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Essays on handmaids tale
Analysis of the handmaids tale
Essays on handmaids tale
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The scene starts off with a long shot of the figure of Offred, with light shining in from the background that makes the viewer only see her shadow. The camera angle is eye-level making it seem like someone is staring at Offred from across the room. The room that we see looks like a typical room in any house, and the familiarity is supposed to invoke a sense of dread in the viewer. Everything aspect of the room is plain and gives off the feeling that no one lives there. Additionally, the light shining in from the window behind Offred, only allows a shadow of the figure to be seen. There are no distinguishable qualities that can be seen, even the color of her dress is obscured by the light. Therefore, creating the illusion that that shadow could be anyone of the women …show more content…
Blue symbolizes numerous things, but in this instance its association to faith and heaven connect well with the type of religious society that rules Gilead. Consequently, blue is often considered to be beneficial to the mind and body, so surrounding handmaids with blue makes sense, because Gilead want these women to be in the best possible health. The camera starts to zoom in closer to the shadow of Offred, and then cuts to a medium shot of her hunched over holding her hands. The camera is angled so that the viewer gets a side profile view of Offred. The light is still shining in from the window behind her casting rays of light in a few directions. No light is casted on Offred’s face and it remains covered in shadows. This is done to show Offred’s anxiety and dread about finding out that there is an Eye in the house she resides in. The director keeps the light off her face to create a somber atmosphere. Then, there is a cut to a medium frontal view of Offred as she is looking down. There is a slight high angle looking down on Offred that makes her appear to be smaller and oppressed in the current
The colour of the flowers is also of vital importance. When Offred first enters the house of the Commander and his wife, she notices “… a fanlight of coloured glass: flowers, red and blue.” In the Republic of Gilead, Handmaids wear red and Wives wear blue; these colours are intended to reflect the owner’s “personality” – the wanton Handmaids in fiery red and the demure Wives in serene, virginal blue. The “blue irises” on the wall of Offred’s room are symbolic of this fact that she ...
Red is worn only by the handmaids; the color red indicates sexuality, fertility and childbirth, accordingly outlining their function as a sexual object; their sole purpose being to bear children for their Commanders. One of the most reoccurring symbols throughout the novel, red is interrelated with all things female (the Handmaids.) Inversely, red is furthermore a symbol of death, violence and blood, which Offred portrays as a color which “defines us.” The reoccurring appearance of the color red creates a thought-provoking parallel between femininity and power, as it signifies the religious “sinfulness” of promiscuous sex between the handmaid’s and their “married” commander.
Offred is one of the Handmaid’s in the Republic of Gilead. This used to be known as the United States of America but now it is Gilead, a theocratic state. Because of an issue that occurred, women lost all of their money and rights. Handmaid’s were then assigned to higher class couples that were unable to have children, that was the new job for the Handmaid’s. Offred was assigned to the Commander and Serena Joy, his wife. Offred was once married to a man named Luke and they had a baby girl together. When this issue started occurring and Offred lost her rights, her, Luke and their daughter tried to escape to Canada but were caught. Offred has not seen Luke or her daughter since that incident. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the most unorthodox characters are Offred, Serena Joy, and The Commander.
In this passage, Offred is sitting in the bathtub comparing how she viewed her body in the past with the way she detects her body now. She is reflecting on this memory in terms of menstruation. Her only importance in this time of Gilead is to become impregnated by the commander. If Offred shows any sign of a menstrual cycle, then she has become acquainted with failure. Offred feels disembodied because Gilead only values her for pregnancy and she does not feel a connection with her body any more.
Margaret Atwood uses the culture of how handmaids dress to psychologically change how Offred sees and thinks about the world and others. On the way home from shopping with her partner Ofglen, Offred sees a group of tourists who are dressed how women used to dress before the war. Offred and Oglen stop and watch the tourists; "We are fascinated, but also repelled. They seem undressed" (28), Offred then remembers that she too used to dress like that. Offred's reaction shows that being a handmaid and having to dress so modestly can alter how you think about yourself and
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
Identity is what makes a person unique. It is what distinguishes a person from the other seven billion people that inhabit the earth alongside them. Without an identity, one is another person in a sea of unfamiliar faces with nothing to make them special. The reader experiences this very phenomenon in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, as the women have their identities stripped from them in the dystopian, war-stricken society and are forced to be just seen and not heard. Using the protagonist as her tool, Atwood presents the idea that the loss of an identity results in the loss of a person, and a person will do anything to fill the void that needs to be filled.
