Theme 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.

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 is set in a future time period where the United States is under the control of the Gileadean regime. A terrorist attack leads to the collapse of Congress, the suspension of the Constitution, and the establishment of a theocratic totalitarian government. Men and women are given roles within society; they are Commanders, Eyes, Handmaids, and Marthas. In this novel, Atwood explores a prominent social issue, feminism. The suppression and power of women are examined through the setting and characterization of the novel to help understand the meaning of the novel as a whole.

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

Desire is a powerful and dangerous emotion which has the ability to overtake and disregards any rational state of mind, creating disorder and life-threatening consequences, thus making it feared as a form of disorder or misdirected imagination. However, desire cannot exist without a lack of satisfaction, allowing the once forbidden to become desirable. These illicit desires which are in conflict with social laws and norms are often repressed into the unconscious. Emerging in forms which are disguised so that they may be unrecognisable to the conscious mind due to the dangerous, forces and consequences they present. Such desires can be identified in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) which mirrors post-war social and political issues, portraying the devastation, destruction and control on the outer limits of humanity in a dystopian world. In a world where thought, history and relationships are manipulated and governed, romantic and autonomies desire become a means of rebellion in order to maintain sanity, truth, and an objective reality as a means of resistance against the governing party. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) is a speculative fiction which explores the need for a sustained political, feminist consciousness and activity among woman by exploring the political and social consequence of their absence. In The Handmaid’s Tale, we see illicit desire through the use of language and literature in a dystopian world which governs class

Margaret Atwood’s harrowing novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, follows the story of a woman marginalized by the theocratic oligarchy she lives in; in the Republic of Gilead, this woman has been reduced to a reproductive object who has her body used to bear children to the upper class. From the perspective of the modern reader, the act of blatant mistreatment of women is obvious and disturbing; however, current life is not without its own shocking abuses. Just as the Gileadian handmaid was subject to varied kinds of abuse, many modern women too face varied kinds of abuses that include psychological, sexual, and financial abuse.

During the pre Gilead period Offred felt loved by Luke. She felt strong and powerful with his love. After the eyes separated their family for attempting to escape Gilead, Offred feels weak and vulnerable without Luke’s love. Gilead is a society where love is not supposed to exist. Only sex is allowed between the Commander and the handmaid, but without pleasure. “Nobody dies from a lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from” (97). The fact that Offred feels that way is seen as rebellion. Handmaid’s are not supposed to think like that. Offred realizes this when she realizes how weak she has become through the loss of Luke. She rebels against Serena Joy’s wishes to only have sex with Nick as a way to get pregnant, and instead, does it for pleasure. She does the same thing with the Commander through their nightly scrabble games, kissing ritual, and the trip to the Jezebels. All Offred wants is love; something that is illegal in Gilead. However, Offred rebels against this, and decides to risk her life, by falling in love. Offred uses love as a way to cope with her loneliness and depression of her lost family, even though it is hazardous for her

This could represent the villainous side to him, as his power and authority create a shield, which hides his true self. This means Offred and the reader are not completely sure of who he is and his wants. Throughout this chapter the theme of having or gaining more power is very evident. The fact that the commander does have so much power and Offred has so little makes him more villainous. This is because we can evidently see how Offred could be so easily manipulated by this very powerful man.

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

Though the English language has its roots in a male-dominated society where the true meaning of words are now taken for granted. In The Handmaid’s Tale, language facilitates power. In order to effectively rule over class and gender the level of censorship on literature and control of discourses runs high. Atwood uses word choice to expose the shocking structures of the Gilead society and how faulty its foundations are as it was built upon gender inequality. The repercussions of gendered language are evident throughout the novel, implying that the sexist structure of Gilead is a result of oppressive language modern Americans accept and use in every day talk.

Offred is sitting on the window seat and tells the reader about how she is given a small electric fan since it is very humid. This reminds her of Moira, and how she would be able to take it apart even without a screwdriver. Offred starts to think about whether or not Moira would approve of her seeing the Commander if she was still here and what she would say. She remembers and tells the reader that Moira disapproved of Luke because he was married. Offred tells us that her reasoning for being with him was for love, not to mention that Luke could also make her own decisions and conclude that Moira thought more logically as she considered other factors (such as Luke’s wife at that time and how Offred was “poaching” on her ground).

According to Goodreads.com, a popular book recommendation website, dystopian novels were more popular in 2012 than they had been in the fifty years prior (Brown). However, long before this recent boom, many authors had begun to explore the genre, spurred by the worldwide catastrophe, political disarray, and death that occurred during and following the World Wars. One of the later authors in this genre is Margaret Atwood, who most notably wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. Throughout her life, Atwood experienced a multitude of factors that contributed to her creation of such a grim and ominous novel, the most notable being her exposure to earlier dystopian writing, her recollections of her mother’s stories, and her experiences during the return of

Offred begins to fall apart towards the end of the story and the clarity of her narration is muddled. Her memories used to function as a source of hope and purpose, but they end up contributing to Offred’s