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What Does The Flower Symbolize In The Handmaids Tale

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In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character Offred faces many hardships throughout her life as a Handmaid, but the hardest and deepest issue she confronts is the lack of freedom she has due to her being fertile and children are desperately needed in the Gileadean society. Offred is stripped of her freedom once she becomes a Handmaid, and is unable to live the life she longs for, which she describes throughout the story through symbolism. Instead of a free life, she is confided to living in her bedroom except when the Handmaids are allowed to leave for events such as child bearing ceremonies, trips to the grocery store, and executions. The Handmaids are trapped in this lifestyle due to their low status in the Gileadean social …show more content…

The flower is the reproductive organ of a plant, just as the Handmaids are responsible for producing children in the Gileadean society. For example, Offred explores this comparison when she states, “Committed on the swelling gentile of the flowers” (153), when discussing the scene of Serena Joy shearing her garden. She then goes on to state that she covets the shears, and how the cut off the fertility of the plants in the Garden, symbolizing the frustration she has for the pressure the Handmaids face to bear children. The egg is a constant symbol for fertility as well and throughout the book there are many instances of this. One clear and concise example that Offred provides of the egg’s symbolism is when she states, “If I have an egg, what more can I want?” (111). These women are taught that their most important attribute and contribution to society is merely producing children, and this brainwashing is clear when Offred states that this is the most she could ask for. When Offred’s commander questions her about the new society the government has created Atwood also includes the quote, “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs”(252). This quote originates from the French Revolution and has been used by many harsh and tyrannical dictators such as Hitler and Stalin. It means that it is necessary to, “Sacrifice some lives for the greater good”(Iuvino 1), therefore it is clear that Atwood used this quote on purpose to describe the repressive nature the government of Gilead treats the

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She is known as a vessel for reproduction having no control over her own body. This reflects her acknowledgement of the degrading and oppressive nature of her circumstances. In conclusion, the oppressive nature of Gilead results in women not being able to own properties, empower themselves, and control their

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In The Handmaid’s Tale, the main character, Offred, who is a handmaid meaning that her duty is to get pregnant having intimate relations with the Commander because the wives are unable to get pregnant. A group of women are categorized into a group where they have duties and are all held under the same group being monitored by Aunts, who train the girls in what their tasks are. One day Offred and her companion, Ofglen, leave to do grocery shopping in Gilead, the setting of the story, and as they arrive at the grocery store they encounter Ofwarren, also known as Janine who is pregnant. Many of the women envy Janine because she is pregnant and as pregnant women in Gilead, they do their best to keep pregnant women safe and from not doing

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In a utopian world in which the main character has to do what they are told, there would have to be secrets among the people around them. The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel by Margaret Atwood in which a Handmaid by the name of Offred lives in the home of her Commander and his wife and she, along with other Handmaids, have specific roles to play and are forced to do those roles. As a Handmaid, Offred has to lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, due to the fact that the story takes place at a time in which births are declining, the Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are fully functional. Secrets lead to guilt or mistrust in oneself as shown through Offred’s interactions with other characters, behavior changes of characters throughout the story, and by the significance of “Mayday” as used by Atwood. Secrets lead to guilt or mistrust in oneself as shown through Offred’s interactions with other characters because in the novel, Atwood writes “Perhaps it was a test, to see what I would do.

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In the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Gilead was a totalitarian government. In the story, politics was dirty, sexual feelings were not allowed, and women’s bodies were treated as objects that only exists to bear babies, so population would not go down. All these mostly applies to handmaids as they are assigned to bear babies for elite couples who have hard time making babies. They are not supposed to have sexual relations to somebody else. All of the women in Gilead are “deprived of their individual freedom and ordered to serve the state in different ways and functions” (Zarrinjooee & Kalantarian 67).

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Most women lack the ability to reproduce, and in this case, the flower is a reminder of their infertility. Due to this inconvenience, The Republic of Gilead, the government, has subjected the Handmaids to sexual slavery to produce children for the Wives. The Handmaids are beautiful women able to create children who act as obstacles for the Wives. A feeling of envy envelops the Wives and makes them wish they were able to reproduce the way the Handmaids do. “Many of the Wives have such gardens, it's something for them to order and maintain and care for,” and it makes them feel empowered (12).

