Welcome to Gilead, here “women are tortured and killed for disobeying the law - a society where religious beliefs, the political structure, and the sexual identity are so intertwined as to justify and require the control of women’s freedom, the sexual victimization of women, and the torture and murder of women who do not comply” (Cameron 298). The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood plots the dystopian society of Gilead in which “all men are not created equal: some men are second-class citizens and all women are third class citizens” (Callaway 48). Because of this “women are seen as potentially threatening and subversive, and, therefore, require strict control” (Callaway 48). In order to maintain the control, Gilead families are torn apart, …show more content…
Families of this class are the pride of Gilead, they are the ones who were able to stay together. Now the wives who were loyal to their husbands for so long, are forced to watch as someone else participates in sexual intercourse with him. Handmaids are used “to address the declining birthrate caused by pollution and chemical poisoning, the government created Handmaids who are placed in the households of Commanders whose wives can no longer bear children” (Cameron 299). One cannot begin to feel the pain that the wives of the Commanders must feel as they watch the Handmaids . . . co-habit the house and . . . collaborate in the procreative mission of the household” (Callaway 56). Serena Joy makes herself very clear throughout the book that the Commander is still her husband. Serena Joy ensures that Offred is aware of this fact, stating, “As for my husband . . . he’s just that. My husband. I want that to be perfectly clear. Till death do us part. It is final” (Atwood …show more content…
The devastation that is felt by the handmaids leads them to feel the same amount of hatred for the wives, which the wives themselves feel for the Handmaids. Although the Handmaids are feeling the same sadness and deprivation as the Wives they are told that “It’s not the husbands you have to watch out for . . . it’s the Wives. You should always try to imagine what they must be feeling. Of course they will resent you. It is only natural. Try to feel for them . . .Try to pity them . . . You must realize they are defeated women” (Atwood 46). The wives are allowed to feel resentment towards the Handmaids, but if one would turn the tables, then it is not acceptable. Handmaids are seen as property and a “natural resource to be protected and regulated” and because of this “Controlling Offred is the only outlet through which Serena can express her frustration with the system . . .” (Callaway 51 57). This is a prime example of how Gilead society says they are promoting families, while in all actuality they are ripping them apart. The wives are now the mothers of the Handmaid’s children, and are expected to love something that is actually the product of their husband and another woman. Serena feels that she needs to be in complete control of everything that Offred does, because then she still has control of her husband and their love
Offred is a handmaid, in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, who no longer desired to rebel against the government of Gilead after they separated her from her family. When Offred was taken away from her family the Government of Gilead placed her in an institution known as the Red Center where they trained her along with other women unwillingly to be handmaids. The handmaid’s task was to repopulate the society because of the dramatic decrease in population form lack of childbirth. Handmaids are women who are put into the homes of the commanders who were unable to have kids with their own wives. The Handmaids had very little freedom and were not allowed to do simple tasks by themselves or without supervision like taking baths or going to the store. There was an uprising against the government of Gilead and many people who lived in this society including some handmaids looked for a way to escape to get their freedom back which was taken away from them and to reunited with their families which they lost contact with. Offred was one of the handmaids who was against the government of Gilead before she was put in the Red Center, but she joined the uprising after she became a
Many traumatic events occurred throughout the novel causing both physical and emotional pain. If a handmaid disobeyed the rules set out then they would be injured for doing so. During the novel a character named Moira wanted to escape so she chose to pretend she was sick and got carried out by the ambulance where she attempted to seduce the angels resulting in “[Them taking] her into the room that used to be the Science Lab. It was a room where none of [them] ever went willingly. Afterwards she could not walk for a week, her feet would not fit in her shoes, they were too swollen. It was the feet they’d do, for a first offence. They used steel cables, frayed at the ends” (Atwood 118). The aunts beat them for every single mistake that they make. Offred like many other handmaid’s did not enjoy being forced to do everything that they did due to the subjugation. They often wished that it never happened and wanted to find a way to escape, “Every night when I go to bed I think, In the morning I will wake up in my own house and things will be back the way they were. It hasn't happened this morning, either” (Atwood 257). The subjugation in the novel resulted in the trauma especially towards the handmaid's due to them having specific, important tasks that if they did not do correctly it is seen as grounds for punishment. Before the subjugation the trauma was significantly less in
