The Handmaid's Tale

Not only does Gilead control day-to-day time, but also attempts to erase traces of historical time. The creators of Gilead seek to abolish as many traces of the past as possible. Gilead does well in its attempt to erase history, for when Offred goes out on shopping expeditions she is haunted by vague memories of vanished buildings. Offred constantly remembers what used to be, an ice cream store, or a movie theater, but things from Offred’s old life change and disappear so quickly, that she can’t remember “the way they used to be” (164). Gilead has changed so much that they’ve even manipulated a once concrete system of exchange to fade away. Money that was once used in these stores has become a relic of the past. Money is now an artifact that is saved, Offred’s mother “kept some saved, pasted into her scrapbook along with the early photos” (173). People hold on to these keepsakes and hold on to their past as a way to resist Gilead and live in memories. Yet another instance of the totalitarian manipulation, by making paper money obsolete the Gileadean forces are destroying women’s savings and making escape even more impossible. This totalitarian

Margaret Atwood's, The Handmaid's Tale, constructs a near-future dystopia where human values do not progress and evolve, but instead become completely diminished and dominated under the Republic of Gilead. This powerful and secure new government gains complete political control and begins to abuse their power by forcing fertile women to reproduce. The Gileadean society is enforced by many Biblical laws, morals, and themes, yet the Gileadian religious ideologies are based on only a few specifically selected Biblical passages that are taken literally. The selection of certain passages in the Bible helps control and manipulate the women that are being enslaved by giving them a false sense of justification and security for the treatment they

Set sometime during the late twentieth century, The Handmaid's Tale relates events in the Republic of Gilead, a militaristic Christian state that has supplanted the democratic government of the United States after a violent coup d'état. The proliferation of toxic pollution and sexually transmitted diseases in the near future has caused widespread sterility and a decline of Caucasian births. The new ruling male theocracy, situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is founded on fundamentalist biblical principles and a social hierarchy designed to promote controlled procreation. The strict moral code of the regime, a reaction against the amorality and permissiveness of the former United States, is enforced by the constant surveillance of Eyes (secret

The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will

In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale she explores the concept of a not-so-distant future where toxic chemicals and abuses to the body have left many men and women alike sterile. The main character, Offred, gives the reader a first person account about her submissive life as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. A republic that was formed after a coup against the U.S. government. She and her fellow handmaids are fertile women that the commanders of Gilead ‘enslave’ to ensure their power and to repopulate their ‘society’. While the laws that govern the people of Gilead seem outlandish and oppressive, they are merely

Atwood's Attention to Words in The Handmaid's Tale The Handmaids Tale illustrates that dictatorship can be established by creating a state of fear once language controls are instituted. As a tradition to dystopian novels, Atwood has drawn much attention to the meaning of words and the significance of names, as well as the prohibition for women to read or write, in order to portray Gilead as a successful totalitarian state. Atwood is trying to make the point that in a dystopian world, language can be the power.

The setting of The Handmaid’s Tale – known as Gilead – is a totalitarian government, originally based on Old Testament patriarchy. This structure forbids rival loyalties or parties, so all loyalty must be for the group of men that

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Gilead regime oppresses women in many different ways; they take complete control over their bodies, they

The Handmaid's Tale is set in the early twentieth century in the futuristic Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States of America. The Republic has been founded by a Christian response to declining birthrates. The government rules using biblical teachings that have been distorted to justify the inhumane practices. In Gilead, women are categorized by their age, marital status and fertility. Men are categorised by their age. Women all have separate roles in society, and although these roles are different, they all share the same theme: Every woman is confined to the home and has a domestic duty. Marthas are cooks and housekeepers, and handmaids have one duty, which is to reproduce, growing and giving birth to babies to the childless

