Examples Of Oppression In The Handmaid's Tale

Being oppressed and having lost so much, one of the only ways to maintain self respect, a Handmaid in the society of Gilead must both mentally and physically rebel. Most of this activism is subconsciously acted upon, it can be said this form of rebellion is caused by oppression. In the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood it is shown through the use of interior/ dialogue, plot and characterization that activism is caused by oppresion. A Handmaid is an assigned fertile woman in a dystopian society, Gilead, these women are severely oppressed by the government. Analyzing how these literary elements are used, reveals that this theme is prominent throughout the book and makes up a majority of the plot and successfully foreshadows following events.

Although there is not

much offered can do about her situation it's her mental and physical activism that keeps her in touch with her former self and respect for herself.

In the beginning, the activism is shown through mostly the use of interior dialogue or at least what the reader believes is interior dialogue. Oppression has led to offred being rebellious which is depicted during the first ceremony mentioned in the book. Offered enters the sitting room which is the first step in the ceremony and describes how she “Would like to steal something”(Atwood 80). These thoughts of Offred indicate that she is rebellious. Her mental rebellion comes from the grievances she goes through every month. The ceremony must take a toll on her character and how she views the dystopian society. This activism is for her own welfare, she even describes that the reason she would like to steal from the sitting

room is that is would make “[her] feel that [she has] power.”(Atwood 81). The oppression she undergoes such as oppression of power and religion lead to her mental activism. Diction within the interior dialogue also plays an important role in further proving that interior dialogue depicts oppression leads to activism. When offered describes how she feels amused at “Serena joy, [being] on her knees, doing penance.” (Atwood 153). also how she does not linger on being amused at this because “What [she] coveted was the shears.”(Atwood 153) these two uses of interior dialogue lead to the reader interpreting that she, because of oppression, thinks negatively about Serena even though they teach Handmaids to feel sorry for the wives for they are “broken women”.

Thought the novel Atwood uses characterization to show how offered grows as a character because of the oppression. Using flashbacks Atwood shows the reader how offred was in the time before so that the comparison can be made with offered in the oppressive society. As the novel progresses offred becomes more ambitious and rebellious. Offred has a flashback that depicts her innocence and fear to rebel when the oppression was new to the Handmaids. In this flashback Moira is telling offred her longing to escape, “I've got to get out of here, I'm going bats.”(Atwood 89) Offred feels panicked at this and responds, “no, no moira, don't try it.”(Atwood 89). This flashback shows the use of characterization to prove that the oppression has led her to be an activist. It depicts how in the time before offred was very different from how she is in the oppressive society. Another time in the book that we can see the use if characterization to show what oppression and aggrievences will lead to is when the narrator describes the feeling she gets from making eye-contact with an Angle. She illustrates this event as a“small defiance of rule” (Atwood 21). This comparison shows how, because of the opression and aggrivances she faces, she covets an amount of power and now will act in defiance to fufull that pleasure.