Oppression In The Handmaid's Tale

The portray different way in which the Republic of Gilead exercise control in the society. The Republic of Gilead has controlled, and also oppressed the society’s right in a manipulative way. By using religious to disguise for their lawlessness. They have projected their control over the society by their impartial ideologies, sexism and misogyny, slavery and social hierarchy. The Republic of Gilead exercises control over its society in way that in Gilead society women rights are taken for granted.

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.

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

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is set in a future time period where the United States is under the control of the Gileadean regime. A terrorist attack leads to the collapse of Congress, the suspension of the Constitution, and the establishment of a theocratic totalitarian government. Men and women are given roles within society; they are Commanders, Eyes, Handmaids, and Marthas. In this novel, Atwood explores a prominent social issue, feminism. The suppression and power of women are examined through the setting and characterization of the novel to help understand the meaning of the novel as a whole.

Gilead is a society not far from the present and it based around one central idea, control of reproduction by using women’s bodies as political instruments. Handmaids are women who the state took complete control of through their political subjugation. They are not allowed to vote, hold property, read or do anything that can make them independent from their husband and the state. These handmaids are reduced to their fertility and treated like nothing more than a set of ovaries and a womb. They lose their identity and become an object of the state. The narrator of The Handmaids Tale is a handmaid by the name of Offred. The novel takes place in first person point of view and this allows the readers to see how she is treated and all the events that take place for her. First person point of view allows the reader a closer view as to how a central theme develops by giving the reader a firsthand experience from the mind of the narrator.

With these changes to society, members often felt bounded by Gilead and the ability to control one’s thoughts appears impossible, as Aunt Lydia tells Offred, “The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you” (Atwood 23). It appears that Aunt Lydia believes that Gilead is an internal part of each individual and therefore, it is always helping to ‘shape’ one’s thoughts and actions. Gilead’s justification of why women don’t need an education is that since a woman’s purpose in society is to bear children and raise them, they no longer require an education to perform such duties. The male population of Gilead did not lose the same rights that the women lost, however, males still have restricted freedom and restricted access to materials (books, magazines, etc). The restrictions placed on women’s and men’s lives in Gilead appear to match a characteristic of a dystopia. Since men and women don’t receive the same education in Gilead due to the restrictions on freedom, it would be improper to consider Gilead a utopia.

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred’s accepts her role as a bystander of a perpetual atrocity as her struggle progresses. Offred’s experience exemplifies the pattern of devolution in women impacted by internalized oppression through her metamorphosis from a defiant agent to a complicity individual to an isolated victim of an extremely repressive society. When the story begins, the Republic of Gilead has already been established. Women lack autonomy of any kind, and Offred, a handmaiden of an influential family in the Republic, recounts how the society came to be. She remembers the revolution and the violence, but she also recalls the way life was before the Republic.

Despite the many ways to interpret Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, there’s no denying that the chain of command in Gilead can seem quite fluid when it comes to who is in control (and who has more at stake). Though the handmaids seem like they should be the most afraid, it is actually the Commanders who have more reasons to be fearful, and the handmaids who have genuine power. If all handmaids realized their capabilities, mutinies like that of Mayday would be even more successful. The Commanders have always known that their hostile taking over of the government is worthy of opposition.

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

Power, violence, and fear kept control. The story is disturbing, but it is also reflective of what goes on in modern society. It leaves us with a sense that something as dramatic as a society like Gilead could happen in the future, what would any of us do in that situation. Offred resisted the ideology of Gilead in her mind, but she could not escape it or her role as a Handmaid much in the same way the rest of the citizens could not escape the roles they played in Gilead. They were controlled by the religious based ideas and the fear of consequence the Gilead regime used to solidify its power, would we be able to escape

She was able to live a “normal” life until her country was taken over and made into Gilead, an oppressive theocracy. This oppression is especially prevalent in the lives of the women of Gilead. One restriction they encounter

These women have no hope to stick up for themselves because they get executed if they try to get free from a place run by Men. The Handmaid’s Tale is such an interesting book with a closely realistic concept of society. Everything that happened in the book most likely happened one way or another, some of these events were down in history. It’s one of the things that shocked me throughout this book.

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

Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, a futuristic dystopia. The Republic of Gilead was part of the United State, but after a terrorist attack cripples the American government a group of fundamentalist Christians take power. The first thing they do while in power is suspend the constitution which makes it possible to take away women’s rights. As the book progresses we find out the main character, Offred is a handmaid. Handmaids in Gilead are used only for reproduction purposes. We also find out she no longer is married to Luke or her daughter because when they tried to escape to Canada they were caught and split up. Eventually Offred and the Commander begin an illegal relationship. When they are in private