The Role Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale

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.

The Handmaid’s Tale revolves around the main character Offred and her determination to escape the totalitarian society she is trapped in. Treated as an object to bear children and repopulate a devastated America, Offred tries her best to relive memories in her mind to hold onto her family before. The text leads us through her journey and her attempt of escape from the fearful dominance.

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 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

In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Offred recounts the story of her life and that of others in Gilead, but she does not do so alone. The symbolic meanings found in the dress code of the women, the names/titles of characters, the absence of the mirror, and the smell and hunger imagery aid her in telling of the repugnant conditions in the Republic of Gilead. The symbols speak with a voice of their own and in decibels louder than Offred can ever dare to use. They convey the social structure of Gileadean society and carry the theme of the individual's loss of identity.

In addition to the important roles that women play in the regime, this setting also portrays the will and intelligence of women. Offred seeks knowledge as she meets with the Commander; she longs for touch and intimacy as she risks everything to spend her nights with Nick. Moira strives to leave the confines of the regime as she continuously found ways to escape. Even as she is recaptured, she chooses to stay at Jezebel’s to live. Although given death if no child is beared, Handmaids voluntarily “prayed for emptiness, so we would be worthy to be filled: with grace, with love, with self-denial, semen and babies” (194). Despite their role to bear children and given death if they failed to do so, essentially, Handmaids have a choice in whether they accept that death or survive by finding ways to get pregnant. These instances show that women are not merely simple creatures who are controlled by men because what they do is still a decision of their own. Nevertheless, all of the progress that women fought for is gone: their reproductive rights, economic rights, social rights. Women are not allowed to get abortions, and they are forced into bearing children for their Commanders. Women have no outside jobs; they merely complete chores for their household. They are given no social power; they are monitored for what they say and what they can do in public. Such strict confines of

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.

In Margaret Atwood’s novel a “The Handmaid’s Tale” they are placed in the future in Massachusetts, near Harvard university in the republic of Gilead. In Gilead they believe that women are nothing but servants to men, and their only purpose is for reproduction. In the story women are kept in a gymnasium and where they slept on army cots, and everything that they could use to cause self-harm is eliminated. That way they are not able to commit suicide by any means. Women in this story are basically forced into having sex with whoever deems it necessary for breeding purposes. For instance in the story Offred is assigned to the commander’s household where she routinely went on shopping trips, cleaned, and was forced to have sex with the commander

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

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.

In both texts, the innocent are tragically taken advantage of through the antagonists in the novel/play, hence, rattling the ethics of society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the punishment of the women is the main reason why violence ensues. Moira, an innocent, courageous individual, who, due to her rebellious nature, tends to devise escape plans to liberate herself from the norms of The Republic of Gilead. When Moira deceives an aunt by faking an illness, hoping to escape, yet, is unsuccessful; she is penalized for her behavior. At the dinner hall where the handmaids are present, Offred sees, “two aunts [come] out of the building, hauling Moira out. Afterwards, she could not walk for a week, her feet would not fit in her shoes, they were too swollen”

Totalitarianism is a governing system in which all authority belongs to a ruling elite who exercise a complete control over all aspects of society. The citizens are subordinates of the state who are maintained and reinforced by constant state of terror. Gilead, the setting of the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale, is such a place. The individuals, particularly the women, are forced to forfeit the rule of their bodies, minds and spirits and they are utterly dominated for the ruling power decides everything.

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.

    Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer.

Attwood uses Aunt Lydia’s teaching during the Birth Day to emphaize the importance of self image into the Handmaids. She wants the women to “think of yourselves as pearls.”. Aunt Lydia continues talking while “we, sitting in our rows, eyes down, we make her salivate morally. We are hers to define, we must suffer her adjectives.” This makes Offred think about the pearls. “Pearls are congealed oyster spit” (114). In this scene, atwood underline the expectations set by the Aunts and Gilead. Atwood uses pearls to propose that Offred and the other Handmaids should be a portrayal of beauty and purity. Nonetheless, Offred rapidly reduces the description to something more normal and vulgar. When Atwood writes “eyes down”, she is describing the patronizing