Throughout the novel “ The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Atwood uses different forms of language to expresses her perspectives and ideas. Language is something that can be conveyed with power depending on the circumstances, in the novel it is used to explain that if you know how to use language in a literate way you have some form of power. Offred is given the privilege of knowing her previous knowledge of language from her life before Gilead. She is also given mentoring about literature by the commander several occasions throughout the story. Atwood makes sure that the main character Offred has the ability to use language to make her life in Gilead seem like fiction and, fantasy. Therefore, Atwood knows the way that language can be used
conditions force readers to recognize her book as a warning; against creating the realities of Gilead in
The women in this book are forced to believe that “there is no such thing as a sterile man anymore” and it is the law that “there are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren” (Atwood 61). The town of Gilead refers back “to the Old Testament in a reaction against abortion, sterilization, and what they consider to be dangerous kinds of freedom of the modern welfare state” (Staels 455). This is a perfect example of one of Gilead’s twisted ways of thinking. The people of the Republic of Gilead make only women feel responsible for their ability to reproduce or not reproduce when in fact men are just as important when trying to conceive a baby. The Aunts, who train the handmaids, along with everyone else in Gilead, make the women feel self-conscious about themselves. If they cannot produce babies, they are sent away to be killed. The women of Gilead go thr...
Freedom. Everybody desires it, but not everyone has it. In third world countries, many people fall victim to slavery and many more do not have the freedom to seek what they want. In "The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood the main character, Offred, struggles to find freedom in her prison like home called the Red Center, her uniform chains her to the life given to her, and she carries a hope that she will one day escape the Red Center.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood dissects words and/or phrases through the voice of the main character, Offred. Women are not allowed to read or write in Gilead, and Atwood uses this to prove just how valuable language is. Having the book narrated by a woman who grew up with freedom of speech and then having that right taken away from her, allows for the feelings of restriction. Offred would know that she was being discriminated against being a woman. Whereas, if Offred had grown up in the society of Gilead, she would have been ignorant of gender equality. Therefore, Offred wouldn’t have had the same thoughts of wishing to be free, since Gilead would have been all she’d known. Offred continues to express her language musings throughout the book, because one will never know how much they actually appreciate something until it’s gone.
What is a part of human nature that everyone needs, wants, and cannot live without? The answer is intimacy, and when this basic human function is stripped away it creates a sense of unfulfillment in life. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopian masterpiece, that takes a leap at explaining the role of intimacy in life. This simple four syllable word is quite ambiguous, so what does it mean to be intimate or have intimacy? To be intimate or have intimacy means to have affection, sexual intercourse, or a loving personal relationship with an individual. Intimacy takes many forms, and in this novel we have the opportunity to see all of these forms take place through the eyes of Offred. This simplistic word/action, intimacy, gives Offered a sense of power and vulnerability showing not only the flaws of Gilead, but also its purpose.
In Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale a woman named Offred shares her experience in the Republic of Gilead as a housemaid. As the story begins, we find that the regime strategically encroaches the rights of women, independence and seizes anything they thought to be pleasurable deeming it contraband. This includes clothing, literature especially old magazines, and cosmetics. Offred, remembers a time when she was married to her husband Luke with a job and having her own financial backing. However one day it all changes when she get fired from her job and when she tries to go to the bank they won’t allow her to get her money out. She finds out from her best friend Moira, that it is possible to get the money by transferring it to a spouse or
The Handmaid's Tale has been described as a scathing satire and a dire warning! Which elements of our own society is Margaret atwood satirising and how does her satire work ?
Gilead government may have established at first by good intension for its society. However, the government’s efforts to make a better society did not work. Gilead is a dictatorship, that was built by abusing people’s fear and dissatisfaction with societal conditions. After the dictatorial controls were established, those in power played the politics of fear to maintain the regime.
Women, are socialized to internalize a hatred of femininity and espouse the belief that they “aren’t like other girls” to separate ourselves from the generalizations. Phrases like “Women are catty” “Women constantly gossip, and are shallow” “Boys have less drama” homogenize the entire female gender down to a few negative stereotypes. When women perpetuate sexist stereotypes it is called internalized misogyny. Women are guilty of perpetuating misogyny as often as men. Often called girl-hate in colloquial media, society conditions girls and women to compete with each other, not for careers, or for accomplishments but for the attention and pleasure of men. In The Handmaid
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.
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.
Offred is one of the main characters in The Handmaid's Tale. She was the faithful wife of Luke, mother of an eleven month old child and a working woman, before she entered the Republic of Gilead. She was given the name "Offred", when she entered Gilead. This was to make it known that she was a handmaid. Offred becomes psychologically programmed in Gilead as a handmaid, and the mistress of the commander who is in power of all things. She was used for her ovaries to reproduce a child, because they are living in an age where birth rates are declining. Offred was ordered by Serena Joy, the handmaid's barren wife who develops some jealousy and envy towards her to become the lover of Nick. Nick is the family chauffeur, and Offred becomes deeply in love with him. At the end of all the confusion, mixed emotions, jealousy, envy and chaos towards her, she escapes the Republic of Gilead. Offred is given treatment and advantages by the commander that none of the there handmaids are given. During the times the commander and Offred were seeing each other secretly, he began to develop some feelings for her that he tried to hide. Somewhere along the times when Offred and the commander began having secret meetings with each other, Offred too began to develop some feelings for the commander. Offred is also a special handmaid, because she has actually experienced love, the satisfaction of having a child years before. She knows what it is to feel loved, to be in love and to have someone love you. That is all when she has knowledge, a job, a family and money of her own. That is when her life was complete. Because all of that has been taken away from...
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
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.
type of language she develops the story in a series of different character perspectives. She also