The Handmaid Monologue

Serena Joy is the most powerful female presence in the hierarchy of Gileadean women; she is the central character in the dystopian novel, signifying the foundation for the Gileadean regime. Atwood uses Serena Joy as a symbol for the present dystopian society, justifying why the society of Gilead arose and how its oppression had infiltrated the lives of unsuspecting people.

“There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from,” (Atwood 24). The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, is a novel set in the near future where societal roles have severely changed. The most notable change is that concerning women. Whereas, in the past, women have been gaining rights and earning more “freedom to’s”, the women in the society of The Handmaid’s Tale have “freedom froms”. They have the freedom from being abused and having sexist phrases yelled at them by strangers. While this may seem like a safer society, all of the “safeness” comes at a drastic cost. Atwood depicts a dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale

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

Parents typically don’t want their children reading in depth books about sex; however, The Handmaid’s Tale offers great fictional examples that teach sexism and the mistreatment of women, yet these examples can lead some in the wrong way. Therefore depending on the view in society, The Handmaid’s tale should be banned or kept to certain areas of the world because of the unfair treatment of women.

Paula Hawkins, a well-known British author, once said, “I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.” In Margaret Atwood’s futuristic dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale, a woman named Offred feels she is losing control over everything in her life. Offred lives in the Republic of Gilead. A group of fundamentalists create the Republic of Gilead after they murder the President of the United States and members of Congress. The fundamentalists use the power to their advantage and restrict women’s freedom. As a result, each woman is assigned a specific duty to perform in society. Offred’s husband and child are taken away from her and she is now forced to live her life as a Handmaid. Offred’s role in society is to produce a child

Can human live without love? The answer is evidently no. Love can be defined as: the most spectacular, indescribable, deep euphoric feeling for someone. Margaret Atwood, the author of the outstanding dystopian fiction the handmaid 's tale (1985) had once in her book said: " nobody dies from lack of sex. It 's lack of love we die from.” In this novel, Atwood specifically depicts a society where relationships have been altered, undermined and in many ways forbidden. The key word in the issue of relationships is love. In the Republic of Gilead, a form of theocratic government, women had lost their ability to love. The protagonist Offred is a handmaid whose sole purpose in life is to reproduce a child. Gilead expects its handmaids to have faith in its commandments, but has removed love and hope from them. Women became objects and sex slaves to men. Therefore, the relationships of the protagonist Offred are unhealthy as well as abnormal, yet they are source of hope for Offred to survive from this theocratic form of government. Her relationship with the commander is strained but profitable, her relationship with Serena Joy has lots of tensions and conflicts; and her relationship with Nick is subtle as well as controversial.

I’m gonna kill you. And don’t think I won’t. I’m the most murderous man in Tennessee. I have a shovel, two forks, and my mother’s ashes in a Flintstones lunchbox. You decide which one I use.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood- Quote and Response Offred talks about the path of her walk: “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” (Atwood, Page 165) Offred and Ofglen are traveling home from their routine trip to the market. The path that they take to and from the market often varies and changes based on their desire. While pondering this Offred realizes that Gilead is basically a maze and the people living within it are the rats. Yes, they are free to go anywhere

     Are the women of Gilead aware that they are being controlled by the society? In Margaret Atwood¡¯s The Handmaid¡¯s Tale, the theme of control is a very important factor of the book. In the story, at the Republic of Gilead, the women are being controlled by the society to do what the society wants them to do. The handmaids are brainwashed before they start working for the society. But since the brainwashing happens so naturally over a period of time, the handmaids don¡¯t fully realize that they have been brainwashed by the society to do what the society wants them to do.

In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.

The central social hierarchy within the novel is the gender hierarchy, placing men in a position of extreme power. This is evident in every aspect of the book, as the entire Gilead society is male dominated. The Commander is at the top of the hierarchy and is involved with designing and establishing the current society taking control of a nation of women, and exploiting their power by controlling what is taught, what they can teach themselves and the words that they can use. Soon all of the women will become brainwashed, simply because it is made nearly impossible to defy the rules

The Dystopian concerns in The Road and The Handmaid’s Tale Dystopian novels have a prominent role in American fiction after 1945. When one talks about Dystopian subgenre, it envisions a time not so distant from the present that world is in an unpleasant time which can deal with either government fallen under a totalitarian rule or the environment is in a degradable state. There are two specific novels that fall under this subgenre: The Road and The Handmaid’s Tale. The Road deals with the outcome of the environment in the United States after a nuclear outbreak, and The Handmaid’s Tale deals with the idea of theocracy and the thin line that separates church and state, concerns that can make up a dystopian novel. The Road deals with the United States in the not so far future being damaged to an unrepairable state by unknown nuclear outbreak which is one concern that is focused on in a dystopian novel.

    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.

Hunter: so beau goes and tries to stab bart while he is looking for a pencil

As Offred was returning to the commander’s house, she stumbled acrossed a funeral of a deceased baby who’s about 3 months old. The baby was held in a jar and the women were wearing black veils. They were Econowifes who hated people like Offred. Offered understood the pain of not being able to deliver an alive child. She says, “ I wonder Ofglen feels what I do, pain like a stab, in the belly” (44). Offred was unsuccessful in delivering a child two times. Therefore, she understands the pain of losing a child and not being able to do what she is required to do since it’s not a choice.