Bpolar Disorder In The Handmaid's Tale

“Just as a painter paints, and a ponderer ponders, a writer writes,” says Roman Payne. Style is a very key aspect in literature. With style the significance of the text is enhanced to a higher level. Likewise it creates momentum and interest in the text. Moreover, when style is analyzed The Handmaid's Tale written by Margaret Atwood is profound, and effectively demonstrates how style can dramatically impact a text. Accordingly, throughout chapter one of The Handmaid’s Tale Atwood’s style leads to an effective use of point of view, an adequate use of narrative elements, and a sophisticated use of diction to connect and portray valuable meaning to the readers.

The opposition to the narrators writing stemmed from society believing writing is a profession only for men. The masculinity of the male was threatened by the masculinity of the narrator. Women of this patriarchal society were expected to be the angel of the house. The narrator was unable to fulfil the role appointed to her through the separate sphere mentality and so she was ostracized and made hysteric. The queering of her gender role was her outlet for creativity and her escape before the imprisonment. After her imprisonment, the queering of her gender roles became her escape for the society that would never accept her.

My response has been inspired by a study of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Attwood (Section XIV-Salvaging, Chapter 45 and Section XV- Night, Chapter 46). I shall demonstrate my understanding of the text of these chapters in the form of a memoir by rewriting the chapters from another character’s perspective i.e. Serena Joy’s perspective. Though memoirs are written for non-fiction literature, I noticed the features of memoir in this novel. Serena Joy is one of the important character, of the novel, at the top social level permitted to women. The intended purpose of this Written Task 1 is to know and understand Serena Joy’s perspective (Wife of a Commander), who was a singer and advocate for “traditional values” in the old world before Gilead and now the state took away her power and public recognition. This text starts from the point when Serena Joy comes to know

If Luke and Kevin are examples of how the well-intentioned, sympathetic progressive men can be unknowingly complicit in the disenfranchisement and suffering of women, Waterford exemplifies how dangerous a man can become when he is misled by extremist feminist rhetoric. As a Commander in Gilead, Waterford exemplifies the very privilege that comes with being a man: that he “want[s] [Offred’s] life to be bearable to [her]” (Atwood, 187), without the slightest idea that her life could not be anything but miserable. Only a man who is secure in his rights and privileges could be oblivious enough to indulge in the delusion that he could create a “bearable” state of life for someone whose rights have been taken away. What sets Waterford apart from

Today we see women making subconscious heroic decisions everyday that are a self-less deed that benefits their family and their beliefs. In the primary texts of The Turn of the Screw and The Handmaid’s Tale, women are presenting possibilities of heroic choices. It is despite the fact that these heroic choices are causing more harm than good from their bravery. This essay argues that in The Turn of the Screw the Governess’s maternal instincts is her heroic ability in a job that leads to death. The innocence of the Governess is however underestimated since her awakened insanity leads to the departure of Flora. On the other hand in The Handmaid’s Tale Offred’s use of language is a small piece of freedom that is heroic to the gender

“To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman. From the Victorian family trying to keep up with appearances (A Doll’s House) to the individual with multiple personalities (Sybil), it is through this theme that the authors give us an insight into the impact of society on individuals and their ability to be their true selves. Gilman and Ibsen’s leading female characters both assume the traditional gender role of an ideal wife and nurturing mother. These disguises are laid to bare when both characters discard their duty as a wife and mother for their individual freedom.

She is not able to see her baby or have human contact with her husband, which shows the bad relationship between the narrator and her family. The narrator has to do what her husband says not only because he is a physician but because he is her husband. She repeatedly asks herself “what can one do” in response to her husband because she feels that she has no say in her own health. She does not get to see her family as much because her husband believes that is too stressful for her, which makes the narrator be even more isolated. The narrator also has a bad relationship with her brother and Jennie, her sister-in-law.

Housewives... loving mother's...role models... heroes. Women in books are portrayed in so many different ways. In this essay I am going to explore the various ways in which the portrayal of women has changed since the 19th century. From Dora Spenlow to Katniss Everdeen; the personalities, mannerisms and ambitions of female characters has changed drastically. Female characters in novels have evolved from largely being secondary characters or stereotypical damsels in distress, to being portrayed as heroines, saviours but most importantly, as individuals, with characters displaying a variety of different personalities .

Margaret Atwood brings another social issue into perspective: anti-feminism, a different type from traditional misogyny. This new misogyny is the act of women’s hatred of women. Atwood’s novel is anti-feminist world that not only displays men’s distrust over women, but a lack of sisterhood also. Although, women and men are repressed in Gilead’s caste system, it is the women in positions of power who make this system unpleasant. Atwood exemplifies a disunited womanhood through her female characters.

Because she hates herself, she makes bad choices, and these bad choices make her hate herself. She finds herself stuck in this vicious cycle of self-hate. Instead of facing her problems, she chooses to run from them and she runs away from help because she believes deep in her heart that she doesn’t deserve

Her grandiose false sense of self-worth and self-esteem came crashing down after the rude comment made by the young boy that was sharing the bench with her. After all, she was not as invisible and confident as she portrayed herself to be. The remark just reinforced her invulnerability and her feeling of being unworthy. Her exuberant and love for life suddenly turned into haunting nightmares revealing her distorted reality. She was so immersed in that reality that she was emotionally unable to deal with the new reality that was presented to her. She realized that her life was an empty shell enclosed with a false sense of reality that she created for herself. Although, the rude remark was too painful to handle, it unleashed an avalanche of

W.M. Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” (1847), Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1985), and Dame Carol Ann Duffy’s “The World’s Wife” (1999), demonstrate that, regardless of time, form, and authorship, the woman who fights against the constrictions that society places upon her is a common figure in texts with female protagonists. Becky Sharp, Offred, and the “forgotten” women of The World’s Wife, all experience restrictions. Here their restrictions by poverty, silencing, and literary suppression will be discussed,

The novel written by Henry James can be interpreted in many different ways. The theories that readers form are developed by the story’s shifting plot and mysterious tone. The novel is filled with characters from different status and hierarchy. The situations described throughout the story place women in stereotypes or roles that display their power and qualities. The story also creates a wall that separates men and women by their social class and appearance.

If they read as women, they will more easily notice the conflicts female characters face rather than neglecting the treatment of these individuals. Culler argues that reading like a woman is “to bring about a new experience of reading and to make readers—men and women—question the literary and political assumptions in which their reading has been based” (51). This statement introduces the idea that, in order to read like a woman, readers must challenge the conventional expectations of literature to construct a novel perception of the text.

was denying this was a part of her. Her view of herself was a nice, calm easy going person and not this angry person so there was an incongruence and conflict between her self concept and self.