The more power people get, the more freedom they feel they have. “The Handmaid’s Tale” is a society that was created by a group of people who strengthen and maintain their power by any necessary means including persecution and death. However, characters that play the role in the dystopian fiction novel from “The Handmaid’s Tale” by, Margaret Atwood have certain roles that leads them to do things they are not allowed to. Atwood reveals that power leads to breaking laws as emphasized through the tone of the Commander and Offred, the plot twist of Serena Joy, and the metaphor of Moira. In the novel the Commander and Offred go from being characters that follow Gilead's rules to breaking them due to the Commander having power to do whatever …show more content…
Serena Joy being the dominant person in this novel demonstrates that she too can break laws in Gilead as stated, “ She takes the cigarette she’s been fiddling with and a little awkwardly, presses it into my hand, closing my fingers”(Atwood 206). This states that Serena Joy is doing something she is not suppose to be doing by giving Offred a cigarette and allowing her to smoke.This is a law that is being broken and is affecting Offred’s health and shows that Serena Joy does not really care if you break a law as long as she does not get caught. The second piece of evidence supporting the claim is when Serena joy states, “Maybe I could get something for you, a picture she says of your little girl”(Atwood 206). Serena Joy wants to give Offred a picture of her daughter which she is not allowed to do and in this case it is private information that she is not suppose to have. In this piece of evidence it emphasizes that Gilead is a place full of breaking laws and demonstrates the plot twist of Serena Joy. Therefore, power leads to breaking laws when Serena Joy has the power to do what she wants and how she uses it to other characters in the …show more content…
Moira takes a huge part in the novel by doing things that no other handmaid would do such as, “Moira had power now, she’d been set loose, she’d set herself loose. She was now a loose women”(Atwood 133). This piece of evidence signifies that Moira was a loose women to show when when she had ran away from the Red Center by attacking Aunt Elizabeth. At that moment Moira had seen herself as powerful because she was able to run away without getting caught by the Angels and the Guardians. The second piece of evidence supporting my claim is when Offred stated that, “Handmaids see Moira as a hero. Moira had demonstrated that she had power and freed herself”(Atwood 132). This demonstrates that Handmaid's looked up to Moira and see her as a hero that no other Handmaid would do because she broke a law in gilead that would either torture her or getting herself sent to the colonies or to be hanged on the wall. Therefore, by using power it leads to serious consequences that can lead to get yourself in to trouble in
Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is a story heavily influenced by the Bible and has many biblical themes that are used to prove Atwood’s belief in balance. The novel is set in the Republic of Gilead, which was formerly the United States. The story is told through the perspective of a handmaid named Offred and begins when she is placed at her third assignment as a housemaid. Offred describes her society as a fundamentalist theocracy where the Christian God is seen as the divine Ruler over the Republic of Gilead.
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian republic, Gilead, from her novel The Handmaid’s Tale is plagued with corrupt leadership. The oppressor of the of the protagonist Offred is The Commander: a leader and founder of this totalitarian society.
her point of power, order authority and freedom. In Gilead most women was overruled by power and
To live in a country such as the United States of America is considered a privilege. The liberties that American citizens are entitled to, as declared in the Constitution, makes the United States an attractive and envied democracy. It would be improbable to imagine these liberties being stripped from American society. However, Margaret Atwood depicts the United States as a dystopian society in her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The first society is modern America, with its autonomy and liberal customs. The second, Gilead, a far cry from modern America, is a totalitarian Christian theocracy which absorbs America in the late 1980s in order to salvage it from widespread pollution and a dwindling birthrate. The principal flaw in Atwood’s Gileadian society is the justification of human rights violations. This justification only limits the liberties citizens experience, and taunts their once freeing rights, such as the prerogative to explore sexuality. Gilead’s only freedom, is freedom from all other liberties, or as Aunt Lydia would describe, freedom from the anarchy that unveiled in the first society.
