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The Handmaid's Tale Identity Essay

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How is identity, gender and freedom reflected in the novel: In "The Handmaid's Tale," the themes of identity, gender, and freedom are interwoven and closely tied together. The novel takes place in a dystopian world where the government of Gilead seeks to control and manipulate all aspects of people's lives, including their identities, gender roles, and freedom.
Identity is reflected in the novel through the ways in which the characters are stripped of their names, individual experiences, and self-image, and assigned new identities based on their reproductive function or social status. By removing the protagonist's name and referring to her as Offred, she is undervalued, and her individuality is forcibly removed from her. All handmaids in …show more content…

The novel also explores the ways in which the characters struggle to maintain their sense of self and resist the efforts of the regime to control and manipulate their identities.

Gender is a central theme in the novel, with the regime of Gilead using gender roles, expectations, and power dynamics to control and manipulate individuals in society. Women are stripped of their rights, autonomy, and identities, and are subjected to strict dress codes, rigid gender-based roles, and reproductive control. The duties assigned to men and women in Gilead are based on Biblical gender concepts. In Gilead, commanders are high-ranking males who can engage in politics, social affairs, and economics, while women hold more domestic or subordinate positions. According to The Handmaid's Tale, women's duties are divided into several identities, which are designed to symbolize different ideals of …show more content…

Each of the Commander, Luke, and Nick has a different relationship with Offred, depending on the degree of equality and power dynamics. The Commander represents manly principles. He is white, heterosexual, Christian, physically fit, masculine, and powerful. Sexism is one of the fundamental ways the Commander maintains his control. Throughout the narrative, he makes sexist remarks about women and frequently reinforces the notion that he is better due of his gender. He informs Offred, for example, in chapter 29, that "women can't add". Offred's husband, Luke, is sexist even though the two love each other. He is designed to contrast with the Commander and demonstrate that even modern males, who are not outright misogynists and may even identify as feminist supporters, may be oppressive to women. In chapter 8 Offred recalls watching Serena Joy's religious programs with Luke before Gilead gained to power: "Or Luke thought she was humorous. I merely pretended to believe it. She was rather intimidating. She was serious". Luke considers her "funny," indicating that he does not take her or her thoughts seriously. Looking a little further, he probably thinks she's humorous because he's aware that if what she was preaching about came true, he wouldn't be as impacted. Serena Joy, on the other hand, is described as

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How the government runs its citizens shapes the human condition. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a novel about how women are treated after a group of religious rebels overthrow the government and established a new government. This government takes charge of everything and change the rules, and some foundations that people base their lives on are broken by this government. Through that, we are able to see the main character breaking down as well. The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel that is written in fragments, it does not give a full retailing of the handmaid narrator’s life.

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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

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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.

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“You wanted a women 's culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies.” (Atwood 124) Offred is looking back on her past life to a story her mother once told her.

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She knows that there are laws, but she is so desperate that she is willing to break them by suggesting this to Offred, “Maybe you should try it another way”(Atwood 204). She encourages Offred to break the law and have sexual intercourse with another man and plant it as the commander’s child. Her desperation make her take desperate actions and how she achieves to rebel against the government. The Commander the one above all and on top of the official classification of Gilead-Men. He has power and in control of the household.

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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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The majority of people ask the same question at some point in their life; who am I? The concept of identity is something many wrestle with their whole lives. Other individuals are confident of who they are. The Handmaid’s Tale follows a society that is stripped of individuality and identity. This question can no longer be asked because it cannot be answered.

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According to Alanna A. Callaway, Gilead’s entire power structure relies on the disunity of women. Although Gilead’s system oppresses women, it is the few women in power that make the caste system dangerous for Handmaids. The patriarchal power structure of Gilead needs women to regulate each other, suggesting that gynocentric misogyny, or women hating women, is far more dangerous than traditional misogyny (Callaway 2008). This being said, the genuine threat in Gilead is not from the men in power, but the

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It projects a patriarchy of elite white men who repress the majority of the population through sexist and racist policies. In this puritanical state, Commanders are political leaders and lawmakers who support and contribute to the rise of Gilead. Each Commander possesses a big house, a Wife, Marthas, a driver, and a Handmaid, epitomizing wealth and power. The Gilead society uses Biblical allusions to justify the role of the Commanders. During the Women’s Prayvaganzas, the Commander expresses, “For Adam was first formed, then Eve” (221) where Eve was made as a helper and to complement Adam as a servant rather than function as an equal.

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