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the handmaid's tale feminist analysis
character analysis in the handmaids tale
margaret atwood the handmaid's tale characterisation
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In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the reader may perceive Gilead as an orderly structured society at which everything is placed in a position to be convenient for the general public. From the reader’s perspective, this sounds helpful for the organization of certain conflicts that were relevant to the previous government policies; however, Offred, the narrator, shows that this perception is inaccurate. Her dark and mundane tone express her experience through a depressing dystopia, which she is forced to live in. With this being said, this dystopian society punctures her personal motivation to be useful, resulting in her constant referral to the past as a way to avoid her reality. Offred’s psychological distress causes her to use the avoidance …show more content…
She is using this avoidance strategically to keep her mind filled with thoughts about whether her family is safe or not. This constant curiosity is able to take away from Gilead’s goal to make the people worship their demoralizing ideals of a society. Offred nostalgically says, “It’s a Saturday morning in September, I’m wearing my shining name. The little girl who is now dead sits in the back seat, with her two best dolls, her stuffed rabbit... I know all the details, (84)” which shows that she is using memories of her family to keep her thoughts flowing. “I’m wearing my shining name” expresses that her name is something that brings light to her darkness. This exact phrase shows the reader that her memory enables her mind with positive vibes. When the narrator then says “The little girl who is now dead sits in the back seat” shows us that Offred is indecisive about her own child’s life. At this moment, the reader realizes that her indecisive thoughts keep her distracted from Gilead’s communist ideals. This quote shows that Offred not only thinks about her memories but analyzes them to prolong her escape from this
"The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopia about a world where unrealistic things take place. The events in the novel could never actually take place in our reality." This is what most people think and assume, but they're wrong. Look at the world today and in the recent past, and there are not only many situations that have ALMOST become a Gilead, but places that have been and ARE Gileadean societies. We're not in Kansas any more, Dorothy!
Every human being needs certain rights to survive. There are the fundamental ones; food, water, air, shelter, but there are also other ones that are equally important to survive: love, communication, compassion, freedom. In many dystopian societies one of these fundamental needs are missing because the society is afraid that they will break the control that they have over the people. In the novel The Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood the society is no different. Narrated by a woman named Offred who once was happy who had a family and a job, she shows the reader that to keep people quiet the society takes away people 's freedom, their ability to choose, their ability to be with and talk to who they want, even their ability to read and write,
There are various moments in this book where the personal discovery of the Handmaid, Offred, is displayed. In almost every chapter there is a moment where she recognizes the everyday changes that have happened in her life. Gilead changed the lives of many different people. From having all the freedom one could ever want to having to obey the government’s every order; most people were not happy with this change. Offred was one victim in particular who did not like the new changes. It split her family apart. Her husband Luke was either taken to an unknown place or killed, her daughter was given to a different mother, and she was put to use as a Handmaid. Offred’s life was changed in many detrimental ways. Her job is to now be placed in the home of a Commander and his infertile Wifeand be a “two-legged womb(s), that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices” until they give birth to a child (Atwood 136). After they give birth to the child, they are allowed to stay for a short while to nurse the child. They are then moved into the next home of a Commander to rep...
Imagine a world where you are confined to a room, you have no say in what your day to day life holds, you have no say in anything that happens in your life. This is not an imagination it is reality for the Handmaids in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Attwood. In this story the narrator Offred describes what it is like to be her about her existence in an oppressive organization in a theocratic dictatorship world. “A theocracy dictatorship is a form of government in which a deity is officially recognized as the civil ruler and official policy is governed by officials regarded as divinely guided, or is pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religion or religious group” (Wikipedia). In this story the dictatorship takes place in Gilead, we
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.
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.
The ability to create life is an amazing thing but being forced to have children for strangers is not so amazing. Offred is a handmaid, handmaid's have children for government officials, such as Commander Waterford. Offred used to be married to Luke and together they had a daughter but then everything changed; Offred was separated from her family and assigned to a family as their handmaid. The society which Offred is forced to live in shaped her in many ways. In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood uses cultural and geographical surroundings to shape Offred's psychological and moral traits as she tries to survive the society that she is forced to live, in hopes that she can rebel and make change.
The ending of the novel is intentionally lacking direction because the author wants the reader to ponder its ending. Were it not for the fact that we, the readers, know that Offred lives to tell her story, we would be left like the people of Gilead, without hope. However, Margaret Atwood's point is that just as naturally as a caterpillar weaves its cocoon to grow wings and fly free, so to must the wings of women be.
The Marxist theory “is the belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there should eventually be a society in which there are no classes” – Karl Marx In the book “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood there are significant examples of the Marxist theory because of the way social classes are represented, how religion is manipulated in the society, and what values the text reinforces in the reader.
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
After reading the Handmaid's Tale, I felt that Societal Complacency was the most critical aspect to the success of the Gilead Society. The Republic of Gilead is a run by a strict Old Testament religious doctrine. This government does not tolerate anyone who does not conform, it is run mostly by fear. Fear of death or the wall or being sent to radioactive colonies. This new government is cruel towards women, it robbed them of their humanity under the guise of protecting them. This new republic has forced women to give up jobs, forbidden them from reading, they control or regulate sexual activity as well as reproduction and birth, they have also prohibited or limited speech between women and even renamed women so that it fits in with a more biblical society. The Governments goal is to turn women into dumb subservient slaves dependent on men. The Republic of Gilead is based on "traditional values" with the households being strictly patriarchal. The sexes are strictly divided in this book both men and women have strict protocol they must follow. Both men and women are separated by class and social status defined by the color they wear.
Many texts that were published from different authors have introduced topics that can be related in today’s society, but Margaret Atwood’s creation called, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, gives voice to the thoughts and revolves around the narrator Offred, a woman whose rights have been deprived due to political issues. However, the information shared by Offred to the reader to the text is not reliable for the reason that she only touches upon her own perspective. Through the text, Atwood depicted what the United States of America would be in the future based on the actions of humanity during 1980’s. The text is set up in an androcentric and totalitarian country called Gilead, where the government attempts to create a utopian society. Thus, in order to attain this society, the authorities generated their legislation from the teachings of the Holy Bible in an attempt to control humanity. The governing
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.
In dystopian fiction, forbidden relationships exist because it provides a sense of hope and liberation for the protagonist rebelling against the authoritarian figure in the dystopian society. The novel The Handmaid’s Tale conveys forbidden relationships through the protagonist, Offred, as she desires to maintain and form newer relationships with others particularly Moira her best friend, Nick, the Commander and Luke, her husband. Relationship such as friendship is considered forbidden because it gives Offred resilience to rebel against the regime. Equally the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell presents relationships such as Winston’s sexual connection with Julia, who is a party member, as forbidden because members of the party are
As The Handmaid’s Tale is considered an allegory of the social injustice women face against traditional expectations of their role in society, the symbolism of the Handmaids and other women as a whole for repressed feminine liberty and sexuality allows Atwood to connect her work to the theme between gender and expectations in her society. As Handmaids in the Republic of Gilead, females are stripped of their previous identity and are defined as a tool of reproduction for the men who is assigned them. At its core, these females are forced against their will to be mere tools, experiencing unwanted sex at least once a month, which Gilead names “The Ceremony”, hiding its true nature as a form of rape. Offred