Critics' Reactions to The Handmaid's Tale This essay will focus strictly on critics' reactions to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. For the most part, we found two separate opinions about The Handmaid's Tale, concerning feminism. One opinion is that it is a feminist novel, and the opposing opinion that it is not. Feminism: A doctrine advocating social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men as recorded in Webster's Dictionary. This topic is prevalent in the novel The Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood, a Canadian writer, spends most of her time featuring women in her books, novels, and poetry that examine their relationships in society. In the book Atwood centers her novel on a girl whom happens to be one of the handmaids. These handmaids are essentially women used for the birthing of babies. According to Atwood in one of her many interviews, "women were intrinsically good and men bad; to divide along allegiance lines--that is, women who wore high heels and makeup were instantly suspect, those in overalls were acceptable"(Problems of). These ideas were and have been created by our social and political system and could not be fixed until such systems have been reformed. The feminist ideas that are expressed in this novel are necessary. Besides, these women do exist not only in the novel but women like this exist in real life. The women are treated as property instead of human beings. The one and only purpose in their lives is to have children. The dystopic novel that she created isolated certain social trends and exaggerated them to make clear their most negative qualities. Pornography is a huge factor in The Handmaid's Tale. It is apparent in chapter twenty where Offred describes the movies that Aunt Lydia showed her and the other handmaids during their stay at the Red Center. This type of movie was used to show the future handmaid's "what life used to be like" (Atwood 118). Atwood used Offred to express her ideas on pornography. Atwood obviously does not like it. But, in another sense, she emphasizes the fact that Aunt Lydia lies to Offred and the others when saying that it is how life used to be. Atwood never disregards the fact that women have been misrepresented both by themselves and by men. She is careful to go through the whole novel placing no blame, and leaving the questions to the reader. How did this society get to this point? Could this really happen? Are we doing anything to prevent it? In the novel there is no real one strong force. Especially no male or female dominant role, which makes it hard to decide who is to blame. Feminism is clear throughout the book, and Atwood represents women very well. Many readers have questioned the novel's character as a feminist critique. The Handmaid's Tale delivers a conservative interpretation of women's ideal social actions, advocating what looks more like traditional femininity, rather than revolutionary feminism. Atwood's main character, Offred, has fantasies of being free. But Offred's vision of freedom is very un-feministic. For instance, at the beginning on The Handmaid's Tale, Offred dreams of things she is sometimes allowed to do, such as help to bake bread. "Or I would help Rita make the bread, sinking my hands into that soft resistant warmth which is so much like flesh" (11). Offred wishing to experience touch, but why does Atwood have to display this need in such a domestic way? Baking bread, to me, is the epitome of the traditional household, where the mother stays home to bake for her man and her children. Instances such as these lead critics to say that this book is not about feminism. Another example of this anti-feminism is the night of the Ceremony. The Commander is preparing to read from the Bible to Serena Joy, Cora, Rita, Offred, and Nick. "He's like a man toying with a steak, behind a restaurant window, pretending not to see the eyes watching him from hungry darkness..." (88). Atwood has the man of the house in charge of the entertainment for the evening. And how the characters are positioned in the sitting room is important. The Commander gets to sit in the big, manly, leather chair while Offred kneels on the floor and the Marthas stand. Serena is lucky enough to be seated, but she is uncomfortable. The man has the typical position as the leader of the household. One of the best examples of Offred's way of thinking about women is when she saves the butter from her dinner to use on her hands and face as body lotion. The Wives decided that the handmaids were not to have lotion of any kind because they didn't want the handmaids to be prettier than they already were. Offred uses the butter in case someday, someone would want to touch her again in the heat of passion. "To such devices have we descended" (97). Apparently, lotion is the key to beauty in Offred, or possibly Atwood's, mind. Beauty is inside, as well as outside. Lotion doesn't make you pretty. The same can be said about fashion magazines, such as Vogue. Offred longs to read the magazines that the Commander offers her because she longs to go back to the days of being empty-headed, reading garbage instead of the classic books of the time. Feminism isn't about such frivolous things as fashion magazines and lotion. The most obvious example that leads critics to believe that The Handmaid's Tale is not a pro-feminist book is close to the end when the Commander takes Offred to the whorehouse, dressed as a whore. At first, Offred is not too keen on the idea. But it soon grows on her. She would be able to wear make-up again, and dress in clothes that are revealing. This thought excites her. She doesn't think about having her own job again, or being independent again. She dreams of playing dress-up. "And it would be so flaunting, such a sneer at the Aunts, so sinful, so free" (231). Dressing up equals freedom? Not to a feminist. The second to last line of the novel is the most disturbing. "Whether this is my end or a new beginning I have no way of knowing: I have given myself over into the hands of strangers, because it can't be helped" (295). That is a defeatist attitude, if there ever was one. Offred dreams up ways of escaping out of the situation, either by fleeing or death, but is too chicken to try them. A feminist, like Moira, tried and tried to escape until they just about beat her down. Offred was a disgrace to the female sex, in that she never took it upon herself to better her situation, or to be rid of it for good. These examples are the reason critics tend to see the anti-feminism side of The Handmaid's Tale. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Anchor Books: New York, New York, 1985. Atwood, Margaret. "Spotty-Handed Villainesses." Problems of Female Bad Behavior in the Creation of Literature, 1994, http://www.web.net/owtoad/vlness.htm.
