In many ways, history can solely reinvent itself. Women's representation in modern times has shown development ever since, but there are still elements that contribute to societal misconceptions toward women. Margaret Atwood, the best-selling author of The Handmaid’s Tale, expresses the evolution and the possible fates to which women are subject. Through The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood portrays a representation of current anti-feminist viewpoints by reflecting current perspectives of pro-life stances, as well as recurring oppressions against women's economic growth and rights.
Throughout the novel The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood portrays a world built upon the ideals of male leaders through the lens of a woman subject to the terrors that this world inflicts. In response to falling fertility rates and progressive ideologies, a group of powerful men are motivated to concoct a society based entirely upon their religious ideals to further both their reign over the female population and their success as leaders. Through the experience of a woman living at the expense of these ideas, Atwood communicates the negative consequences of idealism in the hands of a man, and the consequences of a religion-based idealistic world. Throughout the Handmaid's Tale, Atwood portrays a dystopian world by the name of Gilead, where
In The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood, the Republic of Gilead was formed from extreme religious views. In Gilead, what the government has decided should be taken from the Bible has become absolute law. The authority the Bible already had pre-Gilead becomes even more powerful. Strange, small pieces of Biblical text show up frequently throughout the book to enforce the new rule of Gilead and the leaders. This is particularly evident in place names throughout Gilead, for example the names of the bakery or butchers have been replaced by biblical names such as "Loaves and Fishes, "All Flesh,” "
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the wall’s purpose is to display a warning to anyone who wants to try and overcome the system. As seen in the novel, men who are strung up on the wall are seen as “war criminals” (Atwood 33). To explain, the citizens of Gilead see the people on the wall as criminals for what they tried to do. Although these crimes may be legal at the time, the Gilead leaders have changed the rules to fit their views. These criminals now are hung on the wall to let everyone know what will happen to them if they try to commit these crimes.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood begins with the main character, Offred, describing the setting of the gymnasium she is in. The room is called the Red Center and her and many other women are sleeping there. The place is guarded by two women, Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth who prevent the women from escaping. Offred is the narrator of the story as well as the main character of the story. She is a handmaid, the women who bear children for the elite couples.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood highlights this justification as it *depicts the creation and execution of an oppressive system. * Offred is married to a man who has been previously divorced, because of this she is seen as “morally unfit” and as someone who has less value than a woman whose partner had not been previously married. This . *. is shown through the quote, “The regime created an instant pool of such women by the simple tactic of declaring all second marriages and nonmarital liaisons adulterous...” This degradation allows the Gilead to justify the worth of woman in their society and grants them the ability to decide whether or not they are fit to be Wives or are forced into the burden of being a Handmaid.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian fiction by Margaret Atwood who is a Canadian writer. The story is written in 1985 and it is about women who wear the red dress and white wing. She has to be a surrogacy instead of the Commander’s wife. When a dictator has a revolution and organizes society, women were determined classify and were separated by a status and ability. Moreover, they will wear the different dress.
Women must be respected. Equality for women is an essential and wonderful part of democracy. One of the themes present in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is that theocracy is unacceptable because it limits women’s rights. Atwood uses symbolism to communicate how the evil theocratic regime in the story is the antagonist against women.
Nearly 300 years ago, a prince stood prisoner before three people traitors: Kishan, his brother; Yesubai, his betrothed; Lokesh, Yesubai's father and raja of a neighboring kingdom. After returning home from battle, the prisoner discovered his brother and his fiancée had been seeing each other while he was gone. Lokesh promised Yesubai to Kishan on one condition: that he and his brother each give the raja their amulets. If the prince did not obey, he would die. When the prisoner did not comply, Lokesh grabbed the prince and slit his wrist with a dagger.
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.
Throughout history, women have often been subjected to prejudice and an inferior status to men. Due to sexist ideologies of men believing that women are not capable of controlling their own lives, women have often been reduced to the status of property. This concept is prominent in many pieces of literature to demonstrate the struggles women have to go through in a predominantly, male structured world. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author illustrates a woman’s battle in an extreme society ruled by men to express the misogyny occurring in the time period when it was written, 1894. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia summarizes Atwood’s story as one that “depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property.”
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.
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.
Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, argues that women are instruments of the patriarchy, that women know this, and that women allow the system of oppression to live on. Her fictions ask, “What stories do women tell about themselves? What happens when their stories run counter to literary conventions or society’s expectations?” (Lecker 1). The Handmaid’s Tale is told through the protagonist, Offred, and allows readers to follow through her life as a handmaid while looking back on how life used to be prior to the societal changes.
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 .
