The Handmaid's Tale Essay

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

THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN IN ATWOOD’S THE HANDMAID’S TALE AND THEIR WAYS OF RESISTING THE REGIME

Women in the past were perceived as insignificant because of the society’s inability to embrace and acknowledge women as of equal importance as men and of those who are wealthy. In Margret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the character by the name of Offred, is a handmaid and tells her perspective of the dystopian life in the community of Gilead. The women of 1985 serve the males and the rich if they are not a wealthy maiden themselves. However, regardless of class, women are always discerned as of lesser significance than men. This is manifested through Offred’s observation that although the women who are a Commander’s wife are entitled of higher authority than the handmaids, they are still seen as insignificant. In order to give them

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood describes the story of Offred, a Handmaid, that is a woman ascribed a breeding function by society, and who is placed with a husband and wife higher up the social ladder who need a child. Through Offred's eyes we explore the rigidity of the theocracy in which she lives, the contradictions in the society they have created, and her attempts to find solace through otherwise trivial things. The heroine is never identified except as Offred, the property of her current Commander, she was a modern woman: college-educated, a wife and a mother when she lost all that due to the change in her society. The novel can be viewed from one perspective as being a feminist depiction of the suppression of a woman, from another

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.

The Handmaid’s Tale is about Offered as she shares her thoughts and experiences in a journal-like form and provides some advice. Offred is a lower class female who has been taken from her husband and daughter at 5 years old to be a handmaid for the red commander at the red center. The point of this center is to reproduce with the Commander

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 Handmaid’s Tale is definitely a classic book l even though it’s satire so much is present in the novel. The misuse of the Bible is common many people use it to oppress women by dictating what a woman can or can’t do. The character Offred is complex I struggled with the question whether or not her character is someone I like or despise. The conflict arises for me when she how she continued to Play Scrabble with Commander(forbidden) and also she kisses him(forbidden). Then It came back to me Offred was a mistress to Luke and to be fair for a moment I reacted negatively toward her character. However, in spite of being judgmental, I snapped back into reality and realized that Offred is the victim. Serena Joy is the victim. The Commander is

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 story’s protagonist and narrator is a woman referred to as Offred, who lives in the fairly new Republic of Gilead which has taken the place of the United States. She is what is known as a Handmaid; alarmingly low reproductive rates led to young women whom are able to reproduce being assigned to well-off couples who are infertile. Essentially they are sex slaves being used for their uteruses. These women are generally not willing or believers in the new regime or in their new roles in society -- they are given the choice between being

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is taken place in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in this novel, Atwood shows us the challenges The Commander, Moira, and Offred face throughout. This novel takes place in a dystopian society in the future. It is a time where fertile women are used to conceive children because of the low fertility rate, this is the product of a nuclear war and a government who was overthrown by religion. A theocracy. In this new society, men have the authority of the household and anything that circles them. As we start getting to know the characters, we get a sense of rebellion from them towards the government and the decisions they make throughout the novel. Moira attempts to commit suicide in order for her not to be taken away for the crime she committed. The commander, having such a high position, breaks the law by allowing a handmaid to read magazines and play scrabble in return for affection. Finally, Offred gives in and has an affair with the households gardener and chauffeur, which they both know have consequences. This then gives Offred the courage to escape with the gardener Nick, although at the beginning she followed all the rules enforced by the Republic of Gilead. Love, once taken away can drive people to make crazy decisions and risk their lives in order to have their happily ever after.

The people, or the commander’s whom set up Gilead, expect to improve human kind. In The Handmaid’s Tale, there is a separation of societal class. Men become the sole providers, and women are to act as vessels in order to increase reproduction. The character,

The main character, Offred, is a woman who lives in the Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead overthrew the original United States government and quickly began to take away women’s rights. As a result, Offred was forced to become a Handmaid, a fertile woman whose job is to bear children for a Commander who has an infertile Wife. The story follows Offred through her ordeals as a Handmaid with virtually no rights. She hopes that she will become pregnant so that she will not be sent away with the sterile Unwoman, who are exiled to the Colonies to clean up deadly pollution. Offred misses what the country used to be and struggles to survive in the dystopia that has erupted.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a story about Offred, or more specifically Offred had made herself into a story so that she will be able to resist Gilead’s effort of removing individuality and preserve her identity. At the beginning of her narrative, Offred has reflected on her narrative, stating, “If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending” (Atwood 44). For Offred,

Imagine having no option other than breaking your government laws to survive. In the new society, Republic of Gilead, Offred is ultimately trying to survive with the new laws that were implemented. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood which conveys the quest for survival leads to breaking laws. It’s shown through the tone of Offred, foreshadowing Offred and her daughter attempted escape, and plot twist of Serena Joy.