government enforces laws and regulations in order to maintain peace and harmony in society. Laws are meant to ensure the safety of all citizens; however women can be forced to face extremities if the laws and government are patriarchal. The novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood recites the story of a totalitarian government that consists of strictly men who dominate the women based on Christian ideologies. The government uses the fertile women called “handmaids” merely for breeding purposes because
The Handmaid’s Tale According to data from the Center for American Progress and Elle Magazine, “Nearly 30 percent of women report experiencing discrimination in the workplace.” Margaret Atwood's, The Handmaid's Tale, is narrated through the protagonist, Offred, a Handmaid who serves the purpose of reproducing. If she is unable to do so she will be sent to the colonies. Atwood lets the reader know that Handmaids are not allowed to have any verbal interaction with men or have the ability
In The Handmaid's Tale, the author Margaret Atwood creates characters to help convey her message about the dangers of totalitarianism, particularly when enforced through the systematic of oppression of women. The female characters in the dystopic novel, either actively or passively fall into two camps: those who behave in ways which support the ideology of the Republic of Gilead, and those who do not. One minor character, Aunt Lydia, represents the extreme woman who not simply accepts her fate in
The Unspoken Hierarchy in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, class systems play a definite role in how the society of Gilead is structured, or so it seems. Within this dystopian world where fertility is scarce within its population, it is those in power who govern both reproduction and society. However Offred, the story’s protagonist, and a Handmaid, tests these systems with her acts of rebellion, and seems to uncover loopholes in society laws, and uncover
society such as this through the inequality between men and women. Indeed, it could be argued that Atwood depicts unequal power relations between men and women in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ as throughout the narrative, Atwood present the ways that Gilead implements its patriarchy onto its citizens. Males in the novel dominate whilst the handmaids are forced into sexual slavery. The women are not allowed to go out “except in twos” alluding to the idea that women have no real freedom, and the Commander’s
The Handmaid’s Tale is a highly acclaimed dystopian novel that is based on the premise of a world in which a totalitarian theocracy has replaced the United States of America, turning it into the Republic of Gilead. In this tyrannical new society, the population is rapidly decreasing due to the toxic environment, and consequentially, the ability to produce viable babies has become a coveted ability. Women that are able to bear children are indoctrinated into becoming Handmaids, and are assigned to
The Republic of Gilead, a dystopian world with a patriarchal society, is displayed in Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale. More specifically, the novel takes place in what used to be considered the United States but is now being called the Republic of Gilead where freedoms and rights have been excluded, especially for women. The society nurtures a “theocratic, patriarchal, nightmare world created by men, with the complicity of women” (“Margaret (Eleanor) Atwood”). The separation of the freedoms between
The Handmaids tale by Margaret Atwood illustrates is what she self professes as a piece of ‘speculative fiction’, a dystopian society set in the future, in which the government has been replaced by a totalitarian leadership, ruling America through a biblical patriarchy based on fundamentalism. This theocratic structure causes the women in society to face severe oppression, forced to conform to the rules and obligations appointed to the roles of Wives, Daughters, Handmaids, Marthas, Aunts and Econowives
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
Past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, and values of a character. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character, Offred, is approached by many past events that reveal the rules of the society versus the life she lost with her loved ones. 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