Gender Roles In The Handmaid's Tale

In today’s news we see many disruptions and inconsistencies in society, and, according to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, humankind might be headed in that direction. The deterioration of society is a concept often explored biologically in novels, but less common, is the effect on everyday social constructs such as the position of women as a item that can be distributed and traded-in for a ‘better’ product. The Handmaid’s Tale elaborates the concept that, as societal discrimination towards women intensifies, gender equality deteriorates and certain aspects of societal freedoms are lost. Offred’s experience with serving Gilead demonstrates a victim’s perspective and shows how the occurring changes develope the Republic.

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

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood explores how societies, such as Gilead, exist as a result of complacency as the novel serves as a cautionary tale to future societies. Through ‘The Historical Notes’, Atwood explores the continuation of patriarchy and how the female voice is constantly undermined by the male gaze. Dominick Grace’s analysis of ‘The Historical Notes’ ‘questions … the authenticity’ of Offred’s account as it relies purely on the reliability of memories, which are subjective.

Women in the past were perceived as insignificant because of the society’s inability to embrace and acknowledge women as of equal importance as men and of those who are wealthy. In Margret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the character by the name of Offred, is a handmaid and tells her perspective of the dystopian life in the community of Gilead. The women of 1985 serve the males and the rich if they are not a wealthy maiden themselves. However, regardless of class, women are always discerned as of lesser significance than men. This is manifested through Offred’s observation that although the women who are a Commander’s wife are entitled of higher authority than the handmaids, they are still seen as insignificant. In order to give them

The Handmaid's Tale, a film based on Margaret Atwood’s book depicts a dystopia, where pollution and radiation have rendered innumerable women sterile, and the birthrates of North America have plummeted to dangerously low levels. To make matters worse, the nation’s plummeting birth rates are blamed on its women. The United States, now renamed the Republic of Gilead, retains power the use of piousness, purges, and violence. A Puritan theocracy, the Republic of Gilead, with its religious trappings and rigid class, gender, and racial castes is built around the singular desire to control reproduction. Despite this, the republic is inhabited by characters who would not seem out of place in today's society. They plant flowers in the yard, live in suburban houses, drink whiskey in the den and follow a far off a war on the television. The film leaves the conditions of the war and the society vague, but this is not a political tale, like Fahrenheit 451, but rather a feminist one. As such, the film, isolates, exaggerates and dramatizes the systems in which women are the 'handmaidens' of today's society in general and men in particular.

Within history, societies have to try to find a balance between gender and class. Margaret Atwood writes about a country called Gilead: a society where women are broken down into classes while men control all the power. Throughout her dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood utilizes gender and class to alienate the protagonist, Offred, illustrating how women and their position within society are used as a political instrument to gain dominance.

The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian novel set in a fascistic future of the America, which has been renamed “The Republic of Gilead”. During the history, pivotal social movements have appears out of the analysis of the discrimination that originate from a patriarchal society. For example, the well-known activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton have spoken out for the women's franchise, as well as gender variation in the field of education and the workforce. However, while many community have developed past these misogynistic differences, Margaret Atwood, in her novel The Handmaid's Tale, display a futuristic, dystopian society called Gilead, which draws the idea of patriarchal to their reasonable end.

Lack of Difference from Women in The Handmaid’s Tale and Women in Modern Day Society

Books that are banned or challenged often have controversial topics but many don't consider the positive effects of these books. The Handmaid's Tale is an example of this because despite including uncomfortable topics, it also offers meaningful themes and ideas.

Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a dystopian fiction novel that covers a number of speculative themes. The novel captures the story of Offred, who happens to be a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. This republic is administered by a theocratic and totalitarian system. Given the trouble certain elites within the administration experience in conceiving, the administration offers to acquire Handmaids to help in bearing children on their behalf. The main character, Offred, is assigned to serve the Commander’s family.

In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryís value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, “the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare” (Prescott 151).

Margaret Atwood’s greatest influence on the literary world is undoubtedly her progressive views on feminism and misogyny. The Handmaid’s Tale, her most notable work, is an examination of a totalitarian society that lawfully dehumanizes women, whose sole purpose is to breed and reproduce (Napierkowski 114-115). Grounded in reality, this novel portrays complex female characters that endure the same suffering as many people did at the time:

    Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer.

Margaret atwood Portrays how global issues have tainted our views on gender roles variously throughout the second section of The Handmaid's Tale. Not only is the nation of Gilead telling these women they were meant to bear children and men were meant to be controlled these women are actually buying into it. In the reading a Handmaid is on trial for being gang raped and the whole incident is blamed on Janine for seducing the man. Not only is it horrible the system is failing her but so are her fellow handmaid. When the Aunts ask the audience whose fault the rape was they all shout “ Her fault, her fault, we all shout in unison” Pg. 72 Offred shouts this with Joy and whole heartedly believes that Janine was to blame.

Despite “there [being] about 97 men for every 100 women” in the United States, the country remains a patriarchy (Kiersz). Although the majority of Americans are women, gaining equal rights has been an uphill battle. Voicing the problem is the first step in achieving equality. Protesting is a traditional method of making oneself known and it can be seen in recent literature such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and also in ancient pieces such as Antigone by Sophocles.While these Antigone almost exclusively protest by herself, Ofglen in The Handmaid’s Tale introduces Offred to the community of other handmaids in order to have a greater voice for her problems and even helps her escape her captivity . Unlike these more peaceful means of protest, Delia Jones from “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston and Antigone use violence to make their presence known. No matter the method, these women are paving the way to make America better suited for the reality that women are equal to men.