In the novel, The Handmaid's Tale, the author uses language to lead the readers to understand the depiction of power and identity, forces its reader to make connections between the current world and Republic of Gilead. First of all, in the novel, Republic of Gilead manipulates words over other character, using biblical terminology as part of their language. Through the use of language, Atwood unveil that communication is a body of power and Gilead applies it to control its state over the thought and action of others. The author uses language to describe the enslaver of women in the novel, Republic of Gilead, women are interpreted only by gender role as wives, handmaids, Martha, and unwomen. Gilead strip the women of their identity through the giving them names and separating them into different functions for examples, “everything to choose from in the way of names, why did she pick that one? Serena joy was never her real name, not even then” (Atwood 50). They were given names to dehumanize them in Gilead, they were propriety of Gilead. “He could fake the test, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off …show more content…
“From time to time I can see their faces, against the dark, flickering like the images of saints, in old foreign cathedrals, in the light of the drafty candles;... I can conjure them but they are mirages only, they don’t last. Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I am to disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedspring, I can stroke myself, under the dry white sheets, in the dark, but I too am dry and white...I am like a room where things once happened and now nothing does, except the pollen of the weeds that grow up outside the window, blowing in as dust across the floor”(Atwood 118). Offred uses her thought as a form of opposition against the
Gilead were categorized and toyed with and dominated by the men. Gilead woman are used and
...es these experiences to remind herself that she is no longer alone. Offred does not have a living friend or companion beside her, but instead the companion is inside her. It is herself who is guiding her in the life she is now living. In the end it is clear to Offred that she is still the same woman as she once was, the changes with the new government did not change her the same way it changed other individuals. A discovery was made, she was no longer Offred the Handmaid; she was June.
They are not free to choose when or who t... ... middle of paper ... ... f no use. Again here Atwood presents Offred in a negative manner. Atwood then from showing Offred in a negative way, to positive, then back to negative, she shows us the club of Jezebels and shows us hopes for Offred again.
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.
Both novels treat humans as items and not as human beings. In HMT, the entire structure of the Gilead society was built around the single goal of reproduction. Gilead is a society facing a crisis of radically dropping birthrates and to solve the problem it forces state control on the means of reproduction. Controlling women's bodies can succeed only by controlling the women themselves. The society's political order requires the overthrow of women. The government strips the women of the right to vote, the right to hold property or jobs and the right to read. The women's ovaries and womb become a `national resource' to the society. Women cease to be treated as individuals and rather as potential mothers. Women internalize the state created attitude even independent women like the narrator of HMT, Offred. At one point lying in a bathtub and looking at her naked form, Offred states;
The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will collapse.
Atwood is often thought of as a feminist writer, but through this novel her writing is not completely feminist nor patriarchal, but something in the middle. Atwood is also someone who described herself as a “strict agnostic” in an interview with Bill Moyer. In this future society Offred introduces the fact that people in Gilead are divided into separate groups, which have different jobs in society, Offred’s being a Housemaid. A housemaid is a concubine that is assigned to live with a Commander of the Faith and his Wife.
While The Handmaid's Tale conveys the oppression of women, it also reveals the significant role women have in society. Atwood gets the point across that just as they can be oppressed by men, women can equally oppress themselves. Through Offred's eyes, comparisons between today's society and the possible consequences of one's attitudes are examined. The Handmaid's Tale slowly uncovers the many facets of women and the vital role they have as members of society.
The new regime uses a few ways to take over it’s people’s mind. It takes away the use of language from women and uses new vocabularies. Writing, reading, and talking are limited, the Republic of Gilead stops its people from thinking and therefore no problems would be caused. The system that takes away women’s name and each are assign to a title, this strips off women’s identity as individuals and all women are forced to live in a certain way that is based on their titles. By using a mixture of all methods above, the Republic of Gilead takes almost full control toward it’s people.
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel in which Atwood creates a world which seems absurd and near impossible. Women being kept in slavery only to create babies, cult like religious control over the population, and the deportation of an entire race, these things all seem like fiction. However Atwood's novel is closer to fact than fiction; all the events which take place in the story have a base in the real world as well as a historical precedent. Atwood establishes the world of Gilead on historical events as well as the social and political trends which were taking place during her life time in the 1980's. Atwood shows her audience through political and historical reference that Gilead was and is closer than most people realize.
The Handmaid's Tale has definitely fulfilled Atwood's purpose of creating a strong dystopian society. It seems as though throughout the entire novel, all the things that Gilead has reformed to make a more perfect society has backfired. In effort to make the world better, it has actually gotten worse. The strong use of Gilead's language points directly to the dystopian way of life. Atwood's use of characters and symbolism lets the reader know that the whole setting of the novel is in a strong dystopian society.
The Handmaid's Tale presents an extreme example of sexism and misogyny by featuring the complete objectification of women in the society of Gilead. Yet by also highlighting the mistreatment of women in the cultures that precede and follow the Gileadean era, Margaret Atwood is suggesting that sexism and misogyny are deeply embedded in any society and that serious and deliberate attention must be given to these forms of discrimination in order to eliminate them.
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 way one understands a book is based on their ethnicity, culture and political view. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, a new society, Republic of Gilead, is established. Handmaid’s, fertile women, are forced to have a child for a couple. Many people will get a different interpretation of the new laws implemented to rule the new society. Liberals and Conservatives will read and interpret the novel because it involves a new government, which means they will be critical of the death penalty, religion, and Republic of Gilead as a whole.
Margaret Atwood sheds light on two concepts that are intertwined; fertility and motherhood. Nevertheless in Gilead these notions are often viewed as separate. The Republic State of Gilead views women as child-bearers and nothing more. In Gilead, these women are known as handmaids, who’s function in society is to produce children for barren females of a high status. Gilead also prohibits the handmaids from being mothers to their previously born children, meaning before Gilead was created, for instance, Offred, who is separated from her daughter. Thus it is evident that Margaret Atwood generates a state that views birth only as growth in population rather than the beginning of a relationship between mother and child.