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Women In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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Recommended: Plot and structure of the handmaid's tale

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. Throughout the story, women in Gilead live under …show more content…

In Offred’s case, she portrays a depressed persona whose role is that of a surrogate and her duty is to give birth to the commander’s child. During the Ceremony, Offred feels like “ [what is going on during the sexual encounter] is serious business” (Atwood 95). She explains how the ceremony is not enjoyable for any of the participants, stating that it’s just a job that needs to get done. Her point of view portrays the ceremony as a duty in which her body is being used only to conceive, but not as something that is desirable. She relates it to past encounters between men and women during sex and notices that there is no connection between the participants in the ceremony. In the Gilead community, only men with high ranks are allowed to have Handmaid’s that can carry their children for nine months in their wombs. Offred explains, “ [she waits] washed, brushed, [and] fed, like a prize pig” ( 69). Before Offred goes to the Ceremony, she has to prepare herself and be ready to hand her body to the commander, with no hesitation or reluctance, so that together, along with Serena Joy, they can conceive a child. We can see the emotional damage her position in the society has caused her and her body. It is evident from Offred’s point of view on being a surrogate, she feels objectified, used, and

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(Atwood 187). Although Handmaids experience oppression by the Gilead regime, Atwood emphasizes the importance of unity and collaboration in the face of difficulties. The government of Gilead presents how hypocritical their society is toward women’s rights since the government uses a form of manipulation to make the Handmaid’s circumstances more tolerable. Additionally, Offred expresses how women do not have a right to their bodies because of the power others have over them as Offred states “I am abject” (Atwood 331). Offred expresses the removal of her individuality, autonomy, and basic human rights.

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An oppressive regime gains control of the United States and renames the country Gilead. In this context and because of infertility problems, women are forced to conceive for couples who cannot. Offred is one of these handmaids whose freedom is restricted in order to populate the Republic. Serving at the Commander’s house, Offred tells not only how the regime functions but also how

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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,” "

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The handmaid’s tale is a book written by Margert Atwood. The story is narrated by the narrator’s protagonists. The narrator informs about the life in Gilead in which the commanders get a handmaid to breed for them since their wife’s cant breed and the society of Gilead needs reproduction. not only that, but there are different commanders and not every commander has a handmaid because some of them have wives that can breed children and have children of their own. There is different dress code for women in Gilead because the handmaids wear red, the wives of the commander wear blue, Martha’s wear green.

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Offred, being a Handmaid herself, is desperate to have a child because of the fear instilled of not surviving without this act of service. During her monthly check-up with her doctor, Offred states her troubling options when she expresses in her mind, “Give me children, or else I die.” (Atwood 68). Infusing the horror of ceasing to exist ensures that Offred and the other Handmaids will understand that they can not go against the regime and must have a child with their Commander if it is possible with their fertility. Relatively, the doctors of Gilead are suffering with torment because of a life-changing choice they could make for the wellness of their patients.

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However, Gilead rehashed all of those old tropes, and classified in a never before seen way. Women are now Wives, Marthas, Handmaids, or Ecnowives. Each classification has different responsibilities, dress colors, and status, but what binds them all together is the anonymity it shoves on to each woman. A woman is no longer a person, she is the role defined by her dress color, easily replaced by another one of the same dress color. They stick to their own kind, segregated from each other by the different status associated with each role.

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Men, not only go there for the women, but to make connections with other men of power in order to better their business. This shows how men of power take advantage of their position in order to get what they want, whether it is for their business or seek variety. Once again, it is the religious influences in Gilead that led them to be in that position. Religion can either lead

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Often, we see a society’s cultural values reflected in its citizens. For example, the United States values equality, a standard that is shared in all facets including gender. The opposite is true of Gilead, a fictional society in Emily Bronte’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel’s main character, Offred, is subjected to degrading treatment simply because she is a woman. It becomes apparent that this repeated degradation has affected the protagonist’s mind.

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In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the Republic of Gilead actively represses women by forcing them into very narrowly defined, ultra-conservative gender roles. This totalitarian government strips women of all rights and protections, and imposes severe punishments for defiance. Pollution and disease had caused severe infertility in this society, drastically reducing birth rates. In an effort to reverse a drastic population decline, this thoroughly misogynistic and power-hungry regime, takes full control over the human reproductive process. Furthermore, the leadership uses various dehumanizing methods to achieve complete subservience of women to men.

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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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This society is governed by men, the Commanders with the assistance of Aunts, then comes the Wives, Handmaid’s and Moira. Gilead was formed as a response to the dramatic decreasing birth rates, thus women called Handmaid’s are used to rejuvenate the population. How and why are different social groups represented in a particular way in The Handmaid’s Tale? In Handmaid’s Tale, women are objectified and used only for their reproductive attribute.

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In this frightening society, women are not allowed to speak freely, therefore, the handmaids learn how to lip-read, and to whisper at one another while they are at the Red Center (where handmaids are trained for their mission), as their only way to communicate with another person, and to maintain even a minimum of human contact in a society that has amputated their ability to feel as a normal human being. Even though this is pure fiction, sadly some common threads between Gilead and our society can be found. For instance, in some South Asian countries, women’s rights are non-existent, they are treated

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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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