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Inequality of gender a handmaids tale
The commander analysis the handmaids tale
Inequality of gender a handmaids tale
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In the story “ The Handmaid’s Tale “ the story is all based on what caste system you are born into. For example, it all starts of with commanders with the highest power and it ends of with the unwomen. In the story Offred is a handmaid. A handmaid is those who care for the wife's babies. She was once married and had a husband named luke, but ever since the caste system was placed all men and women and families had been separated. This was placed mainly for women, to separate them from each other. In this caste system the four highest who are in power are men. And these are the commanders, angels, eyes and the guardians. These men are all in control of the women. The commander having most of the power can do what he wants with these women.
Angels are the soldiers and the Eyes are secret policemen who watch their every move. Women are placed in different levels some having more power than others. These women are not allowed to talk or to have communication between one another, depending on what level they are placed in. For example the unwomen, these women are in the lowest class. They are sterile and can not have any babies which puts them in a lot of danger.Also many men have been killed and placed on the “wall” for interfering with woman whom they aren’t supposed to. These men are mostly doctors. Every other week many people are hung on the wall to cause fear in others.
Gender inequality has existed all around the world for many centuries. Women were seen as property of men and their purpose of existence was to provide for the men in their lives. Men would play the role of being the breadwinners, whereas women played the role of being the caregiver of the family and household and must obey the men around her. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood portrays how women in society are controlled and demeaned by men, and how men feel they are more superior over women.
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale there is a threat of physical, emotional, and mental abuse if you disagree with the established group or party. The Handmaid’s Tale is a book about a “woman victimized by a totalitarian system that attempts to control her thoughts and deny her humanity” (Thomas 90). In The Handmaid’s Tale there are differences between all the women. There are the wives, who are married to the commanders. The commanders are in charge of all the other women. There are the econowives, which are the wives of the low-ranking officials. The Martha’s are in charge of the upkeep of the commander’s house. The Handmaid’s are in charge of having the commander’s baby. Each woman has to listen to their husband or commander. No woman can think for herself. The men are in charge of everything. (Atwood, Thomas)
“Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which define us”(8).
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
The handmaid’s tale is a book written by Margret Attwood in 1985. The book consists of Christian fundamentalism, fascism, women’s subjugation, and women’s empowerment (Ingersoll). The beginning of the book has a handmaid telling you about how the system works in their town. She also talks about how the women have no power. One of her quotes on power in the novel is “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze.” She is referring to the handmaid’s because they were allowed to go anywhere as long as it was inside of the gate. The novel also talks about how the girls need to find their own identity because they do not have one of their own. I wait. I compose myself. “My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What must present is a made thing, not something born.” In this quote Margret is referring to how the handmaid has to act like somebody she was not born to be; she must act like somebody her commander has told her to be. Children are a big factor in this novel because if the wife’s of the commander cannot produce kids then the handmaid’s have to have a sexual encounter with their commanders. “Give me children, or else I die. Am I
In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, women are subjected to unthinkable oppression. Practically every aspect of their life is controlled, and they are taught to believe that their only purpose is to bear children for their commander. These “handmaids” are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. Any type of expression would be dangerous to the order of the Gilead’s strict society. They are conditioned to believe that they are safer in this new society. Women are supposedly no longer exploited or disrespected (pornography, rape, etc.) as they once were. Romantic relationships are strongly prohibited because involving emotion would defeat the handmaid’s sole purpose of reproducing. Of course not all women who were taken into Gilead believed right what was happening to their way of life. Through the process of storytelling, remembering, and rebellion, Offred and other handmaids cease to completely submit to Gilead’s repressive culture.
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there is an apparent power struggle between Offred and the Commander. The Gilead Society’s structure is based off of order and command. This is what creates a divide between genders and specifies gender roles in this novel. Without this categorization of the roles and expectations of women, the society would fall apart at the base. Thus, the Commander, being the dominant gender set forth by the society, has control over Offred.
Before the war handmaids had their own lives, families, and jobs but that’s all gone now; They have all been separated from their families and assigned to A Commander and his wife to have their child. Handmaids did not choose this life but it was forced upon them. 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
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.
People need some sort of control in their lives, whether that be through big or little things. In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, the republic of Gilead had clear positions that enabled more power for some compared to others, the most powerful being the commander and the least being the handmaid’s. Men were the ones controlling all of Gilead and they had the power to make the rules. There were different ways in which men ruled over women a few of them being taking away their names, using the wall as a threat and controlling what they wear.
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
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 to own their 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.
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
The hierarchy of women goes as such: Commander’s Wives, Aunts, Marthas, Handmaids, Econowives, and Unwomen. Commanders are at the head of their household. Every woman within these ranks has settled into their roles as part of the Republic except for the Unwomen, those who refused to become a part of their society under any circumstances--those who are sent to work camps and separated from the rest of the world. Aside from them, the rest of the Republic's women all serve men in one way or another. Women are made to believe that the roles assigned to them are to be seen as a great honor. Outwardly, women accept these roles with little to no retaliation, but inwardly and amongst each other, many perform small acts of rebellion against their overseers. One woman who partook in many of these acts is referred to as Offred throughout the story; however, her real name is never revealed.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood illustrates the Republic of Gilead's as a new society where there are sexually oppressed women and is founded by religious extremist. In this society, women are used as a child bearers and have no rights in the cruel and harsh society. In between the dystopian society, Offred is a slave to this freedomless civilization; she is known as a Handmaid. Offred presents her story of pure oppression and how she survives to hold her past life. “ I used to think of my body as an instrument,...or an implement for the accomplishment of my will…There were limits,...Now the flesh is arranges itself differently”(Atwood 73). She has been taken away rights from her own body, no self identity, no value, and no place