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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood takes place in the Republic of Gilead, which is in the present day United States. The change in government control happened about three years before the book took place. The narrator, Offred, experienced going from a democratic government to a totalitarian government first hand. The social structure in The Handmaid’s Tale is an effective way of controlling women because the new government regime stripped away all of women's rights, rearranged society's structure, and ultimately made everyone unhappy. Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred explains what the change was like. While living in the democracy, women had rights. They were guaranteed the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression, and the freedom …show more content…

The most powerful class of women is the Wives, they are married to a Commander and have authority over the Handmaids, Marthas, and Guardians. They live in a house with the Commander and spend much of their time in the garden or sitting down working on a knitting project. Wives often talk badly about their Handmaids out of either jealousy or hatred. The next most powerful is the Aunts, it’s their job to indoctrinate the Handmaids into their roles in society. The Aunts are firm believers in the new regime and control every aspect of the Handmaid's lives. They set up clear rules about where Handmaids can go and what they can eat. Aunts are also the only women who are allowed to be violent. They can beat the Handmaids when they do something wrong; such as trying to escape or spending too much time in the bathroom. The Handmaid's purpose is to birth children for the Commander and his Wife to raise. The Handmaid's get transferred between the Commanders to reproduce as much as possible, since most other women are infertile. Offred, the main character, is a Handmaid. She tries to break the rules and get together with Nick, a low-ranking Guardian. She has some freedom as she doesn’t get caught, but she has to be

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They control the Red Center where Handmaids are indoctrinated and forced into subjugation to their roles as Handmaids. They use mantras to help facilitate the indoctrination of the Handmaids by saying things like, “there is more than one kind of freedom … freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it” (Atwood 24).

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1562 Words | 7 Pages

The Religion Influences in The Handmaid’s Tale Word Count: 1563 This purpose of this essay is to establish and explain connections between the Christian Religion and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. It is not attempting to point out flaws or discriminate against the religion. Margret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a dystopian novel, that centres around the themes of corruption, oppression, and theocracy. Told in the first person, the novel follows the female ‘Offred’ in her daily life/activities and past experiences in the newly founded “Republic of Gilead”.

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746 Words | 3 Pages

The protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale is referred to as Offred (of Fred). Through the manipulation of literary devices such as juxtaposition, allusion, and descriptive diction, Margaret Atwood voices her concerns about our future, and reveals just how quickly and completely our present could transform. As chapter 33 begins, the Handmaids are off to the Women’s Prayvaganza (a portmanteau of pray and extravaganza). The event, juxtaposed to the ‘fun festival’ it resembles, is really a mass wedding with girls as young as fourteen married off to Angels (troops).

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2035 Words | 9 Pages

Offred initially feels a sense of loss due to her position as a fertile woman since the independence and individuality she once enjoyed has since been stripped from her by the Republic of Gilead. It is only through rebellion that Offred is able to slowly regain her sense of self and reject the role that Gilead forces her into. By rebellion, however, it is often more dangerous for the perpetrators than to the government’s grip on the people. Offred’s societal role as a handmaid in Gilead forces her to first obey, then causes her to question, which finally allows her to realize her

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991 Words | 4 Pages

m Gender Inequality and Family Structures in The Handmaid’s Tale The theme of gender inequality in The Handmaid’s Tale allows the novel to convey social commentary on how patriarchy affects family structures. Ultimately, Atwood uses the novel to inform the reader about the rise of gender inequality. The rise of conservatism in the U.S. motivated authors to write social commentary in the form of novels, as shown by Atwood. Margaret Atwood uses parallels between reality and the novel, characters with similarities to the nuclear family, and symbolism that would later become influential in popular culture to convey her commentary.

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1706 Words | 7 Pages

Their name also changes based of the Commander they were assigned to, for example, if a Handmaid was assigned to a Commander named John, name would be Ofjonh until she is reassigned to someone new. Gilead justifies the use of handmaids for procreation based on the biblical story of Jacob and Abraham. Aunts train and monitor the handmaids by making them believe that their role is honorable. They are unmarried, infertile and often older women that directly control and police the women of Gilead. They wear brown and are the only class of women allowed to read and write.

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783 Words | 4 Pages

“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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1251 Words | 6 Pages

(Atwood 88) This verse was read to the Handmaid 's everyday at breakfast and before the ceremony just to drill it in their minds, even though most of them know those were not the right textual evidence from the Bible. The police are called “Guardians of the Faith” which suggest that they are guarding the beliefs of Gilead. Another biblical allusion depicted would be the Angels, so they are called. But they were simply Guards.

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1364 Words | 6 Pages

This new regime brings the laws to control women; this included a new language and the use of violence as a method of oppression. Language is very connected with oppression. Throughout history, we see how colonizers impose their language in colonized countries to keep the natives ignorant, the same in The Handmaid’s Tale. It is noticed how every simple thing that can contain a word has been replaced. Coins are now tokens with symbols, and shop signs were replaced by drawings, to give just the necessary information about it.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

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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857 Words | 4 Pages

These texts demonstrate the societal issues involving oppression of women, women’s sexual role and their status. The Handmaid’s Tale depicts the rigid societal structure whereby women are forced to serve in various aspects and functions in the society. The boundaries of the context set are in Gilead, a totalitarian state dominated by Christian fundamentalists, indicating that Gilead enforces conformity among its citizens. In a simply put manner, one’s social position is fixed. The permanent social statuses are clearly evident from the colour-coding of the women wherein “some [are] in red, some in dull green of

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996 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

In this frightening society, women are not allowed to speak freely, therefore, the handmaids learn how to lip-read, and to whisper at one another while they are at the Red Center (where handmaids are trained for their mission), as their only way to communicate with another person, and to maintain even a minimum of human contact in a society that has amputated their ability to feel as a normal human being. Even though this is pure fiction, sadly some common threads between Gilead and our society can be found. For instance, in some South Asian countries, women’s rights are non-existent, they are treated

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1101 Words | 5 Pages

Imagine a nation in which its government commands by a religion where women are separated into different titles and must conceive children for their commander. Their rights from before this regime, and anything deemed unholy by the government, are a thing of the past. This situation is the one represent in the Republic of Gilead, where the rules of society and its traditions are not taken lightly if broken. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood shows that an oppressive government leads to the inevitable neglect and remiss of the rules through Offred’s characterization, irony, and flashbacks. Offred 's character development can show that her actions change .

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988 Words | 4 Pages

The subjugation of women is evident in the Gilead system as each Commander is given a handmaid whose name is “Of” the Commander’s name. Handmaids have no identity of their own and are similar to sex slaves at the mercy of

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