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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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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, …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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The society itself is called Gilead, which is a name derived from the Bible and is known for being a mountainous land valued for its fertility. In light of fertility rates dropping, this world reverts to traditional forms of thought to coerce women like Offred into submission and childbirth. With this focus on the male desire for children and fertility, Atwood portrays the subsequent objectification of Offred to the extent that her worth diminished to only her womb. An adjacent consequence is its harmful effect on Offred's identity as in the wake of this new society Offred was forced to abandon her name from before Gilead. The name Offred represented that she was Fred's handmaid, and she was only to be referred to as such.

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There were limits but my body was nevertheless lithe, single, solid, one with me. Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping.” (Atwood 91). This makes the reader believe that Offred has given into the social injustice at Gilead being the oppression of women.

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In terms of language, Gilead creates an official vocabulary within the society that ignores the natural order of a normal society in order to serve the needs of the new society’s elite such as the commander and the wifes. Having made it illegal for women to hold jobs and being restricted from ‘love’, Gilead creates a system of titles. Men are defined by their military rank whereas women are defined solely by their gender roles as Wives, Handmaids, or Marthas. Stripping them of permanent individual names strips them of their individuality, or tries to. Feminists and deformed babies are treated as subhuman, denoted by the terms “Unwomen” and “Unbabies.”

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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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The suffocating society of Gilead is presented where individualism is completely taken away from them, and what it means to be human has been completely eroded away from what we know today. To be human today means, to be honest, affectionate, caring, understanding and to have passions. However, being too passionate for something only leads to chaos as seen through Victor 's overpowering desire for knowledge that led to chaotic results. Offred 's identity and individualism have been completely stripped away from her as he legal rights, name and clothes have been destroyed. She 's just another cog in a machine as she is labeled as a handmaid, only valued for her "viable ovaries".

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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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In The Archeology of Ritual by Edward Swenson, it is noted that there is an archaeological deposits of ritual nature in “interpret[ing] power relations, struggles over identity, social transformation, experiences of place and time, and cultural constructions of ecology, community, and personhood” (Swenson 2015:330). It is seen as paradoxical to view ritual as social control as it is an old view that ritual only reflects and authorize sociopolitical orders, as ritual is now connected to social, cognitive, and symbolic. The heuristic worth of ritual was questioned, and religion was studied specifically as a class of innovation that has twisted and simplified past social practices (Swenson 2015:332). Archaeologists argued that the specific exercises

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“No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body”. When Margaret Sanger spoke these words, she was expressing her belief on a woman’s right to have an abortion. This quote, however, speaks to the fact that women are oppressed on more than just abortions. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Atwood portrays the dehumanization of sexuality through both the characters and events within the novel, therefore proving that women will always be considered less than men will. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1939.

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Authority is enforced in the social structures of the Gilead and how people are treated based on their class. Control is established within the household amongst those in given power over those below them. Influence is manipulated amongst the handmaids over those with greater power in their interactions and needs. Atwood is able to bring power to readers’ attention in a variety of ways, ranging from straightforward to interpretive, guiding readers to question: Is power held in the perpetrator’s hands or the victim’s

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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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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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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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1008 Words | 5 Pages

cultural constructs of femininity, identity, and the extent of government control. The story explores the affects social and political trends have on society. The Handmaid’s Tale evaluates gender roles and the subjugation of women. Atwood’s use of aphorisms, symbolism, and allusions urges readers to examine the juxtaposition of cruelty and vulnerability in femininity.

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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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