One can only be torn to threads by society so much before they are no longer themselves. Societies are constantly ruling the people and telling them how to live and in Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale, no one is more to blame than the society of Gilead. Gilead is a society where every basic human right is taken from women and their role in society is specifically and only to provide their uterus to a qualifying male. In most novels, the character overcomes their weakness or struggle in life and they become the better person or the hero of the novel. Offred in this case, does not rise to the occasion and become the hero. It is partially her own fault and partially the society's fault. In the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by …show more content…
The society of Gilead strips every basic human right and power from women until they are nothing; because of this, all women will be impacted tremendously and incapable of returning to a normal life after the laws have been lifted. “In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood explicitly questions why people so often cooperate with totalitarian regimes and how they come to accept life under their dominion,” (Laflen). The Handmaid’s have grown accustomed to doing whatever it takes to survive; the society they live in forces them to think of themselves as the Commander's puppet. As a Handmaid, Offred must conceive a child with the Commander. During these sex ceremonies the Handmaid must play it absolutely safe because everyone is watching, “One false move and I’m dead,” (Atwood 88) Offred says. Handmaids have the most responsibility, but at the same time they do not have any responsibility at all. During the ceremony, Offred must make sure not to move a muscle or make any suspicious movements that would raise an eye. “It is true that the colonization of Offred's body can be linked with
The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian-style novel designed to provide a quick glimpse as to what the United States would be like if it were penetrated and overtaken by totalitarian extremists. The main character, Offred, begins her story in a school gymnasium somewhere on the Harvard/MIT campus; and from there we learn more about Offred and her struggle to adapt to the loss of her own free will. The Republic of Gilead—this dystopian novel’s totalitarian regime—keeps women under control by prohibiting any form of literature, limiting contact with males aside from their assigned commander, and enforcing their biblical views regarding childbirth and its sanctity....
Although Offred is the heroine of this story, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the hero’s journey can be found in many characters in the story as well. This story is breaking into shambles between the past and the present, however, through the story, readers can still see the signs of the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell has studied. Offred, being a handmaid, has been thrown into a world where women are powerless and stripped away of their rights to read and write. Atwood illustrates a dystopian world where equality is a part of history, not in the present day Gilead. However, Offred is one of the main characters who ceased to live in a degrading world and find means to escape. Thus, Offred begins on her Hero’s Journey, which occurs
She shows us that there are possibilities for Offred. The reason why Margaret Atwood chooses to continuously show the positive and subdued attitude of Offred, is to show the reader that in Gilead there are ways out and ways of breaking the laws however, there are also ways in which Gilead represses you and its up to the individual in this society to choose whether not to take the risks. The Jezebel sequence on the whole is highly significant to the novel. We many different insights into Gilead in jezebels in contrast to the rest of the novel, which makes it one of the most important sections in the novel of “The Handmaids Tale”.
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.
Margaret Atwood’s book “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Offred ( The main Character) struggles with expressing Individualism among a society that constrains a woman by labelling her for her duties and worth. Offred is a “Handmaid” which is a group of women who are used for reproduction, being a “Handmaid” is considered to be very degrading because these women are seen for only their bodies to provide children and nothing more. An article previously read, written by “Frieda Fordham” discusses Jungian Archetypes and one that best correlates with the book is “The Persona”. The Persona is defined as “A collective phenomenon, a facet of the personality that might equally well belong to somebody else, but it is often mistaken for
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.
He is very understanding of her and wants to get to know her for who she really is. Which is not allowed and no one can know, or they will both receive a harsh punishment. Offred's commander allows her to read sometimes, and they play scrabble together and have conversations about their lives outside the society. The commander knows that what is going on is not right. The government is trying to isolate the citizens from the rest of society. “Knowing was a temptation. What you don't know won’t tempt you”. The government thinks that if you do not know things going on in the society, then there will be no way that they will be tempted into revolting against them. They feel that without rewarding them with knowledge, then they won't know how wrong they are being treated. But as the book continues, the people don't follow the rules as much as they did before. For example, Offred begins to have sex with Nick. Which it is only allowed that she has relationships with the commander. But they are both starting to not follow the rules as closely. Which the commanders are not allowed to know the Handmaid's, there only interactions are allowed to be over sex. But the commander likes the idea that they are friends. In my opinion Gilead is a perfect example of a oligarchy. An oligarchy means a small group of people having control over a society which is the type of government Gilead possesses. The people in control of the government are the higher powers and they are doing everything they can to make sure that no one has the power to disobey them. The gilead society is not a place where there are equal freedoms. It is also not a place where you have the ability to make your own
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 the real world, different symbols are used to help people understand things, and to add different effects onto people’s lives. For example a pendent a women or man wears from the army helps someone understand what they’ve been through and helps portray them as a strong individual. In novels which may have complex story lines like The Handmaids tale it is important that these novels have some symbolism to help the reader decode what some details in the novel represent, helping them understand the plot more in-depth. Through the novel of the Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood, symbolism is present and that helps to enhance the story line, as well as contribute an important factor in which is helping the reader understand
Paula Hawkins, a well-known British author, once said, “I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.” In Margaret Atwood’s futuristic dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale, a woman named Offred feels she is losing control over everything in her life. Offred lives in the Republic of Gilead. A group of fundamentalists create the Republic of Gilead after they murder the President of the United States and members of Congress. The fundamentalists use the power to their advantage and restrict women’s freedom. As a result, each woman is assigned a specific duty to perform in society. Offred’s husband and child are taken away from her and she is now forced to live her life as a Handmaid. Offred’s role in society is to produce a child for the Wives. A Handmaid that is unable to produce a child is sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred, Nick, and the Commander are unorthodox.
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.
Symbols and Lenses Role in The Handmaid’s Tale Makeup symbolizes the stereotypical women attributes in our modern society. Women are expected to look their best, not necessarily feel their best. In The Handmaid’s Tale, makeup plays just that. Gender roles relating to power, as well as changing appearances, loss of freedom, their past lives, and how the femininity has changed since their society was overthrown. Makeup isn’t mentioned as frequently as the word red, but it is a common theme throughout the novel.
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
Though Offred is developed as a character through her opinions on female sexuality, she is further characterized by her individuality and willingness to defy her social expectations as a female, assigned to her by her government. In Atwood’s work, the narrative is told by an intelligent individual named Offred who is oppressed by Gilead’s female expectations but is not afraid to defy these assigned roles despite not being a traditional heroine (Nakamura). Even as Offred’s previous identity is stripped away from her, she retains small pieces of her womenhood and individuality through defiant actions such as manipulating men with her feminity from swaying her hips slighty in their line of sight to making direct eye contact with certain men, which she is forbidden from. On the other hand, a major act of rebellion from
Before Gilead, Offred lived in a normal western society with her husband and daughter but it soon then started to change little by little, giving very few rights to women. The society changed because of the presence of pornography, sexual, and sexual assault or any sort of violence to women. By allowing the women freedom to do