatment simply because she is a woman. It becomes apparent that this repeated degradation has affected the protagonist’s mind.
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred has a continuous search for justice for her daughter, in a society in which her idea of justice is starts as one concept and changes to one that she never expected. Margaret Atwood writes Offred as a character who was at once strong-willed, and who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Her strength is dimmed at first, when her daughter and husband are first taken from her. Her strength, however comes back in full force when she finds the opportunity to get justice for her daughter. Offred uses the motivation of her daughter to spur a rebellious side of her that disappeared when the new leaders came into power.
At the same time, the Historical Notes reveal that other records of those who lived in Gilead also exist (346). Though Offred has never participated in a coordinated regime subversive activity, her story, along with those of other survivors, now form a polyphony of resistance. Storytelling in The Handmaid’s Tale performs various functions: it is Offred’s way of resistance, her survival strategy, her intellectual pastime, and a testimony to the future. By telling herself stories she escapes into memories, shape and change her experience, and substitute the lacking communication. She uses storytelling to preserve herself, to validate her existence, to prove her life matters.
Handmaid’s whom are the fertile women in the Gilead society, are stripped from all freedom and rights, banned from knowing any form of literature and have to be submissive to men, allowing their bodies to be sexually used to produce children. In contrast, women who are not fertile such as Wives have their freedom taken away too as they are confined to doing assigned jobs around the house. In contrast, the Aunts and the Commanders are shown to have the highest rankings in the Gileadean society. They are powerful figures, with privileges such as the Aunts being allowed to read and write and the Commanders being permitted to get married and have a handmaid's assigned to
Despite being stripped of her identity and forced into a subservient role as a Handmaid, Offred remains determined to survive and find her daughter. This is evident when Offred says, "I'll say anything they like, I'll incriminate anyone. Just don't send me to the colonies. I'll do anything," (Atwood 72). This willingness to do whatever it takes to survive demonstrates Offred's resilience in the face of Gilead's oppressive conditions.
Furthermore, the author displays a dystopian society completely dominated by a totalitarian and theocratic state. The main subject of this novel is the role assigned to women, mainly represented by the handmaids. In Gilead, the made-up country where the novel takes place, women are completely subjected by the government, and especially by men, who clearly have a higher status than women. Moreover, women’s freedom is entirely restricted, as they cannot leave their house at their will, they are forbidden to hold properties or jobs, they cannot read or write, and they are treated as sexual slaves whose only purpose in life is to bear children for elite spouses. The other option is a miserable, short life at the Colonies (a type of concentration camp), and death.
One of the most important parts of a story, book, novel, or events in general is its characters. Every story has a variety of characters with different ways of seeing the world. In The Handmaid’s Tale our main character is Offred, a woman in her early thirties suffering in a society everyone wants her to think of as a utopia. Offred, although she is the main character of the story, she is not described as what you would usually describe as a “traditional heroine”. Atwood would have liked Offred to be a more active character in her story
Society can both be really great and progress forward, but at times society can turn for the worst and progress backwards. In Margaret Atwood’s Fictional book The Handmaid’s Tale. The main character Offred in the Republic of Gilead as a handmaid. In the book the purpose of a handmaid is to reproduce and bear children for older, wealthier men whose wives cannot have children. In addition to being a handmaid Offred and all the women of Gilead are not allowed to read, write, own money, or dress immodest.
Thesis- Margaret Atwood criticizes what we all know and have, Women's Rights, but Atwood takes them away even the most important parts of all women, being able to own a house, or having a bank account, even being able to speak your mind. In The Handmaid's Tale everything was normal equal rights between women and men, and than all of a sudden women can’t own any property, bank accounts get shut down, you can't leave without permission, as well as getting cut from jobs. In the new government commanders wives have to wear blue, and the handmaids wear red, it keeps them apart from each other and as well as people knowing who's who.