Nature Of Power In The Handmaid's Tale By Margret Atwood

This paper normalizes the recalcitrant nature of women through analyzing Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.A nature that can be related to the consequences of exercising power without liberty. Usually, the exercise of male power needs a degree of liberty for the subjects, otherwise, the power will face its inevitable fate, which is women’s resistance or recalcitrant nature. It is normal for any form of power to face a form of resistance, because when power is misled, recalcitrant nature comes to refine the power. In this way, it is too normal for having a form of resistance for each form of power. In The Handmaid’s Tale, the absolute power of males removes liberty in the society, and thereby, enslaves women. At this time, women realize

On the contrary, where this is no possibility of resistance there can be no relations of power. It follows that the exercise of power will normally be at risk from the recalcitrance of its subjects: it will always involve costs and its outcome will often be far from certain. Resistance, evasion and the costs of dealing with them may provoke refinement or modification of the techniques of power – and these, in turn, will provide conditions under which new forms of resistance and evasion may be developed.

It has various forms such as resistance through imagination, body, and language. It appears in the site of exercising power. For instance, when power is exercised upon the body, bodily resistance appears.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, when women see the patriarchal and social norms that oppress and deprive them from their rights, they “realize that a conscious reassessment of roles is necessary” (Newell, 16). Therefore, women try to reclaim their bodies and minds through reconstruction of the past, sexuality, language, and night. They use reconstruction of the past to reclaim their minds, while they use sexuality, language, and night to reclaim their bodies.
Reconstructing the Past
In The Handmaid’s Tale, since Offred is trapped in the Red Center as well as in the Commander’s house, therefore, it is impossible to escape physically from her confinement. Thus, she chooses mental journey instead of physical journey to reclaim her mind, ease her pain, and remain alive. This journey manifests itself in getting her memories back that represents her lack of freedom, passion, and love.The elements that aids her to reconstruct her past are; remembering, her senses and