In The Handmaids Tale citizens must abide by the new rules, therefore they are in constant fear of punishment which includes death. “Abortion, possibly the key issue of the Christian political movement, also had its federal funding eliminated, even though attempts to limit or outlaw abortion itself were fought successfully on Constitutional grounds.” (Napierkowoski) Many people like to argue that men are also mistreated in the novel. Men, such as the Commander, may desire to experience a true connection, this can be seen between the Commander and Offreds’ secret affair. The difference between the Commander and the Handmaids is that the Commander gets to raise a child unlike the Handmaids which are just seen as sex machines. “My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved” (Attwood 94). Shows how they are only used as sex machines…. Gilead believes that women are valuable if they are fertile and can reproduce. It can be seen in history where it is seen as the women’s fault, with Henry the Eighth. He killed his wives because they were unable to give him a son, when in reality Henry the Eighths gene left him unable produce a

The laws of Gilead dehumanizes women and takes away their rights as citizens to society. Gilead wasn’t always like that until the revolution overcame the town and took away women's rights. “In Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, women are totally under the control of male members of the patriarchal society; she describes a patriarchal society and reflects the political ideology in America of that time.” Women are downgraded without any authority and control by men. “Women are like birds that are kept in cages to stop them from flying. And the authorities make women believe that this society is very secure for them and they are protected in this way of living. They also make women believe that the new way is a better freedom and God will save them if they follow.” They are taking the laws made by Gilead and comparing

Women have been domesticated by men since the beginning of time. This role was given to women changing substantially as the years have gone by. It is still true that today there is a battle for equality of the sexes, and this novel by Margaret Atwood displays the harsh reality we continue to face in this male dominant society. Interestingly enough, this was written and published in the 80s and is still relevant today. Some believe that it is perfectly fine to not have equality amongst all let alone equality for women. Atwood’s use of men gives them power over women but they are not to blame for this mistreatment of the opposite sex. The Handmaid’s Tale gives a clear picture of what could happen to our society if women are continued to be seen as voiceless sex objects. It only takes one person to realize that what is occurring is wrong and it takes men and women both to stop the nonsense. Men in the story like The Commander and Nick realize the wrongness, giving the women some hope. The concern for Offred the Commander displays proves not all men are evil or to blame in Gilead.

Ring. Ring. Ring. The echoing sounds of a bell throughout the republic of Gilead whisper to its colonized people, reminding them of their fate. Gilead is a place that embodies its people, particularly women, and removes their rights, freedoms, and beliefs. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, it is a totalitarian nation based upon her prediction of the future of the United States. Atwood’s satiric novel reflects upon many social elements through the eyes of the colonized; these elements being homosexuality, environmental concerns, and the exploitation of power. By satirizing trivial subjects, Atwood poses as a foreboding warning to the future state of the United States while critiquing current concerns.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the author, Margaret Atwood, creates a dystopian society that is under theocratic rule. From this theocracy, each individual’s freedom is, for the most part, taken away. The Handmaid’s Tale creates a dystopia by placing restrictions on the individual’s freedom, using propaganda to control its citizens, and by having citizens of Gilead live in dehumanized ways. Furthermore, the creation of a hierarchal system in Gilead caused its citizens to lose the ability to feel empathy towards one another. In the search to create a perfect society, Gilead caused more harm and problems than expected which created a dystopia rather than a utopia.

These rights that women fought for were eventually given to them. But in Gilead, all these rights were stripped away. Women were not allowed to hold any power and were under control of men. They were also not allowed to anything unless told to, they had no choice in what clothes they wore, but they also were not allowed to have an education. Gilead had some aspects of feminism but to an extreme. Women wanted to be safe, be able to walk around at night without fearing the possibility of getting raped, and also be less sexually exploited. In The Handmaid’s Tale, there is scene where Offred’s mother is campaigning for women to be able to walk safely at night called “Take back the night”, (put book quote her) showing women’s goal in the book to make society a safer place for women and how Gilead applied this campaign to their government. What the women were fighting for was all granted under Gilead with the ban on pornography and how women are no longer harassed by being kept indoors and making it illegal to have sex with anyone other than your assigned partner. But the downside to all of this is that women are sexually exploited as breeding machines and the “free” women exploit their bodies in nightclubs for elite men and