Analysis Of Independent Study Unit By Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is once of Canada’s best known literary composers. She is best known for her ability as an author of novels such as Alias Grace, Bodily Harm, Hairball, Rape Fantasies, and the highly acclaimed The Handmaid’s Tale, which was later made into a movie. These works establish her as a feminist writer, raising issues of women in literature, the difficulties associated with being female and the role of women in society.

In Gilead the social relationship that once existed between men and women is a thing of the past. In the former society women had value and felt good about themselves and how they looked. However, in the new society the men have stripped the women of their freedom and equality and lowered them to varying degrees of status. The young healthy women are labeled handmaids and are "issued" (24) by the government to various high-ranking officials in order to offer them the opportunity to create offspring. Getting pregnant is their only hope of survival. Females who are not of childbearing age are called Marthas because their purpose is to work and serve the men. A third category of women is labeled Unwomen because of their worthlessness in this male dominated society. All three categories are divided into colonies to prevent their rebelling against the system. Also, within each colony communication is limited and higher education is denied. In order to enforce this kind of oppressive social structure, the government uses various forms of intimidation.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Gilead regime oppresses women in many different ways; they take complete control over their bodies, they

In Gilead, women are treated like objects and all of their rights are taken away from them. They cannot vote, hold property or jobs, read, or do anything else that might cause them to become rebellious or independent, and undermine the men, or the state. Even the shops where the handmaids go to buy food do not have names on for them to read, just pictures. The only thing important about a woman now is her ovaries and her womb, as they are reduced to just their fertility.

The Bible is distorted once again to manipulate the women during the Women's Prayvaganzas. The Commander hosting the service makes a speech to the crowd: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection…All…But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve?(221). The Bible is once again used selectively, isolating only the passages that pertain to Gilead's interests, which in this case is restricting women to be submissive. Gilead is trying to implement the fact that women should be subservient to men in society by literally justifying it from a myth in the Bible. This is only one of the stories of creation in Genesis, and is secluded and appropriated to make the women believe that "if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety,?(to the Republic of Gilead) "they shall be saved by childbearing?(221). The theocracy of Gilead encourages the handmaids and women in their society to continue to obey the hierarchies of their totalitarian-like regime, and in turn also have them provide children

In the republic of Gilead, there are many rules and restrictions within all levels of the community, wives, econowives, common men and handmaid’s included, which limit the goings-on of the people. These rules were all created by the men in charge, going by the name of ‘The sons of Jacob’ and are forcefully implemented by the angels, the male soldiers and ‘protectors’. The roles of those in charge all belong to a

Power is created for The Gileadean government, certain characters and the narrator Offred. As the social status gets lower, the more restricted you are to freedom. For instance, women are not allowed to read. Also, social classes such as Handmaid’s, Martha’s or Econowives, and the unwomen have to be bond to use religious speech such as phrases like, “Blessed be the fruit”, “may the Lord open”, “praise be”, etc (Atwood 19). Women use these phrases because the Gileadean government took away freedom of speech and incorporated laws from the Bible. For example, the Commander’s wife Serena Joy always lays down the ground rules to Offred to let her know that she will always be above Offred and she is just a Handmaid. Conversations with other Handmaid’s or Angels or other social classes are prohibited because they can exchange information that the others are not supposed to know. It’s also forbidden because they can share power, making it easier for them to turn on the Gilead ways. Less power from women supposably keeps the government under control. The limited amount of languages used creates fear. Women use language like this because they are afraid of punishment or worse consequences. The Gilead believes that women will become brainwashed by having standard conversations and will become mindless followers over time. You cannot prove a point or

Gileadean laws were only intact because of the Aunts’ enforcement. “But whose fault was it? Aunt Helena says, holding up one plump finger. Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison” (Atwood 72). The Aunts try to make the Handmaids believe that any mistake or tragedy that occur to them is their own fault. It is them who “provoke” the situation. There is to be no blame on men. Men are never at fault. This is yet another way men try to be in control. They try to control what women think. They make them suffer. The Aunts force the Handmaids to watch films where women are being beaten, cut, or killed. “Consider the alternatives, said Aunt Lydia. You see what things used to be like? That was what they thought of women, then. Her voice trembled with indignation” (Atwood 118). The Aunts try to scare the Handmaids into believing that because there are no rules to set women straight and no barriers with men, women are treated like gum under a shoe. Again this is just a demonstration of how heinous men set the Aunts to brainwash the Handmaids into believing whatever they wanted them to

The restrictions placed on television and media by the Republic of Gilead greatly affected the amount of knowledge (information) that individuals of society possess. Gilead places strict restrictions on television, only broadcasting specific media and newscast events. For example, the news would broadcast updates on the war that Gilead is ‘fighting’,

Fear is power. Fear is ever-present in Gilead; it is implemented through violence and force. It is through fear that the regime controls the Gileadian society. There is no way Offred, or the other Handmaids can avoid it. What used to be Harvard University, a

The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will

From this perspective, if the governing base itself is established on a religious name, there is no doubt that nearly all of its inhabitants’ lives are regulated by this very scripture; thus right away establishing that in this novel, the name of religion is used, or one may claim abused, as a relentless method of indoctrinating it’s citizens. The countless biblical implications present in this novel prove themselves as convincing methods of control on the behalf of the tyrannical, theocratic Republic of Gilead to establish a sense of unconsolidated power among the the population of its

I think Gilead is thought of as a theocracy it is a government in which there is no separation between state and religion. Its official vocabulary incorporates religious terminology and references to the bible. House servants are Marthas in reference to the woman who helped Jesus in the New Testament; the local police are “Guardians of the

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet and novelist. She was born in 1939 in Ottawa, Canada and has written over forty fiction books in addition to poems and critical essays (2013-17, Margaret atwood biography). Her book of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970) was inspired by a dream Atwood had of Susanna Moodie. Moodie was an English writer who immigrated to Canada in 1832 with her husband in order to secure a better life for her growing family. Atwood had read Moodie’s book Roughing It In The Bush prior to her dream that inspired her to write her own book of poetry about the immigrant woman. Moodie’s book is centered around six various stories that she wrote at different points in her life. Similarly, Atwood broke her book of poetry

The laws of Gilead dehumanizes women and takes away their rights as citizens to society. Gilead wasn’t always like that until the revolution overcame the town and took away women's rights. “In Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, women are totally under the control of male members of the patriarchal society; she describes a patriarchal society and reflects the political ideology in America of that time.” Women are downgraded without any authority and control by men. “Women are like birds that are kept in cages to stop them from flying. And the authorities make women believe that this society is very secure for them and they are protected in this way of living. They also make women believe that the new way is a better freedom and God will save them if they follow.” They are taking the laws made by Gilead and comparing