The Handmaid's Tale Women

In today’s news we see many disruptions and inconsistencies in society, and, according to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, humankind might be headed in that direction. The deterioration of society is a concept often explored biologically in novels, but less common, is the effect on everyday social constructs such as the position of women as a item that can be distributed and traded-in for a ‘better’ product. The Handmaid’s Tale elaborates the concept that, as societal discrimination towards women intensifies, gender equality deteriorates and certain aspects of societal freedoms are lost. Offred’s experience with serving Gilead demonstrates a victim’s perspective and shows how the occurring changes develope the Republic.

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

A dystopian text is a manifestation of society 's deepest fears. How is this explored in The Handmaid 's Tale and Gattaca?

Within history, societies have to try to find a balance between gender and class. Margaret Atwood writes about a country called Gilead: a society where women are broken down into classes while men control all the power. Throughout her dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood utilizes gender and class to alienate the protagonist, Offred, illustrating how women and their position within society are used as a political instrument to gain dominance.

Parents typically don’t want their children reading in depth books about sex; however, The Handmaid’s Tale offers great fictional examples that teach sexism and the mistreatment of women, yet these examples can lead some in the wrong way. Therefore depending on the view in society, The Handmaid’s tale should be banned or kept to certain areas of the world because of the unfair treatment of women.

Margaret Atwood is author that is most famously known for her use of feminism in her literary works. The Handmaid’s Tale is among one of the most well known books for its critique of feminism. Feminism is described as the advocating for women's rights for equality to men on all levels, including social, political, and economical. Atwood’s novel centers around a dystopian culture in which women’s rights are disregarded by the state, men, and fellow women. After the birth rate started to decline, the state decided to take control by creating a new society in which reproduction was the main focus. The men did not lose their right when the new society was formed, creating a patriarchal society. A disunity was created within the various rankings of women in

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.

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

Misogyny is the ideology of men being superior to women, and the hatred of women. This ideology continues in our society today and in The Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood; misogyny taints society by degrading women. This belittling leads to: patriarchal views, objectification, and shaming of women.

Dystopian societies brainwash the minds of the people by limiting their freedom to think for themselves. “When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man” (Burgess). These societies deprive its people from expressing their individuality. By having a form of expression, it allows people to have radical ideas. This could lead to rebellion and could overthrow the government. To keep this from happening, dystopian societies limit its people’s free will. The CorpSeCorps in Oryx and Crake makes sure that the no individual acts against the regime. When someone is under suspicion of questioning the government and society, they take action by extracting them from the compounds and eventually killing them. It is not uncommon for the CorpSeCorpse to

Books that are banned or challenged often have controversial topics but many don't consider the positive effects of these books. The Handmaid's Tale is an example of this because despite including uncomfortable topics, it also offers meaningful themes and ideas.

Additionally, at the time Atwood was writing the novel, the president of the United States was a republican named Ronald Reagan. His party were known for their conservative and religious beliefs overruling their actions and one aspect they were in favour of was taking away the legality of abortions within America. Once again, men were dictating the rights women have over their bodies, and there is no shortage of this discrimination in the novel. The Republic of Gilead was a strict, totalitarian regime that based its laws and customs around the Christian Bible. Roles were assigned where men had access to education and have influential positions whereas women were regarded as second-class citizens who should be subject to men. However, the creators of Gilead justified their regulations by claiming women were more protected in their society. During her time in the Red Centre, Offred and the rest of the Handmaids were shown sadistic, pornographic films to demonstrate how women were humiliated and abused in the old system and persuade them that they were better off under Gilead. Aunt Lydia further emphasised how women of Gilead should be grateful for such insurance by stating that rather than having ‘freedom to’ participate in the government, be educated, hold property or have a

For this essay, we focused strictly on critics' reactions to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. For the most part, we found two separate opinions about The Handmaid's Tale, concerning feminism. One opinion is that it is a feminist novel, and the opposing opinion that it is not. Feminism: A doctrine advocating social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men as recorded in Webster's Dictionary. This topic is prevalent in the novel The Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, spends most of her time featuring women in her books, novels, and poetry that examine their relationships in society. In the book Atwood centers her novel on a girl whom

A totalitarian regime is a very large piece of what is typically required for a dystopia, and it is certainly present in The Handmaid’s Tale. A totalitarian regime is a political system where the state has complete control and authority over the society. One way that the Republic of Gilead controls its citizens is through surveillance. However, the surveillance is not equal in who is monitored. In the critical essay “Sexual Surveillance And Medical Authority in Two Versions Of The Handmaid’s Tale”, Pamela Cooper states that “The Handmaid’s Tale thus brings together pre-Christian notions of absolute patriarchal authority—the omniscient, avenging God—with postmodernist theories of the objectifying and possessive male

When describing the newly established society in The Handmaid’s Tale, the Commander states that “better never means better for everyone [...] it always means worse, for some” (Atwood, 244). This accurately describes the nature of patriarchal societies, such as the society that is described by Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale. The Republic of Gilead is a patriarchal society that has religious, and patriarchal values that benefit the men in the society, at the expenses of the women of the society. Atwood also develops the oppressive nature of the society through the use of her stylistic choices throughout the novel. Finally, Offred’s experiences in her past life, and her