The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Offred is the protagonist and narrator of the “The Handmaid’s Tale”. As one of the rare fertile women in this dystopian world, she is put at the bottom of the social hierarchy as a Handmaid, where her sole purpose is to provide children for the Commander and his Wife. Despite being the protagonist, Offred is a passive character who generally conforms to the social stereotypes in Gilead due to her cowardice. Despite this, there are some moments where the reader is able to acknowledge the degree of power she holds within this society.

The Aunts even subject Offred’s body to routine exercises where they ask her to “breathe in to the count of five, hold expel” (70). Offred’s time is void, and her existence in Gilead is an empty vessel, a body to breed. She compares Gilead is a blurry white noise, where memories are the only thing that keeps Offred going.

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 this brave new world, women are subjugated to the will and authority of men and divided into eight distinct classes. Wives are perched atop this government-mandated social strata, followed by daughters and then “handmaids,” a concubine class tasked with the job of continuing the human race, as sterility is on the rise. (Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is the Prestige Miniseries We Need Right Now)

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.

In her book, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Margaret Atwood describes a dystopian society in which all of the progress in the feminist movement that was made during the twentieth century is reversed and the nation is reverted back to its traditional patriarchal ways. The story is told from the point of view of Offred, a woman who was separated from her husband and child and forced into the life of a handmaid. In this book, Atwood explores the oppression of women through her use of literary tools such as figurative language, symbols, and literary allusions.

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.

Margret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaids Tale is a striking work of fiction, with strong characters inundated in a depressing melancholy. A dysfunctional patriarchal society based around the common goal of producing offspring, Gilead, becomes the physical manifestation of modern misogyny and championing of the male. Atwood uses this speculative and extreme example in the future to convey a message about current society, resulting in a famous example of the Dystopian genre. Atwood explores the ideas of individuality, leadership and control, conveying her ideas through a multitude of techniques.

In Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale, she narrates how women are abused mentally and physically by the hands of men. Also, women were forced to become prostitutes or sent to colonies. During the Republic of Gilead which is ruled by men and surrounded by corruption, lust, prostitution, and violence towards women who were punished by hanging or being sent to colonies for exile if they break the rules. According to the government, women, who cannot follow the rules or have babies, were considered worthless. Women were strongly identified by coded languages that were mainly hidden within their clothing and were manipulated to act within Gilead.

Throughout history, women have always struggled with maintaining a status equal to that of men in both the workforce as well as home life. Traditionally, women have been forced to be shut into the house performing grotesquely dull action such as constantly cooking, cleaning and caretaking while the man is out bringing home the money due to the female’s ability to reproduce readily. This outdated status of women, however, is taken to an extreme in The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood where the women are demoted as practically slaves to the system. While numerous pieces of literature have addressed slavery across the world in different lights, very few have explored the enslavement felt by women to men in the ages prior to present day. By

Offred is a character created from a tranquil and reserved handmaid into the defiant hero as the story goes on. Atwood utilizes this character change to show how interest can lead one to push the points of confinement of society and the limits of knowledge. The Novel is set in a dystopian society where women have been stripped of their identity. Offred is one of them, being separated from her daughter and husband then being taken in to be trained as a handmaid. Offred now battles through this new world and to stick on to what little she has left.

The Handmaid’s Tale explores gender and identity as well as domestic politics, which, in turn, ties into social protest. Atwood uses the example of a ‘Unwomen’, who were past protestors demonstrating against violent sexual attacks on women and calling for greater safety on the streets. This relays the knowledge that rebellions and protests have happened in the past and makes readers aware of the dilemma that moral freedom comes at a price. The real threat in The Handmaid’s Tale comes not from males but from the females. In other words, the male-dominated power structure that exists relies on females to regulate one another and enforce social standards within their society.

As readers, we observe the story line in perspective of offred and alongside we discover her feelings and emotions throughout her Journey. Among the first chapters of the novel, Offred is mainly portrayed as an obedient and compliant character. However, in contrary there are several indications within the book that suggests otherwise. There is short fragments of Atwood’s novel in the beginning chapters, that I believe subtly foreshadows her increasing sense of rebellion and disobedience against society (Gilead). This essay will explore the development about the character of Offred and give you a sense of evidence against of her being a ‘wholly compliant’ character or in agreement with the statement.

A Critical Analysis of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In this dystopia novel, it reveals a remarkable new world called Gilead. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, explores all these themes about women who are being subjugated to misogyny to a patriarchal society and had many means by which women tried to gain not only their individualism and their own independence. Her purpose of writing this novel is to warn of the price of an overly zealous religious philosophy, one that places women in such a submissive role in the family. I believe there are also statements about class in there, since the poor woman are being meant to serve the rich families need for a child. As the novel goes along the narrator Offred is going between the past and