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However, there are deficient expressions of femininity. Through the use of the symbol of the red tulips In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood shows how flowers are given special attention as objects; these flowers can grow at a time. However, not a lot of women can. The overall passage in this passage is the handmaids are parallel to a red tulip. The author includes this chapter in her book to show everybody has their own purpose in society.

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In face of severe situation, people often feel relief when they think of happier, simpler times in order to alleviate the severity. In the fiction novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, a theocracy government controls every aspect of life in order to produce the best result of its plans. At the beginning of chapter 12, Offred takes a required, but luxurious bath because she can take off the burdensome wings and veils. While she bathes, Offred remembers her daughter from the past and a time with her family. Atwood compares Offred’s past and present through imagery, tone, similes, and symbolism combined with parallel structure to highlight the vulnerability of women to their surroundings.

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The Handmaid lies between the legs of the Wife, with her “head on [the wife’s] stomach” as the Ceremony proceeds. The Ceremony is humiliating for the Wife, who is unable to conceive, and the Handmaid, who is being forced to conceive. As Aunt Lydia tells the Handmaids, “you should always try to imagine what they [the Wives] must be feeling”, living with the knowledge that they cannot properly satisfy their wifely duties. As evidenced through Serena Joy, the wife of Offred’s Commander, the Wives in Gilead are bored. Prior to the rise of the Republic of Gilead, Serena Joy made public speeches about “the sanctity of the home, about how

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In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred goes through many changes within her experience in Gilead. These changes include losing her job, being unable to read and being unable to have anything of value. Offred, alongside with many other women has been deemed as a handmaid. As a handmaid, the fertile women of Gilead are used to produced children for the infertile women and families. A handmaid 's life within this society contained of things such as the Ceremony where Offred would lie on her back, “fully clothed except for the healthy white cotton underdrawers.”

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Throughout the book the narrator draws many comparisons between women and flowers. Often, flowers are considered as a symbol of fertility and beauty. In the book, flowers are highlighted as objects that can bloom and grow at a time when few women can. From a technical standpoint, flowers are also the part of a plant that holds the reproductive organs. They're constant reminders of the fertility that most women lack.

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June, who is now Offred, is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She is forced to wear only the clothes she is given, go where her commander allows her to, and to provide a baby for the commander. Women have no rights in this place. “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays in the maze”. June is no longer June, she is Offred now.

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Works of literature often portray ideas relating to Marxist theory, this is why in a dystopian society, class distinctions dominate the social climate, using Marxist ideologies as a tool to define the lives of the narrator and those around her. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, ideologies from Marxist theory dominate the society in which Offred, the narrator, lives in, evidenced by the strict class systems and limited interaction between them. In writing the novel, Atwood makes a point to create a world that could exist using technology and ideas already accessible in today’s society, meaning the events that take place in The Handmaid’s Tale could happen in present day. Offred lives in a reality where class distinctions dominate society, and women, especially fertile women. These women are displaced downwards, although there are those women who attempt to resist the grip of society.

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Throughout the plotline of The Handmaid’s Tale, the protagonist June, otherwise known as Offred lives in the oppressive society of Gilead where women are treated as commodities and their primary purpose is to bear children for wealthy couples who cannot conceive naturally. Offred's life consists of daily rituals and strict rules that she must follow or face severe punishment. She struggles against her oppressors while trying to maintain hope for herself and other oppressed women around her. Her oppressors consist of the Commanders, Aunts, and The Wives. They set up such a society to have complete control over all of the women in Gilead.

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“What it really means is that she is in control of the process and thus the product. If any.” (109). The society of Gilead wants to make sure that the child is the Commander’s wife’s child as much as possible, and they believe that by having Serena Joy hold the hands of Offred, then that is possible. In this way, Offred, and all of the other Handmaid’s are sexually dehumanized.

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Offred describes the structure of Gilead society, including the different classes of women and

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