The Handmaid´s Tale: A Community Made of Classes

1330 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The handmaid's tale analysis feminist

In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the community of Gilead is separated according to classes rather than people being their own individuals. They oppress differences by “censoring the threatening force of creative self-expression” and defining them into groups (Staels 459). People are forced to give up unique qualities and live a life of monotony. They are told that “memories of the past, together with personal desires, are supposed to fade away” and be forgotten (Staels 458).
The community of Gilead is sectioned into classes that are visible through the women. The classes are put into ranks according to wealth and significance. The highest class is symbolized with the color blue which stands for the wives of the commanders. The wives live a lavish lifestyle filled with parties and stunning things (Atwood).
The next level in Gilead, are the wives of low ranking officers and they are symbolized with the color green. During The Handmaid’s Tale, they are also referred to as the econowives because they are not nearly as wealthy and do not get the opportunity to attend elegant parties. The Martha’s are also labeled with the color green. However, the Martha’s are infertile and spend most of their time being maids for the wealthier wives (Atwood).
The symbol red stands for the Handmaids. They are considered to be the lowest class where they are solely looked at for their reproductive abilities. Once they have transformed to a Handmaid and lost all individual differences they are sent to live with the commanders and their wives. There, “they force you to kill, within yourself” and demoralize one into a sex slave made to have babies (Atwood 193).
Formally known as the Red Center, a place where fertile women were sent to ge...

... middle of paper ...

...ing who you are and being yourself and taking that away would cause a state of pandemonium. The Handmaid’s Tale is an example of what our government should not do if they want to keep the sanity and tranquility of our country intact. The oppression of individual differences goes against the nature of a human being and to stifle that is to cause the beginning of the end of a community or country.

Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Anchor Books, 1998.
Miner, Madonne. ""Trust Me": Reading the Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." Twentieth Century Literature (1991): 149.
Staels, Hilde. "Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Resistance Through Narrating." English Studies (1995): 457-459.
Thomas, Deborah A. ""Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down": Echoes of Hard Times in the Handmaid's Tale." Dickens Quarterly (2008): 91-95.

Show More
Related

  • The Handmaid's Tale Women

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    The women are divided into functions and are identified by the colour of their dress. In chapter 5, Offred is walking down the streets of Gilead, reminiscing about the days she used to walk down the street wearing what she wanted to wear before she got taken away, and also thought about simple things such as how she was able to freely walk to the laundromat to wash her own clothes with her own soap. She informs the reader of her analysis of the different types of women in the Republic of Gilead: “There are other women with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Martha's, some in the striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimp, that mark the women of the poorer men. Econowives, they're called. These women are not divided into functions. They have to do everything; if they can.” (Atwood, 5.5) The Handmaid’s— the bearer of children— wear red, the Martha’s, who are the housekeepers wear green, and the wives wear blue. Econ Wives are the only women who aren’t defined by the colour of their dress because they must do every function. Atwood is showing that the individuality and identities of these women have been completely taken away and are labelled by the clothing they are forced to

    Read More

  • Differences Between Harrison Bergeron And The Handmaid's Tale

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the Gilead society the government has attempted to remove the individuality of the citizens in many ways as seen in similarity to Harrison Bergeron with the use of the handicaps. Morano has made it so society is classified into a hierarchy with assigned uniforms of specific colours to display the role within society. The handmaids wear red to symbolise fertility, the 'Wives' wear blue, to display their inability to carry children. From Morano utilising costuming, he has made it so the citizens are defined only by their social and reproductive function, stripping each woman of their identity. Where as in Harrison Bergeron they have lost their individuality due to the fact they are trying to make society equal by handicapping those who are above average "They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal in every which way.” This results in the people losing their individ-uality and their humanity. In the Hand Maids Tale, like Morano did with the costuming everyone's identity has been stripped away as although some have more privileges, everyone has been renamed and repositioned “Offred is my name now.” Their loss of individualism is symbolised by their generic titles such as the men are classed as the 'Commanders,' and the ‘Eyes’ which is different to Harrison Bergeron’s society as they are not assigned to specific roles, but are still stripped of their individuality. The two authors have utilised individuality suppression to create societies that the citizens are inter-changeable and replaceable with each other, displaying an unfavourable

    Read More

  • Handmaid's Tale Women Quotes

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    This image symbolizes the restrictions used on women in the Gilead society. It also represents Serena's manipulation over the other handmaids in Gilead

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Handmaids

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the gilead society, women are placed in a social hierarchy in which they are defined by their role. The wives are the elite members. The handmaids are the people who produced babies. Marthas are the house servants. Aunts are a prestigious group of people who trained handmaids. Econowives are low class women. However, none of the women are defined as people with their own personalities and interests. Instead, Women are seen as objects that belong to men. Econowives belong to the Guardians. The wives, marthas,

    Read More

  • The Red Symbol in The Handmaid's Tale

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Red is worn only by the handmaids; the color red indicates sexuality, fertility and childbirth, accordingly outlining their function as a sexual object; their sole purpose being to bear children for their Commanders. One of the most reoccurring symbols throughout the novel, red is interrelated with all things female (the Handmaids.) Inversely, red is furthermore a symbol of death, violence and blood, which Offred portrays as a color which “defines us.” The reoccurring appearance of the color red creates a thought-provoking parallel between femininity and power, as it signifies the religious “sinfulness” of promiscuous sex between the handmaid’s and their “married” commander.

    Read More

  • Differences and Similarities Between Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

    1820 Words  | 4 Pages

    Staels, Hilde. “Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Resistance Through Narrating.”Critical Insights (227-245) From English Studies 76.5 (1995): 455-464. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Representation of Colors in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

    1784 Words  | 4 Pages

    Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Cliff Notes on Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Lincoln: Cliff Notes, Inc., 1994.

    Read More

  • The Handmaid's Tale

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.

    Read More

  • Free Handmaid's Tale Essays: The Handmaid's Dystopia

    1495 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a dystopia about a world where unrealistic things take place. The events in the novel could never actually take place in our reality." This is what most people think and assume, but they're wrong. Look at the world today and in the recent past, and there are not only many situations that have ALMOST become a Gilead, but places that have been and ARE Gileadean societies. We're not in Kansas any more, Dorothy!

    Read More

  • Class Discrimination in Gilead

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thesis: In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood characterizes Handmaids, as women with expectations to obey the society’s hierarchy, as reproducers, symbolizing how inferior the Handmaid class is to others within Gilead; the class marginalization of Handmaids reveals the use of hierarchical control exerted to eliminate societal flaws among citizens.

    Read More

  • A Nation of Indoctrination: "The Handmaid's Tale"

    1475 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Atwood's Handmaid's Tale

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Men and Women: Jane Eyre and The Handmaid's Tale

    1786 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Handmaid’s Tale (Contemporary Classics). Journals Bertens, H. (2001) Literary Theory: The Basics, The Politics of Class: Marxism. Abingdon, Routledge. Sourced in AQA Critical Anthology LITB4/PM Issued September 2008.

    Read More

  • Free Handmaid's Tale Essays: An Analysis

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood focuses on the choices made by the society of Gilead in which the preservation and security of mankind is more highly regarded than freedom or happiness. This society has undergone many physical changes that have led to extreme psychological ramifications. I think that Ms. Atwood believes that the possibility of our society becoming as that of Gilead is very evident in the choices that we make today and from what has occured in the past. Our actions will inevitably catch up to us when we are most vulnerable.

    Read More

More about The Handmaid´s Tale: A Community Made of Classes

Open Document