Handmaid's Tale Gender Roles

As our world evolves, mankind consistently has to overcome obstacles. These obstacles often pertain to the differences we have as human beings. One of the most primitive differences in humans is the differentiation between men and women. Many literary works delve into the components of the opposing sexes, such as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, which explores the world of gender roles and how they affect individuals, as well as society as a whole. This exploration takes place in a distorted, but not unrealistic, prospective world. In the modern dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood utilizes symbolism, theme, and tone to portray how the current objectification of women in our culture will inevitably lead toward a totalitarian

society.
Through the use of symbolism, Atwood is able to accurately portray the mistreatment of the female sex. As symbolism persists throughout the novel, it becomes apparent that it is intended to be used as a device to connect our world to the slightly skewed society detailed in the story. Margaret Atwood uses comparative statements to justify her symbolic items, such as Offred’s dialogue when explaining her excursion with Ofglen, which states, “A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze” (Atwood 165). This comment connects Offred and Ofglen to rats in mazes, alluding to the sense of entrapment they and other women feel while living in this overbearing world described throughout the novel. Atwood does an extraordinary job in depicting our societal flaws in a hyperbolic and symbolic way. Many other authors also comment on this skill Atwood has. In introducing her article “Choice of Evils”, Gayle Greene summarizes, “The Handmaid’s Tale offers a horrific vision of things to come based on an extrapolation from things as they are” (Greene 14). In saying this, Greene illustrates that this entrapment is not only felt by women in the story but also women in the real world. Greene implies that Atwood intended for the story to be a thinly-veiled portrayal of modern day life. Atwood accomplishes this portrayal through her use of symbolism because symbols help connect fictional feats with ordinary occurrences. The consistent symbolic phrasing also serves as a mechanism for adding complexity and alternate layering to the novel. When overseeing her encounter with Nick, Offred admits, “He is too illegal, here, with me, he can’t give me away. Nor I him; for the moment we’re mirrors” (Atwood 98). This dialogue reveals multiple layers to the reader. On a literal level, readers can clearly comprehend the situation at hand and the mere physical depiction of the scene. Yet what some readers may not understand is that Atwood laces an alternate meaning behind this quote. In saying that the two characters are mirrors, Atwood unlocks a symbolic layer to the text, implying that Offred and Nick are the same in that moment. In “Choice of Evils”, Gayle Greene describes that a reader can only fully understand the alternate layering when reading the novel by saying, “The power of Atwood’s tale is in its gradual unfolding, and this second-hand account of it gives no sense of the novel’s complex structure or of its delicate interplay of wit and horror” (Greene 14). Greene details the layering system Atwood uses by encouraging her readers to explore The Handmaid’s Tale. Greene also portrays the intricacy of these layers by explaining Atwood’s juxtaposing structure. Through the use of symbols, Atwood is able to execute the exaggerated portrayal of our society and expose the idea that the real world will soon follow suit.
The incessant implementation of themes aids in the exploitation of the underlying message Atwood aims to promote.

The themes used throughout the story all coincide with the message of defacing traditional gender binaries for both sexes. In a deep contemplation whilst observing guards flash identification badges, Offred ponders, “Why don’t women have to prove to one another that they are women?” (Atwood 73). This thought process promotes the umbrella term of gender roles. Gender roles are so persistently referenced through the course of the story that they can be considered a theme. Atwood intends to use this theme to challenge typical gender roles in the real world. To identify a main theme of the novel, Gayle Green explains in her article “Choice of Evils”, “But the feminism of the novel is not simple, for feminism too is a target of Atwood’s satire” (Greene 14). Greene implies that a consistent theme in the novel is that of feminism. Feminism ties to gender roles in that it is the fight for equality between the genders. Feminism protests traditional binaries and allows for freedom amongst all people, which is another aim of Atwood’s writing. Another task of these themes is to end the romanticization of the continuously evolving world around us. Offred becomes nostalgic and denounces, “When we think of the past it’s the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that” (Atwood 30). In this quote, readers understand the implication that our present

