The Rights Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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.

Despite the little dependence on women, they are still objectified and subjected to injustice because of their gender, regardless if they were a female in general or as a poor female. As something as simple as what a person is born with affects the respect that is given to them. Margaret Atwood formulates Offred’s personality much like any other handmaid in the community. Offred becomes familiar with the functionality and role of women in the community, therefore she adjusts herself in order to be up to par with the unethical standard. “I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born. (Atwood, 75). To be what is required of her, Offred must act unhuman because the expectations of females exceed the

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.

First off, Offred lives in a dystopian society which has many rules that are not liked by most of the people. This society was formed from the past life which was more normal like the world today. The rules are so strict that people who disobey them are punished severely. “We stop, together as if on signal, and stand and look at the bodies… They have committed atrocities and must be made into examples, for the rest” (Atwood 32 & 33). This quote proves

If the whole story is just a memory, many of the “facts” are again adjusted to fit the narrator’s ex-post perspective. The Handmaid even offers three versions of the story of her and Nick having sex for the first time – here, Atwood again addresses the stereotypical expectations of romantic love and depicts three possible realities which play on Offred’s wishful thinking”2. Offred’s unreliability as narrator is furthered due to the that the fact that the tapes have been ordered by somebody else , but also because she is telling the story after it has happed. Hindsight surely must have shaped her opinions in some form. As well as exploring natural conflict within the human mind, as the novel progresses it becomes clearer that Offred does not always reflect the typical aspects of what is deemed as a normal mentality. As Offred’s perceptions of reality seem to merge more and more with her imagination we are made aware that isolated under the regime of Gilead, sanity is at least something Offred has to now fight for. "Sanity is a valuable possession; I save it, so I will have enough when the time comes." Insanity has always had in place amongst the control of totalitarian regimes ‘following the fall of the Soviet Union, it was often reported that some opposition activists and journalists were detained in Russian psychiatric institutions to intimidate and isolate them from

A woman’s power and privileges depend on which societal class she is in. In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale each group of women are each represented in a different way. The three classes of women from the novel are the Handmaids, the Marthas and the Wives. The ways in which the women are portrayed reflect their societal power and their privileges that they bestow.

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

Offred's memories are a way for her to escape a society riddled with hopelessness. The authoritarian society of Gilead prevents her from

“Waste not, want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?” (Atwood 7). From stealing butter for lotion to playing Scrabble with the Commander, plainly, Offred is unorthodox. The Republic of Gilead controls how much knowledge each caste is allowed; this is one way of controlling people and keeping order. Despite being condemned to this society and commanded not to read, Offred reads anyways. Offred’s actions show her dislike of

Clearly, Offred has done nothing wrong and till this point, has lived up to everyone 's expectation so that everyone (being men) can live satisfactory lives. If she had made the decision to avoid the risk of essentially being a sex slave, she wouldn’t have to lose her

Although Offred accepts the standards and criterions of her society, she keeps her individuality and refuses to forget the past. She remembers having had an identity of her own and strives to hold on to it as best as she can. She puts a claim on her temporary room in her Commander's house; it becomes a sanctuary for her true self. Her room becomes a place of

Offred is a Handmaid in what used to be the United States, now the theocratic Republic of Gilead. In order to create Gilead's idea of a more perfect society, they have reverted to taking the Book of Genesis at its word. Women no longer have any privileges; they cannot work, have their own bank accounts, or own anything. The also are not allowed to read or even chose who they want to marry. Women are taught that they should be subservient to men and should only be concerned with bearing children. Margaret Atwood writes The Handmaid's Tale (1986) as to create a dystopia. A dystopia is an imaginary place where the condition of life is extremely bad, from deprivation, oppression, or

Even this is as usual, now. We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn 't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”(56) Offred actively defines her passivity, ignoring the fact that the America that she used to know had changed dramatically. She normalizes every event around her like the fact that watching people being hanged on the wall are just daily sightseeing, she avoids the uncomfortable truth of Gilead, intentionally refuse to revolt against the dictatorship regime. Interestingly, there is a quote on ignorance that I 'd like to share “Being ignorant is like being dead, you don’t know that you are dead, only people around you suffer.” Additionally, in chapter 13, Offred was sitting in the bath, visualizing her body while naked ”I used to think of my body as an instrument, of pleasure, or a means of transportation, or an implement for the accomplishment of my will . . . Now the flesh arranges itself differently. I’m a cloud, congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am and glows red within its translucent wrapping.”( 91) She changed her opinion of her only property-her body from a device, her womb as a “ national resource” to a “central object” ,”glows red” like the sun which surrounded by planets. She glorifies herself because of her ability to bear a child. As well as denying the truth, interpret handmaids as a pivotal class in the society, not oppressed women whose womb are

Offred, not her real name but the name given to her by her occupation, is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. The Republic of Gilead is a

Though Offred sees losing her job as the turning point, we might suspect that the balance of power had never been equal, given that she was Luke’s mistress, and she had to wait around for him. Gilead merely made her more aware of this implicit inequality.