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The Handmaid's Tale Through A Critical Lens

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The Handmaid’s Tale Through a Critical Lens The Republic of Gilead is a dystopian society where women are stripped of all their rights. Written by Margret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale looks into the psychological torment of women in servient roles and is inspired by the dynamics of men and women in real society and displayed at its extreme in The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel is narrated by Offred, a Handmaid, who is forced to reproduce with her commander and has lost her family from the time before Gilead. Atwood’s use of descriptive language, ambiguity, imagery, and internal and external dialogue reveals the importance of sexual and reproductive rights, the separation of classes in a totalitarian society, and the effects of environmental degradation on society as a whole. Women in The Handmaid’s Tale are divided into their own social pyramid. At the very bottom, sit the unwomen. These women are often older or infertile, as well as “Handmaid’s who have screwed up their three chances, and incorrigibles like me. Discards” (Atwood 248). The people who are declared unwomen are disregarded by …show more content…

They control the Red Center where Handmaids are indoctrinated and forced into subjugation to their roles as Handmaids. They use mantras to help facilitate the indoctrination of the Handmaids by saying things like, “there is more than one kind of freedom … freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it” (Atwood 24). The aunts believe, or at least give off the image, that they are protecting these women. They want them to feel safe and for them to believe that being a Handmaid is the best thing for them. The Aunts are often seen using their power to the extreme, being armed with cattle prods to force the women into what they see as the correct way to act under Gilead rule. As stated in the historical

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Violence In The Handmaid's Tale

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The dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, is about a new Christian theocracy that took over the government in the United States by creating a new society named the Republic of Gilead. This new society was created due to a nuclear fertility crisis, and their main goal is to heavily control women’s reproductive freedoms in order to increase the population. The protagonist, Offred, is a handmaid whose main role in society is to breed healthy children. In order to maintain control over the women in Gilead, the society uses acts of cruelty and violence to force the women to conform into their respective roles. In the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood presents sexual violence, the removal of knowledge, and public hangings in order

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How Is Margaret Atwood Dehumanize In The Handmaid's Tale

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The novel’s themes reflect the reality of our times, including the use of religion to justify limiting women’s rights, maintaining male hegemony, and controlling women’s bodies (Zarrinjooee and Kalantarian 66-71). The parallel between Gilead and the current conservative religious cultures - for example Hungary - highlights the significance of the novel’s dystopian aspects for contemporary readers (“Hungary Government Proposes Constitutional Amendment Mandating Christian Gender Roles.”). The strict gender norms, dress codes, and lack of autonomy for women in Gilead illustrate the dehumanization of women, while the emphasis on their reproductive potential perpetuates their exploitation (Atwood 8-363). Overall, The Handmaid’s Tale serves as a warning and a lesson on what not to become as a society and encourages readers to take action against injustice and oppression (Rine

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Gender Roles In Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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The Unpeople are a range of different types of people. They are sterile, unmarried, feminists, nuns, and political women that are also incapable of social integration as the Republic of Gilead

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Handmaid's Tale: Essay Drawing From An Interview With Margaret Atwood

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The Handmaid’s Tale: Essay Drawing from an interview with Margaret Atwood, it examines the author's intentions and motivations in writing The Handmaid's Tale through exploring her perspectives on feminism, how this novel connects back to real world events, and the dangers of authoritarian governments. In the beginning of Atwood’s interview, she discusses her views on feminism and how she decided to create a balance between the modern day beliefs through storytelling. For example, she makes note of more conservative views through the inclusion of Handmaids and how they live more isolated lives, through staying at home. This is obviously seen multiple times throughout the novel as Offred is isolated from the rest of the household, is under complete

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The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood creates a dystopian world in which the object of the government’s control and management are the women. The new Republic of Gilead uses the bible as their means for control, justifying their actions through a version of Christianity perverted so heavily it is hardly recognizable to the reader. Women walk around heavily shrouded, any hint of their sexuality is strictly forbidden, they cannot work or engage in any activity that goes against their gender role, and they are not even allowed to read anymore. Narrated from the point of view of the handmaid Offred, she tells her story as a way of making sense of how the world around her came to be and how to maintain a sense of herself while living in it. Her

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The novel, Handmaid’s Tale, was written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. The text is centered around Offred, a woman subsided into a role of inferiority and lead into a series of events surrounding the limitations of The Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead, previously known as the United States, is totalitarian government concealed as a religious one as it uses forceful methods to control its people. These methods constructed the only acceptable social paradigm input, ones where Atwood wrote in form of historical and cultural allusions. Furthermore, it is a reflection of the author’s world and her belief system on how they would morph and adapt to an extreme scenario.

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Margaret Atwood's novel A Handmaid's Tale depicts a dystopian society called Gilead in which the people face severe oppression. Women face oppression in its most visible aspects. Gileadean women are assigned specific jobs against their will, like handmaids whose primary purpose is reproduction, or Martha’s who are essentially house servants. Women are not permitted to go out in public alone or in scandalous clothing. They are not permitted to read, write, or attend school.

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Totalitarianism In The Handmaid's Tale

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Gender Roles In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale

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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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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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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is an iconic work of dystopian fiction that has been hugely popular since its original publication in 1985. The story follows Offred, a woman whose freedom of choice and identity is taken away by a regime of religious extremists and set in a speculative future where women are been stripped of their basic rights. Atwood creates a tragically intriguing story of love, loss and betrayal. The most heartbreaking of betrayals is found in the relationship between Offred and Nick. Nick's decision to ultimately betray Offred is a reflection of the regime's powerful control, highlighting the injustice of Gilead's creed.

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The subjugation of women is evident in the Gilead system as each Commander is given a handmaid whose name is “Of” the Commander’s name. Handmaids have no identity of their own and are similar to sex slaves at the mercy of

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