...s still evidence of two social classes in today's society. While not as distinct as those described by Margaret Atwood, men are more often in positions of power, they are often paid more, and there is less pressure on males to have a specific body type. Women are still viewed as conquest and recent events such as the video and shootings by Elliot Rodger is enough proof that a large group of people still believe that women owe them sex. However, media coverage has not focused on the well documented misogynist opinions of the shooter, instead focusing on his suspected mental illness. The warnings from a book written 30 years ago still ring true in today's society. In The Handmaids Tale, Atwood portrays two distinct social classes through her choice of words and uses her novel as an warning against the treatment and perception of modern day women by conservative men.
In the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood writes about an alternate universe about America that illustrates our worst fears. Some of the fears depicted in the book can be seen in the world today, such as the distaste for abortion and the mentality that men are supposed to have more power than women. These issues are not only known as social issues but also feminist issues. Feminism is the belief that women and men should be treated equally socially, politically, and economically. This book shows how these issues could get worse in our society. The author uses Offred, the protagonist in the story, to show how the world could change for the worst. Offred, a handmaid in The Handmaid 's Tale, showed how men and society had control over
Margaret Atwood uses the culture of how handmaids dress to psychologically change how Offred sees and thinks about the world and others. On the way home from shopping with her partner Ofglen, Offred sees a group of tourists who are dressed how women used to dress before the war. Offred and Oglen stop and watch the tourists; "We are fascinated, but also repelled. They seem undressed" (28), Offred then remembers that she too used to dress like that. Offred's reaction shows that being a handmaid and having to dress so modestly can alter how you think about yourself and
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there is an apparent power struggle between Offred and the Commander. The Gilead Society’s structure is based off of order and command. This is what creates a divide between genders and specifies gender roles in this novel. Without this categorization of the roles and expectations of women, the society would fall apart at the base. Thus, the Commander, being the dominant gender set forth by the society, has control over Offred.
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.
Offred is a Handmaid in what used to be the United States, now the theocratic Republic of Gilead. In order to create Gilead's idea of a more perfect society, they have reverted to taking the Book of Genesis at its word. Women no longer have any privileges; they cannot work, have their own bank accounts, or own anything. The also are not allowed to read or even chose who they want to marry. Women are taught that they should be subservient to men and should only be concerned with bearing children. Margaret Atwood writes The Handmaid's Tale (1986) as to create a dystopia. A dystopia is an imaginary place where the condition of life is extremely bad, from deprivation, oppression, or terror. Three ways she displays the dystopia are through the characters, the language and the symbolism.
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
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.
The novel Handmaid’s tale by Margret Atwood written in 1985 is a novel that uses real world issues and manifests them into the future, being a fiction story but representing non-fictional ideas. The author of this book tries to show a theocracy governed country which is dystopian, opposite of utopian. The novel is told is from the point of Offred, the main character, emphasising the story line on her life and thoughts, through which the reader knows the whole conflict and manifesto of the government. The style the author uses evidently in the first chapter effectively portrays an image of a dystopian era in which the narrator is living through, the elements the author uses to approach this style
In the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores how individuals react to and handle the loss of freedom and choice. The protagonist of the novel, Offred, goes through a set of tribulations and setbacks when her very modern society regresses back to Puritanical beliefs. She is left completely dependent on the men of the society, with no way to make herself an equal. The society of Gilead and its strict rules force Offred to conform as she slowly loses her sense of identity in the sea of red, becoming complacent in her surroundings.
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian feminist writer, who wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in times of the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, the rise of the religious rights, the election of Ronald Reagan and during the anti-feminist backlash in America of the 1980s. [9] The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminist dystopian novel, in which Atwood addresses the suppression of women in patriarchal culture. Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale to illustrate what might happen in the future if anti-feminism goes to the extreme with claims such as 'it is every man’s right to rule supreme at home' and 'a woman’s place is in the home'. [7] She sets the story in a pseudo-religious totalitarian society. The narrator of the story, Offred is describing in her diary the life of women in the society in the theocratic Republic of Gilead of the future.
This quote highlights a turning point in the novel where the reader finds out Offred is not just a mindless handmaiden who is following the rules set by the Gilead. By using phrases such as “I’m not ashamed after all,” and “I enjoy the power,” Atwood highlights how Offred is against the society she was forced into and showcases feminism in this strict patriarchal society of a dystopian America. This quote starts the turning point in the novel by allowing for the reader to discover that Offred will somehow disband from the herd mentality of this society and find a path to freedom; likewise, by using such vulgar and harsh language one discovers that Offred is not as innocent and maiden like as she appears. This quote showcases the feministic
The novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood exaggerates and embellishes the stereotypical roles of men and women. Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, and activist. Many of her books include some form of feminism, and her protagonists are often women with little rights. The novel takes place in a futuristic United States, renamed the Republic of Gilead. The idea of rights and choice has been almost completely destroyed. People have been brainwashed to do whatever the government tells them. Three main themes in the novel are feminism, gender conflict, and sexuality.
Garlick, Barbara. "The Handmaid's Tale: Narrative Voice and the Primacy of the Tale." Twentieth-Century Fantasists: Essays on Culture, Society and Belief in Twentieth-Century Mythopoeic Literature. Ed. Kath Filmer. New York : St. Martin's, 1992. 161-71.
Inclusive education is the process of schools who work together so that each child has the opportunity to learn. Significantly, these schools celebrate difference, acknowledging children’s individual needs and also stimulate learning. The United