The Handmaid 's Tale By Margret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, speculates the reconstructed Republic of Gilead as it changes from a commonplace, modern society into a closed, dystopic society in which “misogynistic laws and tendencies are responsible for reducing women to the level of objects” (Chadha 33). The handmaids abide by these strict laws and serve their commander, or risk being severely beaten or tortured on parts of their bodies that are not essential to procreation as their female oppressor Aunt Lydia reminds them “for our purposes your feet and your hands are not essential” (91). Offred, the protagonist, details the evolution of society through her memories of the past and the world around her, proving herself an anomaly to the traditional handmaid by exploring her ability to “act as a subversive agent against the oppressive reality created by the Republic of Gilead” (Hogsette 100). Through Offred’s experiences, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a rife dystopia as Offred challenges the

Throughout the course of world history on Earth, humans have always worked harder and harder in order to improve society and make it more perfect, although it still hasn’t been done quite yet, because it is merely impossible to achieve perfection in a world with close to seven billion people. There is a very distinct difference between a utopia, which can also be known as perfection, and a dystopia, which can also be known as a tragedy; and the outcomes normally generate from the people in charge or the authority that sets up the foundation, the rules, and the regulations for a society. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Republic of Gilead is created by a powerful authority group called the Eyes after a huge government take over and the assassination of the US president. It’s very strict rules and goals are set up to protect women, to increase childbirth, and to keep all violence, men, and powerful social media under control. The novel is set in a first person point of view and the narrator, Offred, tells her story to us readers about her experiences as a handmaid and how her life was completely turned upside down. Throughout the course of the novel Offred reveals many sides of herself; although her thoughts do not remain consistent, her personality and opinion tends to change revealing, that she is hesitant and strong because she learns to make the best of what she has and silently overcome the system of the Republic of Gilead.

In the book The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, the foremost theme is identity, due to the fact that the city where the entire novel takes place in, the city known as the Republic of Gilead, often shortened to Gilead, strips fertile women of their identities. Gilead is a society that demands the women who are able to have offspring be stripped of all the identity and rights. By demeaning these women, they no longer view themselves as an individual, but rather as a group- the group of Handmaids. It is because of the laws that have been established that individuality has been demolished. From these points that will be raised, it can be concluded that a handmaid’s role in Gilead is more important than their happiness, and mental wellbeing.

Atwood uses dehumanisation throughout this extract as a form of control, by reducing someone to something lower than you would imply you had more power over them and could control them. When Offred referred to herself and the other women as ‘wild animals’, a creature that could not think for themselves, would suggest that they would be needed to be controlled. By using animals as a reference to women Atwood was indirectly foretelling Offred’s fate of fundamentally becoming a caged ‘animal’ who serves to breed. Alternatively, because this extract was a flashback it could suggest that men were still able to dehumanise women even before the regime, which therefore suggests that years’ worth of society conditioning men that they had superior power over women led to centuries of women under the control of men. An example of this conditioning would be when the unknown man replaced the ‘usual women’ at the shop, ‘you do that he said indifferently’ his apathetic response suggests he already had control over Offred’s because she could no longer use her card.

In a time when complacency is commonplace; A Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is an important read. The dangers of not paying attention to the occurrences of injustice are front and center throughout the entire story of a woman suddenly stuck in a world ruled by religious zealots. Offred, as she's known now, speaks of the small signs that everyone ignored, constantly looking the other way on any infractions that didn't personally affect them.

In her dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood subliminally raises the question of how one’s personality is influenced by their role in society. This question is answered through multiple characters in the novel, specifically Offred, The Commander, and Moira.

This dystopian novel is written by Margaret Atwood. The title is The Handmaid’s Tale. What was once known as the United States to most people is now known as Gilead. Gilead came about by people who were trying to fix the world so they took power into their own hands to try and stop a declining birthrate and fertility. Handmaids are given to people of high status whose wives can’t have children, so their job is to give the family a child. The government thinks that these handmaids are the perfect people for this because they have viable eggs. Even though they live in such a place where you have no power over yourself any more, and are being watched where you go, Offred, main character survives day to day in the hopes that she will one day see

