The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood shows the way of life for women in the society of Gilead. I'm the society of Gilead all government laws and teaching was taught from the bible. Forming everyday life in different ways. Majority of all power in Gilead has been passed to the men and given total control of the women. Atwood shows extraordinary language. She used the language to prove her point of power, order authority and freedom. In Gilead most women was overruled by power and authority of the men and freedom. In the novel offred and others in that time was going through hardships, struggles and challenges. Using language to gain freedom and power. She uses it as a mental escape from the world. Offred uses descriptive …show more content…
Even though most couldn't have that privilege it was important to know. Reading was the most modest power to have in Gilead society. Gilead society laws and government are inspired by the most powerful book the bible. Reading held the greatest power to know to the truth. Which most of the government wants to lie and hide people from he truth. Buy reading the bible can show the light and truth of the laws. The women of the Gilead were categorized and toyed with and dominated by the men. Gilead woman are used and manipulated and trained to become Handmaid's. Handmaid's make women ashamed and feel like their trapped. Because they are at the bottom of society. But when they have the peer to read the unknown becomes known. By taking the power to read it will make them blind to the world. Offred states “ I knew it was wrong, and they left things out, too but there is no way of checking “ (89 Atwood). This quote shows that not reading the Bible you are lost for answers. Taking that power to read is like taking they way to cope and make you feel like your in the dark. The women especially offred gather the power to escape the complicate life. That was her eat of
Angels who are warriors that defend the country. Guardians (of the Faith) who are explained as being not real soldiers but "used for routine policing and other menial functions. stupid or older or disabled or very young, apart from the ones that are Eyes incognito. " These social classes have been strictly put into place by the theocracy that rules over Gilead. They were formed after the revolution when an extremist group named “Sons of Jacob” took control and abolished the United States Constitution after they attacked the capital, killing the President and most of the Congress.
The women in this book are forced to believe that “there is no such thing as a sterile man anymore” and it is the law that “there are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren” (Atwood 61). The town of Gilead refers back “to the Old Testament in a reaction against abortion, sterilization, and what they consider to be dangerous kinds of freedom of the modern welfare state” (Staels 455). This is a perfect example of one of Gilead’s twisted ways of thinking. The people of the Republic of Gilead make only women feel responsible for their ability to reproduce or not reproduce when in fact men are just as important when trying to conceive a baby. The Aunts, who train the handmaids, along with everyone else in Gilead, make the women feel self-conscious about themselves. If they cannot produce babies, they are sent away to be killed. The women of Gilead go thr...
Thankfully the Republic of Gilead does not exist. Gilead is merely Margaret Atwood's dystopic vision of a totalitarian theocratic state, but one that is exhaustively detailed in her novel, The Handmaid's Tale.
A new society is created by a group of people who strengthen and maintain their power by any means necessary including torture and death. Margaret Atwood's book, A Handmaid's Tale, can be compared to the morning after a bad fight within an abusive relationship. Being surrounded by rules that must be obeyed because of being afraid of the torture that will be received. There are no other choices because there is control over what is done, who you see and talk to, and has taken you far away from your family. You have no money or way out. The new republic of Gilead takes it laws to an even higher level because these laws are said to be of God and by disobeying them you are disobeying him. People are already likely to do anything for their God especially when they live in fear of punishment or death. The republic of Gilead is created and maintains its power structure through the use of religion, laws that isolate people from communication to one another and their families, and the fear of punishment for disobeying the law.
...hat it was the women participation that allowed the government to regulate every aspect of their public and private lives. Women such as the Aunts especially Aunt Lydia where willing participants in the republic by indoctrinating women to the new way of life. The women became the eyes and ears to the government, condemning other women who don't follow the laws. If the women had the strength to rebel they might not have been able to change much but, at least they were taking a stand on what they believed in. The government had such control on every aspect through rules, conduct and rituals that were followed by the people with little to no questions by the people. That is why I feel that Societal Complacency played such a role in the success of the Republic of Gilead.
In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control, Gilead will collapse. The Republic of Gilead is a futuristic world where its citizens are controlled through a group of classes known as the caste system. Allana A. Callaway describes this government creation as a "superficially designed [way] to simplify the lives of citizens by dividing them into classes with clearly delineated standards" (Callaway 49). Each citizen in Gilead is controlled in some way by the caste.
Control dominates all aspects of Gileadian society, from minor, seemingly petty normalities such as the clothes allowed, all the way up to how and who to have sexual relations with. Unimaginable in this day, Atwood represents modern society gone sour, something which is chillingly close enough to reality to get worried about.
world. Creating the society of Gilead, even the most powerful do not benefit from its ways, all
In the gilead society, women are placed in a social hierarchy in which they are defined by their role. The wives are the elite members. The handmaids are the people who produced babies. Marthas are the house servants. Aunts are a prestigious group of people who trained handmaids. Econowives are low class women. However, none of the women are defined as people with their own personalities and interests. Instead, Women are seen as objects that belong to men. Econowives belong to the Guardians. The wives, marthas,
In today’s society, it is necessary to impose a substantial amount of power and control for a government to function properly. However, too much power takes away freedom, and the ability to live an ordinary life. The novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood demonstrates a dystopic vision on the abuse of power. Atwood creates an imaginary futuristic new society called, the Republic of Gilead that abruptly strips away the freedom of women. Offred, the narrator of the novel is a Handmaid. The Handmaid’s are the ones with the least amount of power. The highest at power are the Commanders; the dictators of Gilead. Throughout the novel, Offred explains how the Republic of Gilead began and how Gilead maintains its power. In the novel, power is
The manipulation of language is one of Gilead’s main tools of control over its citizens. Since Gilead is a theocracy, religion permeates
Gilead can be seen as a hyperbolized version of today’s western world The way that I see it, we are currently halfway there to a society resemblant to Gilead. History shows that it only takes a single event to set off a cataclysmic series of events, like how WW1 was started because of the assassination of archduke francis ferdinand. In the Handmaid’s tale, everything started to go downhill, and Gilead was started after the president was assassinated and congress was gunned down. I’ve mentioned earlier that even in today’s society women are seen as inferior objects. They are seen as lesser counterparts in the home, in the workplace, etc. So if women are already regarded so lowly in our current society, what's to stop them from being regarded even lower later. What will stop the men from deciding that it’s time to strip all rights from women. With the way that women are already being treated, I’d say that it would only take one large event to set that kind of societal transformation in motion. Hopefully, that won’t happen for a long long
The foundation of the Gilead’s newly implemented society is packed with biblical phrasing and connotations, but it lacks authenticity. From the names of the different social ranks to the names of the buildings and stores to the name Gilead itself, every object within the society possesses some sort of biblical significance. Peter G. Tillman says ...
One of the more obvious examples of sexism that Atwood presents can be seen in her presentation of pre-Gilead society.
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.