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Literary devices in the handmaid's tale
Literary devices the handmaids tale
Literary techniques used in handmaid's tale
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Tyshawn Brown Ms. Milliner EES21QH-01 10/19/16 After reading the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the author Margaret Atwood uses different types of language throughout the novel. Language had a huge impact on the entire novel. She conveyed her ideas to the point that a reader can understand that some of the methods of language, was used in a form of power. The author also introduced a way of using language as a mean of escape, especially with the narrator of the novel named Offred who was a handmaid. She was able to show that Offred used language as a tool to escape the reality that she existed in. Throughout the entire novel, power is created by freedom of speech, religious language, dialogue, Offred’s language, and key phrases or words. Power was also created for the Gileadean government, Offred use of power, and between individual characters. Throughout the novel different roles who was under the Gileadean government was sometimes not restricted or restricted from freedom of speech. Some roles who were not restricted by the language they used was the wives and the commanders. People like Serena Joy and the Commander was able to speak freely as they please. So from …show more content…
The language of the bible was used throughout the entire novel extensively. The book also helped maintain a theocratic dictatorship which is a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities. The government basically tries to use God as a figure to scare people to doing things. The people of Gilead are forced to use religious language in certain conversations. Characters from the book, like Aunt Lydia enforces this to the handmaids. However she twists biblical passages to justify the new lifestyle of the Republic of Gilead. She uses this authority full force to the the point that she seems to enjoy being in
her point of power, order authority and freedom. In Gilead most women was overruled by power and
Atwood's Attention to Words in The Handmaid's Tale The Handmaids Tale illustrates that dictatorship can be established by creating a state of fear once language controls are instituted. As a tradition to dystopian novels, Atwood has drawn much attention to the meaning of words and the significance of names, as well as the prohibition for women to read or write, in order to portray Gilead as a successful totalitarian state. Atwood is trying to make the point that in a dystopian world, language can be the power. The meaning of names is a central focus of the novel, because names define people. Their worth and functions are summarized by the names.
The foundation of the Gileadean regime is the control of sex and sexuality. They execute gays and lesbians; they destroy pornography and sexual clothing; they kill abortion doctors; they outlaw divorce and second marriages; and they even prevent most women from learning how to read.
The Republic of Gilead is a futuristic world where its citizens are controlled through a group of classes known as the caste system. Allana A. Callaway describes this government creation as a "superficially designed [way] to simplify the lives of citizens by dividing them into classes with clearly delineated standards" (Callaway 49). Each citizen in Gilead is controlled in some way by the caste. The Handmaids are controlled by their large red dresses and eye blinders on their hat. The Daughters wear white to show their purity, the Wives by their home restrictions. The Commanders are controlled by their obligations. Every person working, and living in Gilead has some sort of restriction placed on them.
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.
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, language is important. To Offred, the protagonist, language is something forbidden, something taboo, a relic from a lost age. Thus, to analyze the language in this novel we must consider what it means to the characters in it. To Offred and the other women, language takes on an almost sacred significance; it is something to dwell on and ponder. To the men, however, it is disposable. Unlike women, men in this society are not conditioned to feel shame or fear about being educated. They are the only ones allowed to work, learn, and even read. This book is a cautionary tale, a worst-case scenario prediction of the future. One that is, sadly, as relevant and topical now as it was at the time of the book's
This establishes how the society is controlled, tense, and lacks the freedom of knowledge. In this case, censorship reveals the act of silencing and the unimaginable thought of freedom permitted in order for individuals to follow the “ideal” society 's norm. In the novel Offred recalls, “I don’t know what the words are right. I can’t remember. Such songs are not sung anymore in public, especially the ones that use words like free. They are considered too dangerous.” (Atwood, 66). This quote portrays how Offred has been brainwashed to an extent that she does not remember some of the memories from her past such as the lyrics to a song. The government has made sure that after censoring information for many years, people soon forget the feeling of freedom and self expression. People no longer know what it is like to have an opinion about something, and they no longer feel that there is any importance in their lives. The only tasks that citizens of Gilead need to do, is repopulate; therefore, it is not important to live a free and joyful life. The government makes sure to censor words like "free" so that it does not trigger any memory or an idea for the citizens of
Gileads official discourse is a hybridised rhetoric, which combines biblical language with traces of American capitalist phrases; for example, ‘in God we trust’ is the motto on the dollar bill. Marxism and feminism. It uses and abuses the bible in the same way as it uses the slogans of the liberal ideology it has overthrown.
Also, religion is the basis for most of the gruesome laws that Gilead has such as the Handmaid’s job. Their only job is to reproduce which comes from the story of Rachel and Leah where servants can have relationships with their owners in order to give the infertile wives a family. “Humanity is so adaptable, my mother would say. Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.” (283). This illustrates that people can adapt to anything even just a job at reproducing which, in itself, is a gruesome way to live. In addition, before the ceremony where the Commander and Handmaid have intercourse the Commander reads from Genesis the story of Rachel and
In the authoritarian society of Gilead in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the characters have no access to an identity. It is predetermined for them. Characters are told what their role is in society, what institutions concern them, what media they will be exposed to, who they will associate with, and what routines they must follow. Characters, like the handmaids, have no access to sovereignty as well; it is in the hands of others. Consequently, by human instinct, the characters feel a need to take back their own selves, a need that is manifested in small, but dangerous acts of political and personal defiance. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred and the Commander engage in small, but dangerous acts of rebellion as a means to reconstruct a
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
In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Offred recounts the story of her life and that of others in Gilead, but she does not do so alone. The symbolic meanings found in the dress code of the women, the names/titles of characters, the absence of the mirror, and the smell and hunger imagery aid her in telling of the repugnant conditions in the Republic of Gilead. The symbols speak with a voice of their own and in decibels louder than Offred can ever dare to use. They convey the social structure of Gileadean society and carry the theme of the individual's loss of identity.
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.
The epigraph in The Handmaid’s Tale amplifies the importance of fertility in Gilead. The quotation at the beginning of the book ‘‘And when Rachel saw the she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children or else I die...And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees,that I may also have children by her.’’ makes it seem that Gilead wants to go back to traditional values, thus manipulates its citizens that their ideology is correct since it corresponds with what the Bible says. Consequently, this state is telling its citizens that a woman’s worthiness only depends if she is able to produce or not. In fact women who are barren, and are not of a high class are sent to the colonies. The handmaids’s only purpose is further amplified through the rights Gilead abolishes; they can not communicate with others, in fact Offred says, ‘How I used to despise such talk. Now I long for it’ and are no longer able to go outside alone or without being spied...
Atwood’s creation A Handmaid’s Tale is fueled by her political thoughts and ideals. It’s a horror story of what the world can become if we don’t change. She puts a spotlight on the issues and ideas of feminism, identity, freedom, sex, love and especially language. In this book it’s clear that she believes language is an very important part of society. Something that we should cherish before it’s taken away. In The Handmaid’s Tale, uses it as a tool of power. In Gilead, a theocracy reigns high. The regime creates an official vocabulary woven with religious references, gender roles and racial separation. These rules on the language serve Gilead’s elite.