The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

In The Handmaid's Tale, 1985, Margaret Atwood creates a cautionary tale depicting the control of men in power and oppression of women. Controversial topics that were debated within the feminist movement in the 70s and 80s, like contraception and reproductive rights, are highlighted in the world that Atwood created. She challenges these ideas by ridding the Handmaid's of any bodily autonomy and sexual freedom, illustrating the fragility of female agency when overpowered and the oppression then faced. Atwood explores theocrats in a position of power, creating a totalitarian government who forces conformity upon the society by instilling fear into them. Atwood's fears of rising totalitarianism arose during the time she wrote the novel in 1984,

Biblical text is used as a justification for the behaviour of controlling female sexuality by Gilead. This Christian fundamentalist idea reinforces the Gileadean idea that intercourse is strictly transactional and only for the purpose of breeding. The use of the dystopian genre shocks the reader out of their apathy and complacency about the progress of female agency in society, functioning more as a didactic warning rather than a probable future. The depiction of the horrifying world, Atwood forces the reader to reconsider the power the patriarchy holds over female agency and the vulnerability and tenuousness of women's rights and progression of

Conformity is expressed in the novel through the motif that the Handmaids are twins, as well as the characters of Aunt Lidya as a pure conformist to the Gilead regime. The characterisation of Moira and how in the end, she must conform as well as The Wall as a public display and daily reminder of the consequences of not conforming and continuous biblical references express Atwood’s idea on conformity. When Offred goes to her monthly, compulsory checkup she tells the reader “I went to the doctor. Was taken..No twin went with me”. The metaphor of ‘twin’ represents that each handmaid is the same as the other. They are all covered in their habits and only used for their bodies. This is repeated closer to the middle of the novel, when Offred refers to her and Ofglen as “Siamese twins”. The motif reiterates the lack of independence and individuality the Handmaid's endure and highlights themes of conformity as they must wear the same clothes and must act a certain way. Furthermore, at the beginning of the novel, Aunt Lidiya tells the Handmaid’s “This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after time it will. It will become ordinary.”. Her characterisation as a fanatical believer of the Gilead, cruel, unbinding and merciless positioning the reader to view her as a traitor to her own gender. Her character shows that the tendency to adapt has