Gender Roles In The Handmaids

1179 Words3 Pages

What symbolic roles does the color red play in the novel? “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which define us”(8). “We are for breeding purposes: we aren’t concubines, geishas, courtesans”(136). The color red serves as a warning or reminder of the handmaids’ purpose. Red symbolizes blood from birth. Red also serves as warning for bloodbath-death. The handmaids are reminded their duty is to give birth. If they don’t compromise, they will be punished through torture: female mutilation or even death. 2. How do other characters, such as Janine, Moira, Ofglen, Ofwarren, and Serena Joy add to the novel’s exploration of gender roles in Gilead? 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, …show more content…

Prior to meeting Nick, Offred abhorred her life as a handmaid. She was depressed and she even mentions thoughts of killing herself. Even though the Commander spends time with her, Offred still did not grew to love him or find comfort in him, as seen during the night the Commander slept with Offred; Even the commander was disappointed by Offred’s lack of enthusiasm. However, ever since Offred slept with Nick, she became enamoured with him. Nick became her source of content and joy; she idolized him. Even though she hated her role as a handmaid, she became used to it if it means she can stay with

Show More
Related

  • The Handmaid's Tale Women

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    The women are divided into functions and are identified by the colour of their dress. In chapter 5, Offred is walking down the streets of Gilead, reminiscing about the days she used to walk down the street wearing what she wanted to wear before she got taken away, and also thought about simple things such as how she was able to freely walk to the laundromat to wash her own clothes with her own soap. She informs the reader of her analysis of the different types of women in the Republic of Gilead: “There are other women with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Martha's, some in the striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimp, that mark the women of the poorer men. Econowives, they're called. These women are not divided into functions. They have to do everything; if they can.” (Atwood, 5.5) The Handmaid’s— the bearer of children— wear red, the Martha’s, who are the housekeepers wear green, and the wives wear blue. Econ Wives are the only women who aren’t defined by the colour of their dress because they must do every function. Atwood is showing that the individuality and identities of these women have been completely taken away and are labelled by the clothing they are forced to

    Read More

  • Orthodoxy In The Handmaid's Tale

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Historical Notes, Professor Pieixoto notes that Judd, one of the creators of Gilead, “was of the opinion from the outset that the best and the most cost-effective way to control women for reproductive and other purposes was through women themselves. (308)” This idea created the Aunts, whose role was to control and “re-educate” the women who were to become Handmaids. This is similar to the female envoys who were sent to set up Hanan’s second marriage. Hanan notes that, “they were authoritative, abrupt, and unsympathetic, and seemed to have no qualms about the role they were playing.” The Islamic State employed these women to control and recruit brides for ISIS fighters, just like how the Aunts control and teach the Handmaids to prepare them for a household posting. This

    Read More

  • Class Discrimination in Gilead

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis: In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood characterizes Handmaids, as women with expectations to obey the society’s hierarchy, as reproducers, symbolizing how inferior the Handmaid class is to others within Gilead; the class marginalization of Handmaids reveals the use of hierarchical control exerted to eliminate societal flaws among citizens.

    Read More

  • Jezebel's from The Handmaid's Tale

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is one point amidst many which I will discuss in this essay. One of the most important issues that the “jezebels” sequence offers contrasting to the rest of the novel, is the alternative view regarding the roles of women. In the chapters prior to jezebels Atwood illustrates that in Gilead women are just items and objects and that they only function in society is to give birth.

    Read More

  • The Red Symbol in The Handmaid's Tale

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale" written by Margaret Atwood, the color red is a reoccurring, significant symbol throughout the book. The dominant color of the novel, the color red is paired with the Handmaids. The Handmaids are always seen in their red uniform, even down to their red shoes and red gloves. From the opening pages of the novel we are informed that they are trained at the “Red Centre,” and we are introduced to the importance of the red imagery as Offred, the narrator and protagonist of the novel, describes herself getting dressed: “The red gloves are lying on the bed. Everything except the wings around my face is red.” Which reveals to us how the handmaid’s are required to wear all red, representative of the way they are visually defined, and therefore confined within their role in the caste system as sexual servants to their Commanders.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Handmaids In Gilead's Tale