Due to the fact that the Wives are not allowed to sleep with their husbands, the Wives are all extremely envious of the Handmaids. In Gilead, Serena is deprived of a life of genuine freedom and is forced to watch her husband sleep with his Handmaid. This makes her extremely bitter and jealous and so she takes this out on the Handmaids–including the main character–although it is not exactly their fault. Although the reader is sympathetic to her emotions, they are still completely unfair. The fact that Serena feels hostility towards the Handmaids is ignorant because she knows that they have not chosen their position in society, but rather they were forced into it. At the end of the novel, Serena finds out about Offred’s secret visit to Jezebel’s. She is mostly upset with Offred, which is completely unreasonable because the Commander had forced her to accompany him to Jezebel’s. This is a direct example of the feminist way of thinking: it’s always the fault of a women’s promiscuity, not a man’s. Serena’s attitude supports the order of Gilead, because she tortures the Handmaids, who cannot help themselves. She knows that these women are forced to become Handmaids, yet she still continues to envy them and punish them. Although she should, she has no sympathy for other women and plays the exact role that society requires her to. Women like her allow Gilead to function because they enforce the
...ote shows one of the many ways government used to scare the citizens in Gilead to get them to obey the laws. The government killed and hung people on the wall for the public to view. This scared everyone because they know that if they do anything against the government, the next body hanging on the wall could be theirs. This fear resulted in Offred following the rules and made her do whatever it takes to survive safely in Gilead. Handmaids in Gilead had only one job which was to make babies with the commander they were assigned to. The Handmaids that failed to do so are either sent to the colony or if rebelled, got killed. Offred explains this fear of not fulfilling the expectations by saying, “Each month I watched for blood, fearfully, for which it means failure. I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own” (Atwood, 91).
In Margaret Atwood’s novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the birth rate in the Republic of Gilead had dropped significantly, and women had lost their basic rights. Offred, a handmaid, adapted her new life but she still have to undergo the challenges that the society is giving her. She had to face the lost of freedom, not able to see her family, and forced to comply with new rules. After experiencing all those hardships, Offred successfully overcoming the obstacle of living in a dystopian society.
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...
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.
Offred, among other women depicted in this novel, tries to overcome this dominion. In her own way, she attempts to do this by ensuring the Commander’s expectations of her behavior which could result in her freedom. Thus, there is a present power struggle between the Commander and Offred throughout The Handmaid’s
Speech is a way to express thoughts from a certain individual but Gilead strips this away from the handmaid's. The handmaid's have limited speech and when they do use their voices they have to be extremely cautious of what comes out of their mouths. They never know whose watching them and listening. They could easily get in trouble. When Offred and Ofglen encounter the Japanese tourists, they have to be careful how they respond to the interpreter's question, "He asks, are you happy," says the interpreter... Ofglen says nothing... But sometimes it's as dangerous not to speak... "Yes, we are very happy," I murmur" (29). Not only is speaking hazardous but so is silence. They have to really think and choose their words carefully. They are not allowed to express their true thoughts or else they'll receive serious consequences. This is also seen in Offred's first interaction with Serena Joy, "I didn't say anything to her. Aunt Lydia said it was best not to speak unless they asked you a direct question" (14). Freedom of speech is completely destroyed and the Handmaid's are taught that it's better to have no voice at all and just keep quiet. This quite a treacherous, degrading moment in the
In The Handmaid’s Tale there are three types of women: handmaids (the breeders), wives (the trophies), and the marthas (servants.) The narrator of the novel is Offred, who is a handmaid. Handmaids are women with viable ovaries. Every two years, handmaids are assigned to a commander; the leader of the household. Weekly, the handmaid and Commander try and conceive a
The Handmaid’s Tale is a story of a dystopian society driven by numerous abuses on women. The concept of intellectual abuse of power is very broad in manner of punishing women in the state of Gilead. The main character, Offred, demonstrates how the ideology of the upper class government in Gilead is used to suppress and abuse the lower class woman, by the Commanders and the Aunts; who fall under a high-up in Gilead’s hierarchy. She is forced to enter the cruel place like Gilead, where woman are treated worst than animals. The upper class people of Gilead use words as a way to manipulate and take away the freedom of the women, which results in intellectual abuse.
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.
As you read through the handmaid’s tale you see the relationships of the characters develop and the fight for power, however small that glimpse of power may be. The images of power can be seen through out the novel, but there are major parts that stand out to the reader from the aunt’s in the training centre to the secret meetings between the Commander and Offred.
She was used for her ovaries to reproduce a child, because they are living in an age where birth rates are declining. Offred was ordered by Serena Joy, the handmaid's barren wife who develops some jealousy and envy towards her to become the lover of Nick. Nick is the family chauffeur, and Offred becomes deeply in love with him. At the end of all the confusion, mixed emotions, jealousy, envy and chaos towards her, she escapes the Republic of Gilead. Offred is given treatment and advantages by the commander, that none of the other handmaids are given.
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