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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

998 Words4 Pages

In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood wishes to modify the traditional attitudes and beliefs surrounding gender roles, reproductive rights, and power dynamics within relationships and society. Through the use of various literary techniques: imagery, irony, characterization, and more, Atwood seeks to influence the reader's or audience's views and encourage them to question and challenge these societal norms.
One traditional attitude that Atwood wishes to modify is the rigid gender roles and expectations placed upon men and women. In the dystopian society of Gilead, men are expected to be the dominant, powerful figures, and women are relegated to subservient roles, with their values and worth based solely on their ability to bear children. …show more content…

In Gilead, women are stripped of their right to control their bodies and are forced to serve as handmaids, whose sole purpose is to bear children for their male commanders. Atwood uses the character of Serena Joy, a former television evangelist who helped to create and implement the laws of Gilead, to illustrate how traditional views on reproductive rights, and control can be used to oppress and manipulate women. Through Serena Joy's interactions with Offred and her internal monologues, Atwood emphasizes the hypocrisy and cruelty of a society that denies women the right to control their bodies and reproductive choices. As Serena Joy reflects, "It all went wrong. We had a plan, we were trying to save the world and now look at us" (Atwood 107). Through this dialogue, Atwood exposes the absurdity and cruelty of a society that denies women their basic reproductive rights and the reader is able to comprehend and apply the importance of reproductive autonomy for all individuals. Ultimately, Atwood also seeks to modify traditional attitudes and beliefs surrounding power dynamics within relationships and society. In Gilead, power is highly centralized and held solely by a select group of men, with women completely subservient and lacking any agency or power of their own. Atwood uses the character of the Commander, Offred's male owner, to illustrate how traditional power dynamics can be used to exploit and manipulate others. Through the Commander's interactions with Offred and his thoughts and actions, Atwood highlights the corrupting and destructive effects of unchecked power and encourages the reader to feel the importance of equality and mutual respect within relationships and society. As Offred reflects, "He wants something from me...He wants a witness, someone to know he exists" (Atwood 143). Atwood exposes the manipulative and selfish nature of

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The Handmaid’s Tale Through a Critical Lens The Republic of Gilead is a dystopian society where women are stripped of all their rights. Written by Margret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale looks into the psychological torment of women in servient roles and is inspired by the dynamics of men and women in real society and displayed at its extreme in The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel is narrated by Offred, a Handmaid, who is forced to reproduce with her commander and has lost her family from the time before Gilead. Atwood’s use of descriptive language, ambiguity, imagery, and internal and external dialogue reveals the importance of sexual and reproductive rights, the separation of classes in a totalitarian society, and the effects of environmental degradation on society as a whole. Women in The Handmaid’s Tale are divided into their own social pyramid.

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Some of these methods include destroying identity through classification, objectification, and indoctrination. Most women of Gilead are sufficiently repressed that they seem to accept their assigned roles, at least outwardly resigned to their fate. Atwood uses gender roles in The Handmaid’s Tale to show the lengths to which misogynistic totalitarian governments will go, to protect their dictatorships. The Republic of Gilead is a hierarchical society which requires complete submission of women to men. By taking away women’s paid jobs, confiscating their property, draining their bank accounts, and giving them no recourse, the male leadership leaves women in a fully dependent and subservient position.

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“What it really means is that she is in control of the process and thus the product. If any.” (109). The society of Gilead wants to make sure that the child is the Commander’s wife’s child as much as possible, and they believe that by having Serena Joy hold the hands of Offred, then that is possible. In this way, Offred, and all of the other Handmaid’s are sexually dehumanized.

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This year is the 30th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Atwood 's dystopian classic, The Handmaid 's Tale. The novel is told from a first person account of a young woman, Offred. In an age of declining births, she is forced to become a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, the imagined future in the United States. The Handmaids are to provide children by the substitution of infertile women of a higher social status. Through the creation of different characteristics of female characters – ones who are submissive yet rebellious, and like to take advantage of their power - Margaret Atwood portray themes of love, theocracy, rebellion, and gender roles.

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In this written text, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and as well as the way Atwood portrays women and how it can be argued to show the oppression of women. The main purpose is to analyze the way women are treated throughout this book and depict why they are represented this way in the society in Gilead. Then, comparatively, observe the men’s domination over women and how they govern this society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are stripped of their rights, suffer many inequalities and are objectified, controlled by men and only valued for their reproductive qualities. The Gilead society is divided in multiple social group.

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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.

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel critiques gender inequality and autocratic authority. The hierarchical class of men consists of Commanders, Angels, and Guardians. In particular, the Commanders are the highest-ranking social group in Gileadean society. The Commanders are represented as powerful men. They have leadership roles, autocratic governance, and are oppressors controlling the Gilead regime.

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Atwood connects the political events to show how Gilead gained control and keeps their control by establishing fear into the women. Gilead stays in control by limiting speech to religious references, keeping the women from talking about the oppression they are suffering. Additionally, women are blamed for the social issues that were present in a pre-Gilead society such as rape, abortion and adultery. Women get the blame for the issues and men do not suffer consequences since it is in their nature to cheat. Atwood uses allusions to the Old Testament and historical events to satirize the oppression of women in political, religious and social

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