Thinking back to the days before Gilead, it is clear that the current situation is a lot different to then for Offred. She has lost all personal freedom and is a modern sexual slave to the Commanders, men of high office in either the Gileadian government or the business sector. This is a perfect depiction of the totalitarian state that Gilead is in. Denied of the personal liberties we take for granted in a democratic society, Offred has to live under the rules of a higher authority and is controlled eve down to the minute aspects of living.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, social turmoil after a staged terrorist attack has led to a totalitarian Christian regime. In this dystopian future, the roles of men and women are much different than in today’s society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are unequal because they have no choice about their bodies, their dress, or their relationships.
A rope segregates the handmaids from everyone, and they must kneel on the cement floor while the Wives are seated. During the prayvaganza, Ofglen tells Offred that Janine’s baby Angela was deformed, a “unbaby”. After giving her what I assume is lingerie-like attire the Commander says he is taking her out. What the Commander proposes is dangerous, particularly for Offred. Still, she decides to go out with him knowing the risk she is taking. He takes her to a club where Jezebels are all the women dressed in feathers and bright colors. At the club, she spots Moira, who gives her a signal to follow her into the bathroom. The two catch up with Moira telling her how she escaped from the red center. After heading back to the house from the hotel Offred comes home and finds out Serena Joy arranges for Nick to have sex. Nick was unwelcoming toward Offred, but she continued to see him on her own with Serena Joy
Dystopia refers to society or community that is undesirable and developed to substitute the problem with the world with one another. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and the novelette Words and Music by William Sanders, deal with the creation of irreversible oblivion of dystopian fictions in which the society or community is being oppressed. The authors want to prove a dystopian society is not only furious and frightening but also hard to change. The authors explore the oppression of the authority in a way that their information, independent thoughts and freedom are restricted. Also, the cause of Complacency makes people to accept the oppression without much resistance. Last but not least, language
The darkness that they step into has a double meaning. One is the literal darkness, symbolizing the evil they contain within them with their evil plans. The other is the mask they war as the lighted hallway they step out from symbolizes the mask they put on to hide their deep and dark desires from the people they interact with. Goold shows that while a fair face may symbolize kindness, looks can be deceiving and can hide a foul heart that harbors deceit and evil. The flickering of the florescent lights gives the scene a more ominous and mysterious tone because it makes it seem as though shadows are creeping up behind the witches, which would symbolize the sins and dark thoughts that lurk beneath the mask. Goold cuts all background noise in the hallway to create an echo of the witches’ voices that is unnerving and disturbing, which makes the audience question the witches’ purpose for the visit and the murder. Goold effectively uses dramatic irony here by allowing the audience to be able to perceive the evil the witches symbolize and understand the unnaturalness of the events due to the manipulation on the witches’ behalf from an outsider’s perspective on a more thematic
Offred’s journey is a prime example of the appalling effects of idly standing by and allowing herself to become a part of the Gilead’s corrupt system. This woman is a Handmaid which was recently placed within a new
Eyes in the novel are a symbol and a motif that turns into imagery in that you are always being watched wherever you are. Offred is aware that even Nick or the doctor might be an Eye, which instills fear in Offred and leads to paranoia among the other citizens of Gilead. “Right now its treason… I thought you were a true believer” (Atwood 168) this quote shows how everyone is an eye and could possibly turn you in so Offred feels some sort of freedom when she learns that Ofglen isn’t a true believer just as she is. The eye is reminiscent of the eye of God and how it is perceived as being one with the totalitarian state of Gilead. It draws attention to the extreme forms to which the state will go to control their citizens. Handmaids are to be
“I ought to feel hatred for this man. I know I ought to feel it, but it isn’t what I do feel. What I feel is more complicated than that. I don’t know what to call it. It isn’t love” (58 Atwood). The story of Offred is synonymous to the trials and tribulations of a housewife. A patriarchal society where women had no value other than giving birth to children. In the Novel, we are taken back to a time where genders had specific roles and duties in a society. Women in the 1960’s were responsible for taking care of the house and children and had no room for aspirations outside of that. Handmaids face the same daunting task of leaving their dreams behind to achieve a common goal, survival. In the Handmaid’s