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The novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood connects to the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne through many similar, recurring themes. Both novels are described as works of dystopian fiction and they both manifest traits of Sin and Redemption with Good and Evil. One of the central themes that relate to both texts is Identity. Within both of the novels, both women protagonists struggle to successfully assert their identity, and they struggle to create genuine relationships with others. In The Handmaid's Tale, women have been banned from talking to one another because it's dangerous to express emotions. They are not allowed to read, write or create personal relationships with one another. All these things have been banned …show more content…
They have the ability to tell their own stories how they please. In addition, both novels explore the issues of the protagonists' restrictive social environments; Hester lives alone, isolated from society while Gilead is self-isolating as no one is able to communicate properly with one another. Alienation from self and community, compliance and rebellion and dual existence are other themes and motifs the novels reflects upon. Both Hester and Offred are outsiders in their communities. “Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon. (2.17)” In this extract, Hester has been neglected by her entire town. They see her parade through the streets like a criminal and in a sense, Hester is a criminal. But what this suggests is that even though Hester's been surrounded by people, she is left feeling alone. Offred finds herself feeling alone too many times, “I want her back. I want everything back, the way it …show more content…
They both have many connections to one another but their ideas also contrast one another. Hester is in trouble for having a baby with another man while Offred is being forced to sleep with her commander and Nick in order to get pregnant. The Scarlet Letter shames Hester’s adultery while The Handmaid's tale encourages it. Both novels provide numerous interpretations of social isolation, redemption and they both show the individual struggle against society's expectations. Both novels also show a correlation to the color red, Hester is forced to wear a red “A” on her bosom while Offred is forced to dress every day in a Red Cloak. The red is a symbol of adultery and shame for Hester, but by the end of the novel, she is able to redefine the “A” to something positive, making it embody traits of wisdom and courage. The red gown that Offred dresses in is used to divide the women of different hierarchies. Handmaids wear red, Wives wear blue, Aunts wear brown, etc. Colour is used in these two novels as a way to divide these women, separating them from who they are and aren’t. Therefore, it is similar to both novels that women are isolated within society if they don't meet their expected role as
The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood is a novel about a totalitarian state called Republic of Gilead that has replaced the United States in which the women of society have been taken away from their families and forced to be
A further way these two books are alike is the way they approach the topic of survival in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian society. They both tackle suicide and children as a means of coping in much the same way. In Gilead, many handmaids commit suicide as an escape of their new bleak reality. For instance, Offred’s predecessor–who most probably was the one that wrote “nolite te bastardes carborundorum” after learning it from her oppressor–committed suicide. Offred herself comes to the same conclusion in this passage: “I force a smile, but it’s all before me now. I can see why she wrote that, on the wall of the cupboard, but I also see that she must have learned it, here, in this room. Where else? She was never a schoolboy. With him, during some previous period of
Comparing The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Anthem by Ayn Rand The two novels, ‘The Handmaid's Tale’ and ‘Anthem‘, are both haunting, first person tales of personal hardship in a closed and controlled society. In this essay I will point out many important similarities and differences between the two books, mainly the setting and the similarities between the two societies in which the stories take place, as well as more important differences between the main characters. To start, I would like to compare the settings of the two books.
Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake describes a world very different from the one we live in today, but not too far from a possible future. The story, told from the viewpoint of Snowman, possibly the only human survivor, recounts the end of days in human history. His description, given to us as flashbacks, tells of a world where technology is power, and those who lack power are doomed to a sub-par existence. This world gone mad is reminiscent of another Atwood novel written in 1986, The Handmaid’s Tale. In this story, the world of today is gone, democracy has been eradicated, and it is the elite few who control the fate of the masses. By comparing these two novels by Atwood, one can see corresponding themes dealing with governmental control, the dangers of technology, the uses of religion, and the treatment of sexuality.
More than 70% of women experience some form of mental or physical abuse from the men in their life. Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen, and The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood, showcase two corrupted societies. Behind the layer of typical male dominance, there is a layer of pure apprehension. This makes the female protagonists, Elizabeth and Offred, feel as though they have no way out. Both protagonists in the novels are aware of the state of their society however, they must decided whether they should keep to themselves and follow the social norm; or if they should follow their hearts and rebel against the normalization of the gender binary. Both novels succeed in bringing attention to the still relevant flaw in society
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;
After reading the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, I think the whole book shows a feminist dystopia, which is different from the radical feminists. Since the balance of power between men and women is the biggest theme in this novel, Atwood powerfully criticizes the patriarchal society through depicting the suffering of Handmaids. In this society, women in the lower class are deprived of their social status, totally becoming the baby-making tools for the upper class male. Also, they are deprived of all their possessions and their human rights, even their emotions as human beings. In Atwood’s novel, the author shows us a great concern of the social prejudice against women. Because of the balance of power between men and women in this society, women are given their own function: Handmaids are baby-making tools; Wives are used for ceremonial purposes only, and Jezebels are prostitutes and entertainers, available only to the upper class men and their guests.
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
...t create a feeling of disorientation towards the reader. Atwood does this to enable us to understand just how disjointed life is in Gilead. Offred continuously involves the reader, she directly addresses us and anticipates our response and even feels she has to justify some of her actions, she is a self-conscious narrator. Atwood is also preparing us for the revelation in the Historical notes that Offred is recounting her story into a tape recorder. The story is open ended; we are not told what exactly happened to Offred, Atwood does this in order to have more of an impact on the reader.
1984 by George Orwell and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood are two novels about a dystopian society. These books are both about fear of the government and the world’s fate. Both books may seem unrealistic now, but the future is a great mystery. Although frightening, the world can become what the books predict. 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale have totalitarian societies, strict rules with penalties for having your own or different beliefs and main characters who have goals and see beyond the government.
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood she explores issues of personal , cultural and global significance. Throughout the book the readers can gain knowledge in women losing their rights to a new world. The author shows this from the start of the book by Gilead's new policies and rules. Personal significance is shown in the book by the main character Offred who loses power to her own body and is treated as a sub-human, cultural significance is symbolized on how distinct culture is after Gilead took over and global significance is shown as well.
Identity, Complicity, and Resistance in The Handmaid's Tale, PETER G. STILLMAN and S. ANNE JOHNSON, Utopian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1994), pp. 70-86
As known by almost everyone, movies often deviate from the books. The Scarlet Letter is no different. The story follows Hester Prynne, and her life after she committed adultery. Her and her daughter Pearl are being shunned by society as she wears the scarlet letter upon her chest. In the meantime Hester's real husband Chillingworth, who was thought to be dead, secretly enacts his revenge to both Hester and Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl. The differences between the book and movies are easily found like all of the extra characters, and the narration being told by Pearl in the movie. There are many similarities as well. However they are quite rare. Theses including the major theme of religion, and Hester's meeting with dimsdale in the woods.
They have to come round in their own time.” Montag simply is willing to listen to before everybody else is; he goes a step further than Clarisse by seeking answers to his questions. In the Handmaid’s Tale however, Offred, though certainly more rebellious than her counterparts therefore in this sense a nonconformist, is not necessarily a rebellious character. Inside her lies an internal struggle against the totalitarian regime, which she quietly defies through small acts such as reading or glancing at Nick when she shouldn’t. Offred, is not fully indoctrinated by Gilead’s regime, unlike the character of Janine, who she refers to as “one of Aunt Lydia 's pets,” the use of the word ‘pet’ indicating her bitterness towards the system.