Power In 'The Handmaid's Tale'

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.

As you read through the handmaid’s tale you see the relationships of the characters develop and the fight for power, however small that glimpse of power may be. The images of power can be seen through out the novel, but there are major parts that stand out to the reader from the aunt’s in the training centre to the secret meetings between the Commander and Offred.

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.

Hungry for power. Metaphorically querulous. Weak. The Commander is the representation of male insecurity. This character is derived from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s novel reveals that hunger for control can lead to the oppression of women, this is demonstrated through the Commander’s characterization, the Aunts attitudes, and some of the Gileadean rules/laws.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a disturbing novel that displays the presence and manipulation of power. This is displayed throughout the novel and is represented significantly in three ways. As the book takes place in the republic of Gilead, the elite in society are placed above every other individual who are not included in their level. Secondly, men are placed at the top of the chain and they significantly overpower women in the society (elite or not). Finally the individuals within the elite society also overpower each other and have their own separate roles. This can be interpreted as a chain. Men of the elite are placed at the top, the men who less elite

A character in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale that attempted to maintain her sense of power and identity is Offred. She endeavored to keep her sense of power by rebelling. In Chapter 17, she sneaked into the hallway of her household, thinking her actions were “entirely illegal” (97). Standing in the hall, Offred said, “I like this. I am doing something, on my own.” (97). As a result of Offred sneaking out without anyone knowing, she “liked” it and felt powerful in the moment. The men and women in charge over her could not fully hold her down; she was doing something on her own for a change. Her ability to rebel in anyway gave her a sense of satisfaction, freedom, and power in a society that attempted to take them

also connects to the ranks between men and women . The references hold such power,

This quote shows how once a person or group has power it is close to impossible to take it away from them and that how the Party does what they intend to do without tricks. They do what they must in order to sustain control of their citizens. This exemplifies how people with power do not care how they maintain power, even if it means torturing the citizens which they are supposed to pave the pathway for.

The significant elements that make a literature interesting and attractive are not only a plot, settings, and characters but also the style and tone of the story. They are the main keys that propel the purpose of the story and the attitude of the author by passing through the language methods, which include rhetorical devices and figurative language, that he or she is using. The Handmaid’s Tale, which is written by Margaret Atwood, is the novel that the author uses several different devices and techniques to convey her attitude and her points of view by running the story with a narrator Offred, whose social status in the Republic of Gilead is Handmaid and who is belongings of the Commander. Atwood creates her novel The Handmaid’s Tale to be more powerful tones by using imagery to make a visibleness, hyperbole to create more effective, simile for comparison, and allusion to make references.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, a social hierarchy is shown, especially between the women and men. It’s interesting that even among the women–women had more power than others. Handmaids, despite not having more power than the Wives or Aunts these women hold power, their ovaries. Handmaids are women who capable of conceiving and are used to bare children. Handmaids, in my opinion, will be in the middle(middle-class). Wives are of course usually married to Commanders because of their husband these women have a certain amount of power and are accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Wives show that who you are married to matters the wives are infertile themselves. If the wives weren’t married to high-ranking men they will be a unwoman, Econowife, or Martha.

Secondly, in The Handmaid's Tale, there are secret police in the Republic of Gilead called the Eyes. The Eyes are responsible for maintaining law and order and rooting out traitors of the government. No one knows exactly what they look like because anyone could be an Eye, as all of them are undercover spies. Eyes are also responsible for interrogating and arresting suspects, as well as it is implied that they torture and kill suspects if they are not compliant. When Offred is out walking to a shop with a friend, Japanese tourists ask if she is happy with her life.

The handmaid’s tale uses the oppression of women to bring out flaws in societies that undervalue women. The Handmaids tale tells the story of a captured woman, forced to be a handmade for surrogate births. Her position is looked down upon by the society she is striving to create. Without the surrogate mothers, Gilead’s society would deplete. The only sex allowed is marital sex and in this setting, most of the men have gone sterile.

Both result in Gilead’s censorship and control of reproduction and sexuality. These women were not looked at a real people, but as a mere way to increase the population and grow this society. Margaret Atwood uses an array of symbols in order to convey the internal struggle of women in their fight to gain equality versus men. These symbols show how demanding the men were towards the women of this time underrepresents their inner feelings towards this treatment.

Government control is a consistent theme within the dystopian genre, it's often the catalyst that turns a world like our own into a dystopian state. Totalitarian governments such as the sons of Jacob in “The Handmaid’s Tale” use anonymity of their control and religious fundamentalism to ensure that there is no rebellion within their regime. In "The Handmaid's Tale", religion holds the totalitarian government together, it uses extremism of the bible to enforce rules and virtues that all the people must follow. These virtues ensure that the government stays in control, and with the constant surveillance of the Eyes it in forces that everyone follows the strict religion. The Eyes are an example of an anonymous power that uses fear to enforce the government's control.

Ring. Ring. Ring. The echoing sounds of a bell throughout the republic of Gilead whisper to its colonized people, reminding them of their fate. Gilead is a place that embodies its people, particularly women, and removes their rights, freedoms, and beliefs. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, it is a totalitarian nation based upon her prediction of the future of the United States. Atwood’s satiric novel reflects upon many social elements through the eyes of the colonized; these elements being homosexuality, environmental concerns, and the exploitation of power. By satirizing trivial subjects, Atwood poses as a foreboding warning to the future state of the United States while critiquing current concerns.