Q.U.E.S.T Literary Analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian society emerges. The USA has been overrun and reformed into the Republic of Gilead. Offred, the narrator and main character is in a category of women known as Handmaids; women who wear red and are valued only for their ovaries. The story follows Offred as she’s in service to her third Commander, and continues until her “arrest”. During this time Offred embarks on many a Q.U.E.S.T, realizing a bit more on each one: just how broken the new government system is, who can be trusted, what people want from her. Near the beginning of the book readers are introduced to Ofglen, Offred’s traveling partner for the market that’s been assigned to her. Offred’s feelings towards Ofglen were very clear and overall neutral: “she is my spy and I am …show more content…
“I want to steal something...In the hall the night-light’s on...I walk, one foot set carefully down, then the other, without creaking...this is entirely illegal...I reach the sitting room, door’s ajar, slip in, leave the door a little open...What should I take? something that will not be missed...I find the daffodils...I hear the step, quiet as mine, the creaking of the same floor board...then a whisper: ‘Don’t scream. It’s all right.’ As if I’d scream...He steps towards me. Nick...’He told me to,’ Nick says. ‘He wants to see you. In his office.’ (Atwood 120-123). The quester, Offred, sneaks at night to the sitting room. She’s aiming to steal some, a flower she decides, only to be intruded on; a big problem. It turns out to be Nick, one of the Guardians who works for Offred’s current Commander. He informs her that the commander wishes to see her, the true nature of her quest that
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.
Her belief gives her a false sense of security as well as her unwillingness to rebel due to fear of the Eyes. Her conversations with others are "Praise be," "Blessed be the fruit," and "May the Lord open" it is difficult for Offred or any women to really have a meaningful conversation for fear that anyone is a spy. Everything that Offred does is now part of the norm of society. She doesn't question her duties just does what is expected of her. As Offred begins a secret relationship with Nick she believes she has reclaimed a tiny piece of her past. She becomes addicted to the small amount of companionship from Nick, causing her to turn a blind eye to the injustices going on around her. She feels empowered because it was her own choice. When in reality she did what was expected of her. Using her body in order to produce a child.
Without having Moira there with her Offred begins to become slightly more rebellious. Knowing the Handmaids are not allowed to discuss each other, Offred pursues to ask Aunt Lydia if she knows where Moira is. Through this action does Offred also start to look into the rebellious attitudes of her mother.
In chapter one of the Handmaid’s Tale we learn somewhat about the handmaids. For example that they go to sleep in what use to be a gymnasium, they are not allowed to speak so at night to remember their real names they whisper it to one another. They have woman called Aunts that have electric cattle prods in their belts and twice daily the woman go on walks in the football field surrounded by a fence with barbed wire and on the outside of the barbwire fence are guards called Angels who never look at the handmaids. But the handmaid’s long to be looked at in order for some exchange of their bodies could happen.
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
reader can infer from Offred’s monologues that she, to some extent, wants to be a
Character Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale Moira = == = = We first meet Moira "breezing into" (P65) Offred's room at college.
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.
depending on the reader, but he uses his power to get what he wants. ,
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 OPPRESSION OF WOMEN IN ATWOOD’S THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND THEIR WAYS OF RESISTING THE REGIME
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.
Neologisms and Biblical Language help to give new meaning to words that were heard before and are scattered throughout the novel, from beginning to end. With language resulting in so much of the woman’s freedom, the story quite frankly could go two ways. After Offred has her child (assuming she has one), she may find a new perspective in all of this and find her place in society, something that she has been searching for since she became a Handmaid. This would result in no social change, but would end the story as her
Throughout the first 15 Chapters we are provided with information, as narrated by Offred, with glimpses of her past life and her journey to the life she is now facing. These glimpses are not logical in their sequencing or chronological in the narration, therefore creating a feeling of disorientation among readers, a feeling matching that experienced by those living in this society. This also provokes many questions in the reader’s mind along with creating tension and expectation as to the nature of the procreation which we have come to
A genuine identity and individuality is not possible in an oppressive environment especially when one’s daily life, actions, and thoughts are dictated by domineering societal expectations. Oppressive environments such as regimes controlled by a dictatorship and that run off a totalitarian government system strip an individual of their civil rights as a human being in order to gain ultimate control over its citizens. A government such as the Republic of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s work, The Handmaid’s Tale, controls their citizen’s lives to the extent to where they must learn to suppress their emotions and feelings. In the Republic of