Freedom to vs. Freedom from

One of the many prevailing themes in literature is that power is gained and can be manipulated when restraints are placed on natural desires of the individual. This passage is significant because it is an example of this theme, for it shows how power and manipulation have completely changed and restricted the people, especially women, of Gilead. Due to this, the passage reveals the shared anger that the Handmaids possess, and the cruelty that has been brought upon the society. The use of similes, diction, syntax, and illustrate the impact that this event had on Offred, for she feels such anger towards the unknown man and the crime he has supposedly committed. These literary and rhetorical devices additionally serve to make this event seem as

The emotions that the commander suppresses are brought to light when the commander attempts to enlighten Offred on the vitality of Gilead as opposed to the previous society. The commander claims that society needed the ideals that are in present day Gilead because in the past “the main problem was with men” (210) as “there was nothing for them anymore” (210). He asks Offred for her opinion, a freedom that a typical handmaid is not allowed, and she expresses it strongly, even though she realizes that “this lack of fear is dangerous” (210). Though she spends her time with the commander, a name that implies regulation, the experiences she shares with him teach her to go against the regime and its

As the novel continues, the narrator paints a picture, emerging in small recollections of how Gilead slowly choked off the old world and put itself in its place, showing the relative ease with which women’s freedoms were given up and taken away, and how simple it was to remake the United States’ society. Women, including Offred’s mother, helped the process by burning pornography and, eventually, becoming Aunts in exchange for a little power or being spared the Colonies. The old United States died with the President’s Day massacre, where the Gileadean revolution is said to have simply, “shot the President and machine-gunned the Congress” (174). Gilead uses fear of death, of torture, and of reprisals as its main weapon, as Offred faces either reckoning or salvation at the hands of the Eyes, “They can do what they want with me. I am abject. I feel for the first time, their true power” (286). Atwood attributes a sense of vulnerability and fragility to

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world in which Christian theonomy has overthrown the United States Government, and all of the women’s rights are taken from them. The novel is told from the perspective of a woman who is living in the new world and how she survives it, as well as how she ended up in this horrendous position. Atwood’s novel has been read by millions of individuals throughout the years, leaving many with different perspectives on it. This critical response will examine how liberals and conservatives have interpreted the novel in different manners.

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

Gilead instills fear in the handmaids by publicly displaying the repercussions of those who rebel against the rules set in place by the government. Offred the main character is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. Handmaids are subject to routine schedules, because of this most are unhappy such as Offred who says, “we thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?” (56). The handmaids are not treated as individuals. Rather, they are seen as potential mothers who hate and avoid looking down at their own body’s “not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because…[they] don’t want to look at something that determines [them] so completely” (71). Offred’s life revolves around shopping trips with Ofglen,

Within the totalitarian society created by Margaret Atwood in the Handmaid’s Tale, there are many people and regimes centred around and reliant on the manipulation of power. The laws that are in place in the republic of Gilead are designed and implemented so as to control and restrict the rights and freedom of its inhabitants.

Offred, in Margaret Atwood’s disturbing novel The Handmaid’s Tale says, “But who can remember pain once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.” The society of Gilead causes the aforementioned pain and demoralization by using women’s bodies as political instruments. Similar to Atwood’s novel, today’s men put immense pressure on women to be a certain way, give them children, and take care of the home and the like. In Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, she examines the theme of demoralization of women through graphic predictions of what women’s futures may look like.

In the novel Atwood writes how Offred the main character transitions from her life before to a Handmaid. Offred wasn’t her real name but the name that was given to her when the Gilead society formed. Prior to the Gilead forming Offred lived with her husband and

In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, the idea of women’s bodies as political instruments and elimination of sexual pleasure is explored. The republic of Gilead “depicts a futuristic society in which a brutal patriarchal regime deprives women of power and subjectivity, enslaving them through a sophisticated, ubiquitous apparatus of surveillance” (Cooper 49). Offred is a “girl” who lives with her commander within Gilead. She is surrounded by girls at his house. When one becomes a woman they have had a baby. Any time before they have a baby they are just girls. They are valued only by their ovaries and wombs. They have no freedom

Throughout history, the debate of how much intervention the government should have in the lives of individuals has been prevalent in various countries. While some people believe the government should play a large role in the lives of citizens to ensure them protection and a more unified country, the government ultimately should have a small extent in regulating the rights of an individual in order to ensure free will in the actions and thinking among citizens. A large amount of government intervention in the rights of an individual often leads to a totalitarian state, where governments exercise great power over the people and expect them to abide by edicts rather than democratic laws. In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, the United States is overthrown by a totalitarian government called The Republic of Gilead, which uses doctrines inspired by the Old Testament as an example of how citizens should live and be treated. In Gilead, due to the low fertility rates, the bodies of women are seen as objects and are completely controlled by the government in hopes to increase the population.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the author, Margaret Atwood, creates a dystopian society that is under theocratic rule. From this theocracy, each individual’s freedom is, for the most part, taken away. The Handmaid’s Tale creates a dystopia by placing restrictions on the individual’s freedom, using propaganda to control its citizens, and by having citizens of Gilead live in dehumanized ways. Furthermore, the creation of a hierarchal system in Gilead caused its citizens to lose the ability to feel empathy towards one another. In the search to create a perfect society, Gilead caused more harm and problems than expected which created a dystopia rather than a utopia.

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood utilizes various elements of fiction to develop and question the concept of power and control in the patriarchal society of Gilead. Offred, the main Handmaid, is the instrument of which Atwood delivers her message about corruption and power. Offred’s vague diction, unreliable characterization, and erratic tone illustrate the distress of this transitional society (Abcarian 1403-1404). In the beginning of Chapter 23, the role of memory in the novel expands, and the readers test the narrator’s creditability. Offred concludes that all of her memories are “reconstructions”, and that she will continue this practice even if she escapes Gilead. She continues to relate fluid memories to forgiveness and forgiveness to an unnaturally complacent and obedient population (Atwood 134-135). Identifying a powerful relationship between memories, forgiveness, and power, Offred suggests that the main source of Gilead’s totalitarian power is the regime’s ability to manipulate its citizens’ will to forgive past transgressions.

A Critical Analysis of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In this dystopia novel, it reveals a remarkable new world called Gilead. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, explores all these themes about women who are being subjugated to misogyny to a patriarchal society and had many means by which women tried to gain not only their individualism and their own independence. Her purpose of writing this novel is to warn of the price of an overly zealous religious philosophy, one that places women in such a submissive role in the family. I believe there are also statements about class in there, since the poor woman are being meant to serve the rich families need for a child. As the novel goes along the narrator Offred is going between the past and

Throughout the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, a major recurring theme is the loss of identity through the power of sex. Offred once lived in a society that praised sexual pleasure. On the other hand, Gilead is a society without the pleasure and only for the means of reproduction. Offred struggles with this transition because she remembers the times when she had possession of her own mind and body. She could love whoever she wished. Offred compares the loveless sex with the Commander “as one composes a speech… a made thing, not something born” (Atwood 66). Atwood’s rhetorical use of a simile exemplifies the loss of self-identity within the people of the society. Offred makes it clear that she must play a role, hide her thoughts and emotions, and be “made,” allowing her to be “composed” or