Radical Feminism

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Imagine waking up to the President and Congress being gunned down and the United States run by radical “Christian fundamentalist” (Beauchamp). In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, this terrible scenario is not a dream, but a reality. Atwood admitted in an interview with Mervyn Rothstien of New York Times, “I delayed writing it for about three years after I got the idea because I felt it was too crazy.” Indeed, the dystopian society of the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, is a chilling thought but raises questions on the treatment of women in today’s society. The Handmaids Tale is a futuristic science fiction novel told by a Handmaid, a woman who sole purpose is to conceive children, named Ofglen. The Canadian writer is known for the hints of feminism in her novels but The Handmaid’s Tale strays away from slight feminism to radical feminism. Feminism is an ideology that favors women’s equality to men and it has been an issue for centuries. In the United States, women did not get the right to vote until the 1920’s and women were also not accepted into the workforce until around the 1960’s (Loveday). Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale depicts feminism in an antifeminist environment through, point of view, restrictions on women, and male power.

Because of the increasing infertility rates, the Republic decided to enforce the use of Handmaids. The idea of the Handmaids came from the Bible, “Now Sarai, Abraham’s wife, bore him no children: and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian girl name Hagar” (The Hebrew-Greek Bible, Genesis 16:1). Abraham’s wife, Sarai could not bear children, so Hagar was appointed to bare children in Sarai’s place. Atwood was clever using Ofglen, a Handmaid, as the narrator of The Handmaid’s Tale because s...

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...s Tale questions the treatment of women in any era in hopes that women will be treated equally to men and it is up to the reader to answer.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Anchor, 1998. Print.

Beauchamp, Gorman. “The Politics of The Handmaid’s Tale.” The Midwest Quarterly 51.1 (2009): 11+ Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.

Klarer, Mario. “Orality and Literacy as gender-supporting structures in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.” Mosaic [Winnipeg] 28.4 (1995):129+ Acedemic OneFile. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.

Loveday, Veronica. "Feminism and the Women's Rights Movement." History Reference Center. EBSCO, 30 Sept. 2009. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.

"No Balm in Gilead for Margaret Atwood." Interview by Mervyn Rothstein. The New York Times. 17 Feb. 1986. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.

The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible. Chattanooga, TN:AMG. Print.

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