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Atwood looks explicitly at the thesis that we are our own enemies,” (Feuer). What Feuer is trying to explain is that the women in the Gilead society feed into the treatment of feminism and do nothing to stop it. This goes hand and hand with Offred's problem with her relationships. Offred sets her relationships for failure when she begins a relationship in a sticky situation. As a handmaid, she is not allowed to see Nick or have any relationship for that matter. Because of the riskiness, the relationship was doomed from the start just as the one with Luke. As soon as Offred got comfortable with Nick and they were intimate, Offred began analyzing so many things and questioning everything, but she gave into herself as she is her own enemy. She was incapable of standing up to her temptations and therefore Offred did not learn to become a better person. Aside from Nick, Offred also had a forbidden relationship with the Commander. Offered was still a Handmaid that abided by the rules before she went to her secret meetings with the Commander. Offred “...constructs her own subjectivity through language as a mode of survival…”

    Read More

  • The Threat of Physical, Emotional, and Mental Abuse if you Disagree: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    The threat of physical abuse is huge. Being woman is enough of a crime, but “any crime can result in an execution and a public hanging on ‘The Wall’” (Cameron 3). A woman can be hung for just about anything. If they defy the people in charge they can get hurt. The women are constantly abused. The Gilead government is in charge of what goes on in this society. If a woman has an affair with a different man they are taken and possibly tortured or hung. The Red Center, which is where they were taught how to be Handmaid’s, the women were constantly tortured. They had Aunts that looked over them. These aunts were not nice and, “they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts” (Thomas 91). The aunt’s view was all that was needed was the Handmaid’s baby making parts. The women did not need their feet, hands, or any part other than the torso. When the woman did something wrong or tried to run away th...

    Read More

  • Handmaid's Fahrenheit 451

    486 Words  | 1 Pages

    The differences between the classes, and most importantly the Handmaids and Wives are clearly shown in the text.

    Read More

  • Gender Role In The Handmaid's Tale

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    Offred is consistently cautious when it comes to interacting with the Commander. She feels as though she has to present herself in a way that will allow her to gain his trust and utilize it in her favor. Offred says, “The Commander likes it when I distinguish myself, show precocity, like an attentive pet, prick-eared and eager to perform” (Atwood 183). When Offred poses herself in the way that the Commander expects, it shows how his power influences Offred’s actions. The connection of Offred to that of “an attentive pet” also shows how the Gilead Society has taken away her humanity. Without her humanity, Offred loses her sense of self-worth which leaves her vulnerable to the Commander’s power. Along with this constant fear of portraying herself in a manner that would upset the Commander, Offred is also afraid to give away too much information about herself which could potentially end with the Commander ceasing their private meetings together. Offred expresses, “And if I talk to him I’ll say something wrong, give something away. I can feel it coming, a

    Read More

  • Handmaids Tale Analysis

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aunt Lydia illustrates the white wings (head covering) as a privilege instead of imprisonment. If all handmaids, wives, and marthas wear the exact same modest clothing, gives an idea of group identity and self identity is not needed. Handmaids wear the color red. Red is commonly known for being the color of passion, something handmaids must never know. Modesty also plays a major role in fashion. Modest does not allow temptation, and

    Read More

  • Free Handmaid's Tale Essays: The Struggle of Women

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Offred from The Handmaid's Tale uses different tactics to cope with her situation. She is trapped within a distopian society comprised of a community riddled by despair. Though she is not physically tortured, the overwhelming and ridiculously powerful government mentally enslaves her. Offred lives in a horrific society, which prevents her from being freed. Essentially, the government enslaves her because she is a female and she is fertile. Offred memories about the way life used to be with her husband, Luke, her daughter, and her best friend Moira provides her with temporary relief from her binding situation. Also, Offred befriends the Commander's aide, Nick. Offred longs to be with her husband and she feels that she can find his love by being with Nick. She risks her life several times just to be with Nick. Feeling loved by Nick gives her a window of hope in her otherwise miserable life.

    Read More

  • The Handmaid's Tale

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.

    Read More

  • Fertility and Motherhood in The Handmaid´s Tale by Margaret Atwood

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Hierarchy Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Offred’s journey is a prime example of the appalling effects of idly standing by and allowing herself to become a part of the Gilead’s corrupt system. This woman is a Handmaid which was recently placed within a new

    Read More

  • Essay on the Character of Offred in The Handmaid's Tale

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    Offred had been though many mixed feelings throughout this entire book. She has been able to feel, experience and thinks thoughts that she had not ever imagined that she would have. Offred can not escape the fact that in spite of the treatment from Serena Joy and the commander, that they both will have if not already have an impact on her life. Not to mention Nick also. Nick gave her the comfort and the security that she wanted, and at the end nothing done to her by the commander or his wife mattered to her. Living in the Republic of Gilead will always be a memory that she will probably try to forget.

    Read More

More about Gender Roles In The Handmaids

Open Document