Comparison between 'The handmaids Tale' and '1894' (language as controlling force, language styles, structure and contexts'

. .” (304). The pervasive fear during this time in history regarding the falling birth rates was heavily reflected in The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood depicts the punishment given to those who engaged in activities such as abortions throughout her novel. For a women in Gilead, more specifically a handmaid, not to reproduce was taboo. This society placed a heavy emphasis on procreation due to the fear of declining birthrates previously mentioned. Overall, Atwood wrote a book regarding the controversial subject, women and fertility, in the 1980s because of its intense cultural relevance at the time.

From the outset of 'The Handmaids Tale' the reader is placed in an unknown world, where the rights and freedom of women have been taken away. We follow the narrative journey of a handmaid, named Offred.

A genuine identity and individuality is not possible in an oppressive environment especially when one’s daily life, actions, and thoughts are dictated by domineering societal expectations. Oppressive environments such as regimes controlled by a dictatorship and that run off a totalitarian government system strip an individual of their civil rights as a human being in order to gain ultimate control over its citizens. A government such as the Republic of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s work, The Handmaid’s Tale, controls their citizen’s lives to the extent to where they must learn to suppress their emotions and feelings. In the Republic of

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.

The Handmaid’s Tale and Fahrenheit 451 are similar novels because they both portray the disciplines in the humanities of literature and film. Both novels present issues that are related to the disciplines of government and political science. The protagonist in each novel is placed in a situation that they are powerless in which is due to the oppression of their dystopian society. Although everyone else has conformed to this new society, Offred and Montag have realized that the societies they are living in aren’t flawless. In both novels, we see the main characters approaching a point in their lives where they start to see the imperfections in the societies and wish for change because they aren’t currently satisfied with the lives they are living. They are longing for a deeper connection with people, and even though the society is trying to form them into something they are not, they refuse to be controlled by a government and a society that is not meant to be. The idea of government and political science can be explored to expose not only the ideas themselves, but the connections between literature and humanities through The Handmaid’s Tale and Fahrenheit 451.

In the Republic of Gilead, children are seen as lawful possessions of wealthy, powerful couples like the Commander and his wife. As such, women called ‘handmaids’ have been reduced to two basic functions, breeding and buying groceries. Moreover, since women are prohibited to vote, write or read, the grocery store labels all of the products

1984 is a classic piece of British literature that serves as the most prominent example of the dystopia genre. In this nover George Orwell tells the precautionary tale of what might happen if the society goes totalitarian. In this essay I would like to talk about the role of women in the novel.

War, torture, and constant fear, all of these are key elements in the distopia George Orwell creates in the novel, 1984. In this book, Orwell creates a society which is based solely on hate and controlled by those who seek only power. Orwell, however, is not the only author to ponder the possibility of an extreme, futuristic society. In particular, The Giver, by Louis Lowry relates a great deal to the themes found in 1984. Unlike 1984, Lowry's novel focuses on the idea of a utopia as opposed to Orwell's distopia. What is the most interesting is how though the fundamental idea of the novels are opposites, the methods by which each society is maintained are surprisingly similar. When one analyses The Giver versus 1984, it becomes clear that

Throughout the third section (chapter 25-35) of the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood uses descriptive language, which express Offred's feelings about and attitudes to her environment and experiences. For example, as Offred walks into the kitchen to see that Rita is cutting radishes, they remind Offred of “Little Aztec hearts” (Atwood 259). Provided that, this description of the radishes illustrates Offred’s sinister side because Aztecs cut out the hearts of their sacrificial victims. This is effective in regards to the Atwood’s storytelling technique because it illustrates Offred’s temptations to escape Gilead, in order to experience freedom. Also, it reminds the reader about Offred’s master plan on how she would kill the

Orwell uses Winston Smith, our main character, to exemplify the message he repeatedly tries to get across. Winston is a middle-aged man who is alone, or so it seems. It quickly becomes clear through his awkward behavior that he is constantly being

Desire is a powerful and dangerous emotion which has the ability to overtake and disregards any rational state of mind, creating disorder and life-threatening consequences, thus making it feared as a form of disorder or misdirected imagination. However, desire cannot exist without a lack of satisfaction, allowing the once forbidden to become desirable. These illicit desires which are in conflict with social laws and norms are often repressed into the unconscious. Emerging in forms which are disguised so that they may be unrecognisable to the conscious mind due to the dangerous, forces and consequences they present. Such desires can be identified in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) which mirrors post-war social and political issues, portraying the devastation, destruction and control on the outer limits of humanity in a dystopian world. In a world where thought, history and relationships are manipulated and governed, romantic and autonomies desire become a means of rebellion in order to maintain sanity, truth, and an objective reality as a means of resistance against the governing party. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is a speculative fiction which explores the need for a sustained political, feminist consciousness and activity among woman by exploring the political and social consequence of their absence. In The Handmaid’s Tale, we see illicit desire through the use of language and literature in a dystopian world which governs class

In the nineteenth century, US President James Madison was quoted as saying, “Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.” This quote is pertinent to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. In it, it depicted a society in the future, with a conservative approach to government, favoring men, and very controlling. While it explored many topics that were relevant to the society at the time, the most important one was power and the power dynamics in the novel itself. The main areas of the novel that utilized this power the most are in the violence, the use of language, all surrounding the patriarchal society favoring men.

The Gilead regime uses language, particularly Biblical language to solidify its power. Language has a strong influence in moulding how people think, and it is fully abused by the rulers of Gilead, for example, the phrase, ‘’give me children or else I die.’’ (pg. 99 ) gave the republic of Gilead the idea to use handmaids to bear children for barren wives. Bible readings and prayers before the ceremony, Is another example the regime justifies its actions and the role of the handmaid, to disguise what is actually taking place, which is the exploitation and abuse of women.

This idea was supported by Dominick Grace as he states how the totalitarian regime of Gilead will ‘alter it [the text] to suit their needs.’ This suggests that the Bible can be interpreted in a specific way in order to suit the individual and their purpose. In the prologue of the novel, Atwood uses a quote from Genesis, 30: 1-3 where it states ‘Behold my maid Bilhah, go in to her… I may have children through her.’ This quotation from the Bible introduces how Gilead is based on Christian faith and specific passages of the Bible. It suggests how the totalitarian regime decided to take the Bible passages literally to justify the role of the Handmaids and their new society. This conveys the power of interpretation to the extent where a society that follows Christian ideology can completely change yet still be based on the

In Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale takes place in a dystopian future. In this future, nearly all the women have become infertile, so the few who can still have babies have been rounded up, brainwashed, and assigned to powerful men in a twisted attempt to restore the human race.Set in Gilead, a totalitarian society in what used to be part of the United States that treats women as property of the state, and the few remaining fertile women are forced into sexual servitude.Women are subsidized to having no rights and are subject to being only tools reproduction purposes, and are turned into a thing called Handmaids. Every Handmaid is assigned to an elite wealthy couple to help them produce a child. As, another way to strip the women of their identities they are given new names associated with the males name of the couple they are serving.Handmaid names consist of the word “of”