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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

832 Words4 Pages

Throughout history, oppressive regimes have existed to expand the power of a few at the cost of many. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale tells the tale of Offred, a handmaid in the oppressive Republic of Gilead. Gilead strictly controls the actions of its people, especially its women, to expand the power of the men in control and combat falling birth rates. Their control consists of literal force and the use of psychology. Krickel, a psychologist, uses repression as a way to explain implicit biases. Schweidson, another psychologist, uses the Freudian theory of id, ego, and superego to explain how psychology can be used to control people. The Republic of Gilead controls its people through a strong understanding of psychological techniques. …show more content…

Gilead oppresses its people through a social authority enforced by other oppressed people. At a salvaging, where a man accused of rape and is brought out to be killed by a group of oppressed handmaids. Despite the fact that Offred knows he is likely innocent, she still thinks “it’s true, there is a bloodlust; I want to tear, gouge, rend” (Atwood 279). Despite Offred’s usually calm demeanor, she is willing to kill now that she has been placed in a mob of similar-thinking individuals. This happens because “the superego, as representative of social authority, urges the id to enjoy what is offered by mass culture, which puts the ego (the critical site at which criticism and negation of the actual state of affairs can take place) to sleep” (Schweidson 1). Normally, Offred would see her thoughts at the salvaging as unacceptable, but because her superego urges her to follow the social norms she is surrounded by, she is willing to indulge her id and think and act in a normally unacceptable way. This perversion of the superego is prevalent throughout Gileadean society, sanctioning rape and abuse by suggesting they are the right way to act. Once the people of Gilead truly believe the evils they commit are righteous because those evils have become the social norm, they will willingly accept oppression. Gilead does not only use the group to control its people but also controls through

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