Moira is presented through her actions as rebellious - through her escape.This shows the importance of the hope for handmaids that they can escape because one of them already has. The reader also finds out through Moira that if the handmaids are caught they are severely punished. "The feet they'd do for a first offence. They used steel cables...they didn't care what they did to your feet or hands. Even if it was permanent." Her escape gave offred hope Moira was free she might be able to set the other handmaids free. "Moira had power now...she was now a loose woman"- although over the time the handmaids would lose this taste of freedom but Moira would always be their "fantasy." Loose woman was an odd way of wording this means a woman adulterer; this could also be taken to mean she is loose in talking very gossipy. Or even loose as in a "tart" or a prostitute which is really what the handmaids could be seen to be doing.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, Offred persistently deals with the political and social issues of the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is a completely new society that lacks love, expression of ideas, and advanced technology. Throughout the novel, Atwood uses symbolism and flashbacks to explore the political and social problems within the Republic, which include a lack of individualism and the restriction of emotion. These issues further emphasize her central message, which is a warning to future societies to beware of communism and dehumanization.
They used steel cables, frayed at the ends. After that the hands.” (91). Margaret Atwood is directly challenging Moira by threatening and enforcing escalating punishment to see just how much it takes to break her will. At this point in the book, the initial punishment fueled Moira’s development as a tenacious character with an unending hunger for sovereignty. In chapter 22 when Moira ties up Aunt Lydia, her resolve seems to be even more empowered after her previous attempt at rebellion, “ Moira stood up straight and looked firmly ahead. She drew her shoulders back, pulled up her spine and compressed her lips… Usually we walked with heads bent down, our eyes on our hands or the ground.”(132). Moira is expressing power by her posture, which is essentially illegal in Gilead. Atwood is building Moira's character in such a way that the audience feels fidelity towards Moira and her robust opposition to
“Moira was like an elevator with open sides. She made us dizzy. Already we were losing the taste for freedom, already we were finding these walls secure. In the upper reaches of the atmosphere you’d come apart, you’d vaporize, there would be no pressure holding you together” (Atwood 133). This Quote from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, describes Moira in the perfect way. Moira is a strong, intelligent, rebellious character who is strongly against what the new government is forcing upon her.
On the surface, The Handmaid's Tale appears to be feminist in nature. The point-of-view character and narrator is a woman and thus we see the world through a woman's eyes. There's much more to the story than that, though. Atwood doesn't show us our world. She shows us a newly created world in which women lack the freedoms that they currently take for granted. This dystopian society is completely controlled by men. Of course, the men have help from the Aunts, a crack team of brainwashers that run the reeducation centers and teach the handmaids how to be slaves. These characters really don't speak well for womankind for two reasons. First of all, it's difficult to tell who their real life counterpart is, assuming that this...
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 setting of The Handmaid’s Tale – known as Gilead – is a totalitarian government, originally based on Old Testament patriarchy. This structure forbids rival loyalties or parties, so all loyalty must be for the group of men that govern the State. Such a structure means that women are assigned ‘roles’ according to their biological ‘usefulness’.
The handmaid's wore red, “The red gloves are lying on the bed. I pick them up, pull them onto my hands, finger by finger. Everything except the wings around my face is red: the colour of blood, which defines us.” (Atwood 8). The wives wore modest blue outfits and martha's wear a “dull green” (Atwood 10). While out on a walk one day Offred sees a group of Japanese tourists, and noticed the girls were wearing short skirts. She then thinks back to when she used to dress like that, “They seem underdressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this. Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom.” (Atwood 32). Offred came to the realization that clothing is how she used to express herself and men being able to choose what all women wear deprived them of expressing themselves in anyway. On page 62 Offred talks about how Moira used to dress, she would wear lace clothes, snap garters and bras that pushed up her boobs. From that one explanation it becomes clear what type of person Moira was. Clothing is a form of self expression, the men took away any form of being able to express
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
While The Handmaid's Tale conveys the oppression of women, it also reveals the significant role women have in society. Atwood gets the point across that just as they can be oppressed by men, women can equally oppress themselves. Through Offred's eyes, comparisons between today's society and the possible consequences of one's attitudes are examined. The Handmaid's Tale slowly uncovers the many facets of women and the vital role they have as members of society.
After reading the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the author Margaret Atwood uses different types of language throughout the novel. Language had a huge impact on the entire novel. She conveyed her ideas to the point that a reader can understand that some of the methods of language, was used in a form of power. The author also introduced a way of using language as a mean of escape, especially with the narrator of the novel named Offred who was a handmaid. She was able to show that Offred used language as a tool to escape the reality that she existed in. Throughout the entire novel, power is created by freedom of speech, religious language, dialogue, Offred’s language, and key phrases or words. Power was also created for the Gileadean government, Offred use of power, and between individual characters.