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The Handmaid's Tale Research Paper

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The Oppression of Women: Real Life or Fiction? In history women have fallen victim to the inferiority of men. This is present in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and also in today’s society. The struggles of women are a result of men believing that they can retain power over women and their rights. The Handmaid’s Tale gives us very good examples of this. Women of today can all too well relate to this. In this paper I will be discussing issues that women face such as men’s power over women, their rights and freedom; along with general labeling tactics that women fall victim to in today’s society along with The Handmaid’s Tale. Women are often characterized as fragile beings by some aspects of society. This is strongly shown in The Handmaid’s …show more content…

The categories are represented by colors. The Handmaid’s wear red. The red represents fertility, menstruation, and childbirth; which is everything a Handmaid is known for. The Handmaid’s realize this connection too. The narrator says “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us” (8). The Wives wear blue. Blue normally represents virginity and purity, which is an ironic twist because it is qualities that the wives do not possess. The Commanders wear black. Black represents authority and power. The Commanders wearing this color is an example of their power over Gilead. The Martha’s wear green. Green often represents jealously which is the feelings between the Martha’s and the Handmaid’s. These colors can relate to the colors women are identified for in today’s society. Red is a color that represents blood, which is what women are known for essentially. This is also seen as a “sexy” color; when women wear red they are more sexually objectified. Green still represents jealously. Blue is known for wisdom and purity; the Virgin Mary is often connected with the color blue. The color black represents the same thing it does in the novel, power. Men who are in high positions wear black suits, showing off their

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Isabella Beatty Mrs. Oathout English IV CP Dystopian Studies 15 April 2024 Proposed Thesis: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood provides insight to rape culture and victim blaming through its dystopian narrative and how it can represent what is still happening today. The Handmaid’s Tale Annotated Bibliography Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Anchor Books, 2017.

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During this week, we have covered numerous topics, none more prominent than the oppression of women. Everyone had different opinions, allowing me to take into account different views on the issue. In one of the texts we examined, “Oppression”, Marilyn Frye, a philosopher, debates the subjugation of women. She states the cultural customs that causes oppression of women. I do agree with her view that women are oppressed, but I do not agree that it is just women.

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Introduction Background In her 1986 novel The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood presents a scathing critique of a dystopian society that focuses on the subjugation of women and denial of their basic human rights. The novel takes place in the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic regime that has replaced the United States of America, in which women are degraded to reproductive machines, without access to education, independence, or even the ability to read. Central themes in this novel include patriarchal oppression, religious fundamentalism, and totalitarianism. Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, published in 2019, continues to explore and expand upon these themes, but the subject of her criticism shifts slightly.

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The red is a telling sign of God’s presence and how important the virgin is to him. Crowning the virgin in purity is her white veil. In the virgin’s hand a lit candle, a sign of her faith. The virgin’s black robe spills over the shoulder of the man in green reaching down between his legs. The color black is evident to most as an omen of death, however, the color black also can mean power, despair, or naiveté.

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When analyzing the characters of the Handmaid's Tale and the Scarlet Letter through the feminist lense, sexism has become so internalized that women work to maintain the system through prejudice and belittling one another for not fulfilling orthodox gender roles.

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Imagine living in a place where everything you do is heavily criticized and self-expression is not allowed. A world in which everyone and everything is closely controlled and one gets punished if rules are not followed. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, in the dystopian society of Gilead, the oppressive system forces its citizens to follow assigned roles and rules by being highly critical and manipulative. Throughout the story, Atwood presents the characters through a series of events, which show the impacts on the society. The points of view of Offred, the Aunts, Janine and the other Handmaids on females reveal how an oppressive community forces women to objectify themselves.

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1692 Words | 7 Pages

The color of the clothing is supposed to represent comfort and guidance that the aunts are supposed to provide to the Handmaids’. When the Aunts’ earn the respect from the Handmaids’ they enforce the rules of Gilead, the Handmaids’ become more obedient. Of course high ranking women in the new country do not manage their own homes, they are assigned Marthas’. Marthas’ are household servants. Which fall below the Aunts’.

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List three instances where each symbol appears in The Handmaid's Tale -- copy the text or describe what was happening in that section (including page numbers). Then write an explanation of the significance of that appearance (why was it important?). Last, write a paragraph analyzing the broader meaning of the symbol in The Handmaid's Tale. The Color Red: Chapters: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8,11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19 Offred mentions,

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Stephanie Hammer discusses how Atwood’s novel is breaking gender stereotypes. Hammer states that the majority of the dystopian genre is dominated by men. She then questions “Is The Handmaid’s Tale a subversion of male writing or is this subversion itself already subverted by the regulations of an established male art form?” Hammer’s purpose is simply trying to question whether Margaret Atwood should be in the dystopian category or was she influenced by the men within it and the power they possess. She then discusses how free women and the handmaid do not have freedom.

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When the Republic of Gilead is in progress of being created, the women were brainwashed to believe they are a problem in our world. Offred explains how a young girl told the story of her being raped in her childhood. An Aunt, the ones who help raise and teach the Handmaids the new role in life, ask the girl a unbelievable question. Then, the Aunt ask “But whose fault was it?” In a normal society the answer will always be the rapist; however, in the Republic of Gilead, it is the girl’s fault.

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Since times immemorial, women have been the target of oppression and are forced to lead a controlled life. The Hippocratic male dominated society has hardly left any stone unturned in opposing the concept of empowerment of women. The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood is a detailed illustration of the helplessness and miseries of the major character who finds herself in painful compulsive situations leading her to lose her identity.

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Jasmine Gonzalez Garnham English 12B-2 24 March 2023 Argumentative essay The Handmaid's Tale, a literary masterpiece by Margaret Atwood, has made significant progress in contemporary literature. This is a powerful piece of literature that raises the plight of women as an issue worthy of debate. As the world progresses, students should be exposed to themes that reflect current social issues, and this is precisely what the Handmaid's Tale offers. The Handmaid's Tale is needed for students to understand or learn more about women's mistreatment and gender equality.

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel critiques gender inequality and autocratic authority. The hierarchical class of men consists of Commanders, Angels, and Guardians. In particular, the Commanders are the highest-ranking social group in Gileadean society. The Commanders are represented as powerful men. They have leadership roles, autocratic governance, and are oppressors controlling the Gilead regime.

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697 Words | 3 Pages

Meanwhile women on the other hand have to lay boundaries for themselves and only be limited to their husbands or in the handmaid 's case their commanders. Although society can be good in many ways such as today’s society but it can also be very bad and not progress forward but instead backwards. The Handmaid’s Tale has shown many examples of a corrupt and bad society where women are back to being downgraded such as they were before a really long time

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1378 Words | 6 Pages

The present paper focusses on Atwood’s widely acclaimed and thought provoking novel ‘‘The Handmaid’s Tale’’(1985)focused on the theme of the domination and ruthless governing of women by men. The novel presents a world where freedom of women is impeded on account of the new Christian Government’s extreme policies. It portrays a futuristic picture of the new republic that throws away the U.S. Constitution and establishes the Republic of Gilead in which women are viewed only as reproductive machines. Portraying females as the leading characters, and environmental crisis as its background, the novel depicts people suffering from tragic environmental pollution in a totalitarian country. It is a place where the females are forced into a submissive position leading the whole society fall into abnormality.

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