world is changing and differs from the past. Atwood’s character, Offred, makes this bold generalized statement to refute the thought that this change is positive. Atwood makes it clear that she, too feels this way about the evolution of our culture. In her article “Mothering Desire: The Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's The Madness of a Seduced Woman”, Sarah R. Morrison states, “The novel effectively demonstrates that in a disabling culture women’s emotional needs can be met only indirectly and inadequately” (Morrison 323). Morrison is implying that the future of our society will be a “disabling culture”, and that women will not be satisfied in any aspect while existing in it. This idea supports Atwood’s defamation of our evolving world in that no woman, such as Atwood, would support a society that degrades them. Atwood’s use of themes assists in her general purposes for writing her novel in the first place.
In addition, Atwood uses tone to place some of her own opinions into the text as opposed to the story being a simple character narrative.

By adding her opinion to the text through the use of tone, Atwood is able to set up a partially didactic atmosphere for the reader. Atwood’s antagonist Offred describes The Wall and asserts, “Now the gates have sentries and there are ugly new floodlights mounted on the metal posts above it, and barbed wire along the bottom and broken glass set in concrete along the top” (Atwood 31). The tone used in this dialogue can be described as militaristic. Atwood utilizes words with authoritative, dystopian connotations to portray the true horror of the scene she is describing. These words aid in setting the tone for the upcoming few lines and help the reader better connect to the story and visualize it in full detail. In addition to the harsh diction involved in militarism, Atwood also plays with romance. In her article,“Mothering Desire: The Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's The Madness of a Seduced Woman”, Sarah R. Morrison reviews Atwood’s writing style and proclaims, “Atwood, I believe, while well aware that the romance plot may incidentally reinforce ‘a culturally conservative message,’ views it as something other than a celebration of heterosexual romantic love” (Morrison 321). By placing romantic tones throughout the novel, Atwood is able to make an intense contrast between scenes. Atwood’s

opinion is also acknowledged through the romantic tones in that the reader gets immense insight into her thoughts on romance. Atwood not only supports traditional romance but also detests it, which can be understood through the tones Atwood uses during romantic scenes. Tone is also used as a form of relatability in Atwood’s story. While in the washroom with Moira, Offred describes her feeling of danger by explaining, “I sink down into my body as into a swamp, fenland, where only I know the footing. Treacherous ground, my own territory. I become the earth I set my ear against, for rumors of the future” (Atwood 73). Again, the tone of this dialogue is militaristic, and Atwood uses words with similar connotations to portray that. Not only does this allow the reader to visualize the scene at hand, but also to connect with the story. This connection is vital for Atwood’s warning to penetrate through all of the elaborate and intricate phrasings that she also utilizes. In “Mothering Desire: The Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's The Madness of a Seduced Woman.”, Morrison describes the dependency Atwood has on a sense of familiarity within the reader by stating, “Atwood . . . employ[s] a narrative strategy that depends, initially, upon the reader’s sympathetic involvement with the heroine, who is allowed to tell her story-- quite self-consciously and indeed quite implausibly-- in the first person” (Morrison 318). Morrison explains that Atwood relies on the reader connecting with the novel, This connection is formed through Atwood’s use of tone in that readers are able to easily recognize the connotations behind her words and quickly attach them to specific circumstances. This induces familiarity because something that is easily recognizable is more often than not familiar. Atwood is able to flawlessly provide a beacon for relatability in readers of her novel through the use of tone.
Through the utilization of symbolism, themes, and tone, Margaret Atwood is able to precisely depict our culture’s flaws and insensitivity in her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood details a somewhat exaggerated view of the current world to interpose a warning of how quickly our society can change. Atwood explores how this threat of change not only affects our world as a whole but also has the power to perturb the population on an individual level. As portrayed in the novel, the world is constantly evolving and changing, but it is up to us to decide if that is positive or negative.