The Handmaid’s Tale and Infertility
God created male and female. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply…” (Gen. 1:28) Without a doubt a divine mandate that not everyone is capable of fulfilling. Believers or not, many people in the world live with the ghost of infertility behind their backs. Infertility is a condition that consists in the inability to achieve a pregnancy or to bring it to term and is often signaled and condemned by the society that sees it as an abnormality or punishment. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the story revolves around the issue of infertility as the main problem that humanity could face in a future time. In The Handmaid’s Tale, society considers being a mother as the main role
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In her narrative, Offred describes Serena Joy as a cold and bitter woman. Offred does not understand that Serena Joy’s behavior is a consequence of her frustration and pain for not being able to have children. Studies have revealed that infertile women frequently experience a host of emotions and feelings such as sadness, anxiety, guilt, and anger. Most infertile women engage in household activities and hobbies as a strategy to deal with these feelings (Wirtberg et al.). In the story, Serena Joy has two hobbies, taking care of her flower garden and knitting scarves. The flowers are a symbol of fertility, especially her red tulips; growing them is her way to create life. The red flowers of Serena Joy’s tulips represent the birth “The tulips are red, a darker crimson towards the stem, as if they have been cut and are beginning to heal there” (Atwood 12). Offred also comments that “Many of the Wives have such gardens, it’s something for them to order and maintain and care for.” (Atwood 12). One day, Offred found Serena Joy angry, snipping off the seed pods of her tulips with a pair of shears. “Or some blitzkrieg, some kamikaze, committed on the swelling genitalia of the flowers? The fruiting body” (Atwood 153). In Offred’s mind, Serena is so jealous and desperate that symbolically she attacks her by attacking the fertile …show more content…
Both in the novel and in contemporary society, people with more resources can more easily access the options to solve their infertility problem. In the novel, only the Commanders and their wives have the power to acquire a handmaid to use her as a kind of surrogate mother. In the contemporary society, low-income and uninsured people are excluded from accessing assisted methods of reproduction because of the high costs of them. The cost for an in vitro fertilization cycle in the United States costs between 10 to 15 thousand dollars or 25 to 30 thousand, in case an egg donor is needed. Surrogacy method is much more expensive, costing between 50 and 80 thousand dollars (4). Most insurance policies do not cover the costs of these treatments or they cover only a part of them which is too high for those with average
Gender inequality has existed all around the world for many centuries. Women were seen as property of men and their purpose of existence was to provide for the men in their lives. Men would play the role of being the breadwinners, whereas women played the role of being the caregiver of the family and household and must obey the men around her. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood portrays how women in society are controlled and demeaned by men, and how men feel they are more superior over women.
The main symbolic image that the flowers provide is that of life; in the first chapter of the novel Offred says “…flowers: these are not to be dismissed. I am alive.” Many of the flowers Offred encounters are in or around the house where she lives; it can be suggested that this array of floral life is a substitute for the lack of human life, birth and social interaction. The entire idea of anything growing can be seen as a substitute for a child growing. The Commander’s house contains many pictures; as they are visual images, “flowers are still allowed.” Later, when Serena is “snipping off the seed pods with a pair of shears… aiming, positioning the blades… The fruiting body,” it seems that all life is being eradicated, even that of the flowers.
In the excerpt on pages 134 and 135 of A Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood uses repetition and form-follows-content to express both her distress and hope toward her current situation, as well as highlighting the everlasting power struggle that exists in the world.
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. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
In the real world, different symbols are used to help people understand things, and to add different effects onto people’s lives. For example a pendent a women or man wears from the army helps someone understand what they’ve been through and helps portray them as a strong individual. In novels which may have complex story lines like The Handmaids tale it is important that these novels have some symbolism to help the reader decode what some details in the novel represent, helping them understand the plot more in-depth. Through the novel of the Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood, symbolism is present and that helps to enhance the story line, as well as contribute an important factor in which is helping the reader understand
In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, social turmoil after a staged terrorist attack has led to a totalitarian Christian regime. In this dystopian future, the roles of men and women are much different than in today’s society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are unequal because they have no choice about their bodies, their dress, or their relationships.
In Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale a woman named Offred shares her experience in the Republic of Gilead as a housemaid. As the story begins, we find that the regime strategically encroaches the rights of women, independence and seizes anything they thought to be pleasurable deeming it contraband. This includes clothing, literature especially old magazines, and cosmetics. Offred, remembers a time when she was married to her husband Luke with a job and having her own financial backing. However one day it all changes when she get fired from her job and when she tries to go to the bank they won’t allow her to get her money out. She finds out from her best friend Moira, that it is possible to get the money by transferring it to a spouse or
Everybody wants power in life, whether it is to take over a state, country, or even the world. Sometimes power is equal and sometimes it is not sometimes power is used for good, sometimes power is abused for selfish desires. Everybody wants power in life, whether it is to take over a state, country, or even the world. Sometimes power is equal and sometimes it is not sometimes power is used for good, sometimes power is abused for selfish desires. Sadly, we see a lot of power being used for selfish desires in “The Handmaid’s Tale” written by Margaret Atwood. In The Handmaid’s Tale we see a lot of power being abused for selfish desires by witnessing that the men are kidnapping women and forcing them to work their backs off for no pay just to be workers and even sometimes sex slaves because the women had to do the roles that society tells them to fill the roles a woman has to do like cook clean obey men. This connects to reality, how Power abuses in certain places of the world do with dictatorship.
The Handmaid’s Tale shows acts of rebellion throughout, but when we as an audience first see a sort of rebellion push through the strict control of Gileadean society is when the Commander and Offred have their first evening together. Offred’s metaphor “If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see myself clear.” is a foreshadowing of the idea that maybe through these evenings with the Commander she may be able to ease her way out of Gileadean society. “It’s like a small crack in the wall, before now impenetrable.” Use of simile in her language gives the audience a glimpse into the hope she feels, that maybe she may be able to escape, maybe she has another chance at a normal life. Offred’s first time seeing the Commander’s
The Handmaid's Tale This is a futuristic novel that takes place in the northern part of the USA sometime in the beginning of the twenty-first century, in the oppressive and totalitarian Republic of Gilead. The regime demands high moral retribution and a virtuous lifestyle. The Bible is the guiding principle. As a result of the sexual freedom, free abortion and high increase of venereal diseases at the end of the twentieth century, many women, (and men also, but that is forbidden to say), are sterile. The women who are still fertile are recruited as Handmaids, and their only mission in life is to give birth to the offspring of their Commander, whose wife is infertile.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, the author Margaret Atwood gives the reader an understanding of what life would be like in a theocratic society that controls women’s lives. The narrator, Offred gives the reader her perspective on the many injustices she faces as a handmaid. Offred is a woman who lived before this society was established and when she undergoes the transition to her new status she has a hard time coping with the new laws she must follow. There are many laws in this government that degrade women and give men the authority of each household. All women are placed in each household for a reason and if they do not follow their duties they are sent away or killed. Atwood bases the irrational laws in the Gilead republic on the many
flag on a hilltop, showing us what can still be done: we too can be
Margaret Atwood sheds light on two concepts that are intertwined; fertility and motherhood. Nevertheless in Gilead these notions are often viewed as separate. The Republic State of Gilead views women as child-bearers and nothing more. In Gilead, these women are known as handmaids, who’s function in society is to produce children for barren females of a high status. Gilead also prohibits the handmaids from being mothers to their previously born children, meaning before Gilead was created, for instance, Offred, who is separated from her daughter. Thus it is evident that Margaret Atwood generates a state that views birth only as growth in population rather than the beginning of a relationship between mother and child.
The hierarchy of women goes as such: Commander’s Wives, Aunts, Marthas, Handmaids, Econowives, and Unwomen. Commanders are at the head of their household. Every woman within these ranks has settled into their roles as part of the Republic except for the Unwomen, those who refused to become a part of their society under any circumstances--those who are sent to work camps and separated from the rest of the world. Aside from them, the rest of the Republic's women all serve men in one way or another. Women are made to believe that the roles assigned to them are to be seen as a great honor. Outwardly, women accept these roles with little to no retaliation, but inwardly and amongst each other, many perform small acts of rebellion against their overseers. One woman who partook in many of these acts is referred to as Offred throughout the story; however, her real name is never revealed.
Though Offred is developed as a character through her opinions on female sexuality, she is further characterized by her individuality and willingness to defy her social expectations as a female, assigned to her by her government. In Atwood’s work, the narrative is told by an intelligent individual named Offred who is oppressed by Gilead’s female expectations but is not afraid to defy these assigned roles despite not being a traditional heroine (Nakamura). Even as Offred’s previous identity is stripped away from her, she retains small pieces of her womenhood and individuality through defiant actions such as manipulating men with her feminity from swaying her hips slighty in their line of sight to making direct eye contact with certain men, which she is forbidden from. On the other hand, a major act of rebellion from