“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.” (Atwood 125), is a beautiful quote by Margaret Atwood used to portray the struggles and the agonies of women suffering from the unequal Gileadean hierarchy, which indirectly connects to our modern world issues with feminism such as pay gaps and property ownership laws. In the book The Handmaid’s Tale, it is not difficult to spot from the beginning that women are treated inhumanely. They are seen locked up in a gymnasium surrounded by gunmen and other groups of women called ‘Aunts’ with electric tasers, and the names all seem to be pre-made, as all names mentioned at the end of the first chapter possess polysyllabic first names and monosyllabic last names, except one, June. It seems that the new groups of people called Sons of Jacob overthrew

Women deserve freedom as much as men. They are both humans, therefore, must have the same rights. Margaret Atwood addresses this topic with her book The Handmaid’s Tale. The story takes place in a future dystopia called Gilead. Women lose all rights and become objects for men. The Handmaids are a great example. All of their names start with Of followed by their master’s name. The main character’s name, Offred, means of Fred’s property. She is one of many women who are downgraded to objects. She breaks minor laws as acts of defiance. She is constantly remembering her pasts when she had a daughter and a lover. She continues her disobedient acts and is interested in joining a group of rebels, Mayday. As she struggles to survive, she falls in love with Nick. After the Eyes take her away, she has never seen ever again.

Summary: In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, a handmaid Offred is the narrator and the protagonist throughout the book, and the story is told through her point of view. Offred serves the Commander. This all takes place in Gilead, which is a totalitarian and theocratic state that has supposedly replaced the United States. Along with serving the Commander, Offred also serves his wife, Serena Joy, who is a former gospel singer who follows “traditional values.” Offred’s freedom, along with every other woman living in Gilead is entirely restricted. In fact, every month she is forced to have intercouse with the Commander, she cannot leave the house unless

The strictness behind interactions between men and women in this dystopia is to avoid the fact that “Men have greater control in sexual relations and sexual encounters are structured more by their desires and needs. ”(Sapiro, 321) Sexual relationships are a duty that needs to be fulfill rather than a form of pleasure. Violence against women has declined in this society but women pay the price by having all their freedom taken from them. Ultimately, making traditional views the base of all rules and standards in a society created the dystopia in The Handmaids Tale. The story covers the many aspects in a society where women have no voice or power due to religious morals.

Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handsmaid’s Tale is a powerful piece of composition that surfaces the political ideals and social movements during Atwood’s period of life. Though an important primary focus of the tale is the oppressing consequence of patriarchal control of women in Gilead’s society, Atwood, through extensive detailing of Gilead’s power structure, reveal that a deeper and problematic expression of the novel is the disunion that exist amongst the female characters. Such disunity ultimately prevented the females from empowering their own kind and successfully rising against the powers that subjugated them. Atwood’s piece, though perhaps a criticism of her perceived failed feminist movements that occurred during her time is also a prognosticating urging for women in any liberating movements to form soliditary ties among one another.

If utopia were conceived to depict infallible humanity, its antipodean dystopia acts as a characterisation of the vicissitudes of the human condition, epitomised by primal desires for self-actualisation. Therefore, the most effective dystopias draw upon socio-political anxieties in order analyse the individual’s role within a corrupted collective, whereby individuality is subverted by a markedly subhuman totalitarian regime. Margaret Atwood’s patriarchal anti-utopian text, A Handmaid’s Tale, presents a dire trajectory of her 1980s context, when “church-based groups…took stances that…opposed the sexual revolution.” (Rinfuss, 1998) Consequently, the oppressive Gilead is a theocratic state built by Neo-Conservatives, in which puritanical interpretations

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. Dystopian novels often feature societal norms taken to dangerous extremes. Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale contains each and every feature of a typical dystopian novel, though she prefers to refer to it as social science-fiction. Ideological and social conditions taken to extremes enforced by authoritarian regimes, social trends isolated or exaggerated, and stability being secured through impossible ideals are all features highlighted in this novel. Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale using symbolism and characterization to convey the risk of the total objectification of women’s bodies, especially for governmental uses.

Lisbet Ward wakes up with no recollection of her past identity;what she does know is that she is now the cyborg clone of the most cunning gladiator inside the walls of Artemisia. Lisbet's mission is simple. One, take the gladiator's place once she wins the Trial held annually for the ones seeking a chance at royalty or freedom. Two, only instead of choosing the obvious option of freedom like any level-headed gladiator would, she chooses royalty. Three, she is wedded to the bastard king and kills him in his sleep. Four, start a