Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Evolution of women in literature
The portrayal of women in literature
Women power in society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Evolution of women in literature
Imperial Power Once more fear is instilled in a humans mind they will do anything to avoid it as fear is the greatest motivator in life that drives us. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale the narrator uses her leveraging reputation to remind people of her history and past. Offred, the narrator, is constantly being degraded by the author, and ultimately has her ethos as a narrator reduced. The presence and manipulation of power controls the regime of woman’s sexuality and is an essential factor as to how that identity and fate of a woman is stripped and how Offred’s ethos is limited and uncertain. Factors and misleading natures that affect Offred’s narration are demonstrated through the acts of fear and systemic coercion and also through the censorship in the Gilead society. Throughout the novel Offred’s ethos is often being affected by fear and systemic coercion imposed on the Gilead society. Offred’s inabilities to have a choice of the sexual interactions she has with the commander are displayed when she states: “I do not say making love because that is not what he’s doing, copulating too would be inaccurate , because it would imply two people and only one is involved , nor does rape cover it : nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for. There wasn’t a lot of choice but there was some, and this is what I chose.” (Atwood 116). This quote demonstrates how Offred has lost the hope of ever having a choice and is either being used as a sex object for pleasure, or as a sexless nurturer. Since the commander holds a powerful status, he has the capability to control the regime of Offred’s sexuality. The commander is stripping Offred’s identity and is not only diminishing her role as a narrator but also as a victim. This ul...
... middle of paper ...
...w Offred’s censorship experience may differ from other handmaids and woman in Gilead. This way her ethos does not contemplate on the point of views of the other woman and reduces her reputation and credibility as a narrator. Overall, in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale, Offred is constantly being degraded conclusively reducing her ethos as a narrator. Presence of power controls the sexual regimes in Gilead and ultimately limits Offred’s ethos to a certain extent. Misleading natures that affect Offred’s narration are through the acts of systemic coercion and also through censorship. Atwood does not leave the reader with much hope that things will ever change in Gilead, as she portrays a female dystopia with absurd examples of sexual persuasion. Women are displayed as sexual victims in Gilead and are reduced to their sexual capabilities, existing only to serve men.
Although Offred is the heroine of this story, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the hero’s journey can be found in many characters in the story as well. This story is breaking into shambles between the past and the present, however, through the story, readers can still see the signs of the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell has studied. Offred, being a handmaid, has been thrown into a world where women are powerless and stripped away of their rights to read and write. Atwood illustrates a dystopian world where equality is a part of history, not in the present day Gilead. However, Offred is one of the main characters who ceased to live in a degrading world and find means to escape. Thus, Offred begins on her Hero’s Journey, which occurs
In The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are introduced to Offred, who is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. As this novel is
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, there is an apparent power struggle between Offred and the Commander. The Gilead Society’s structure is based off of order and command. This is what creates a divide between genders and specifies gender roles in this novel. Without this categorization of the roles and expectations of women, the society would fall apart at the base. Thus, the Commander, being the dominant gender set forth by the society, has control over Offred.
Many texts that were published from different authors have introduced topics that can be related in today’s society, but Margaret Atwood’s creation called, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, gives voice to the thoughts and revolves around the narrator Offred, a woman whose rights have been deprived due to political issues. However, the information shared by Offred to the reader to the text is not reliable for the reason that she only touches upon her own perspective. Through the text, Atwood depicted what the United States of America would be in the future based on the actions of humanity during 1980’s. The text is set up in an androcentric and totalitarian country called Gilead, where the government attempts to create a utopian society. Thus, in order to attain this society, the authorities generated their legislation from the teachings of the Holy Bible in an attempt to control humanity. The governing
The ability to create life is an amazing thing but being forced to have children for strangers is not so amazing. Offred is a handmaid, handmaid's have children for government officials, such as Commander Waterford. Offred used to be married to Luke and together they had a daughter but then everything changed; Offred was separated from her family and assigned to a family as their handmaid. The society which Offred is forced to live in shaped her in many ways. In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood uses cultural and geographical surroundings to shape Offred's psychological and moral traits as she tries to survive the society that she is forced to live, in hopes that she can rebel and make change.
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.
While The Handmaid's Tale conveys the oppression of women, it also reveals the significant role women have in society. Atwood gets the point across that just as they can be oppressed by men, women can equally oppress themselves. Through Offred's eyes, comparisons between today's society and the possible consequences of one's attitudes are examined. The Handmaid's Tale slowly uncovers the many facets of women and the vital role they have as members of society.
In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, social turmoil after a staged terrorist attack has led to a totalitarian Christian regime. In this dystopian future, the roles of men and women are much different than in today’s society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are unequal because they have no choice about their bodies, their dress, or their relationships.
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
As The Handmaid’s Tale is considered an allegory of the social injustice women face against traditional expectations of their role in society, the symbolism of the Handmaids and other women as a whole for repressed feminine liberty and sexuality allows Atwood to connect her work to the theme between gender and expectations in her society. As Handmaids in the Republic of Gilead, females are stripped of their previous identity and are defined as a tool of reproduction for the men who is assigned them. At its core, these females are forced against their will to be mere tools, experiencing unwanted sex at least once a month, which Gilead names “The Ceremony”, hiding its true nature as a form of rape. Offred
In the novel The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood the themes of Religion and inter-human relationships are the themes that are most evident in the text. This novel shows the possibility of the existence of an all-powerful governing system. This is portrayed through the lack of freedom for women in society, from being revoked of their right to own any money or property, to being stripped of their given names and acquiring names such as Offred and Ofglen, symbolizing women’s dependant existence, only being defined by the men which they belong to. This portrayal of women demonstrates the idea that individuals are unimportant, that the goals of the society as a whole are more pertinent. “For our purposes, your feet and your hands are not essential” (chapter 15) is a quote revealing that Gilead denies rights to individuals and to humankind. In The Handmaids Tale, handmaids are only considered of value for their ability to reproduce, otherwise they are disposable. Religion is an aspect very prominent in the society of Gilead. We see this in chapter 4, where Ofglen and Offred meet and th...
Ally Condie expressed "the beauty of dystopia is that it lets us vicariously experience future worlds - but we still have the power to change our own." This demonstrates how authors use literary power to unfold the mask on society. They expose the controversial topics occurring in the real world, such as the role of women in society. Margaret Atwood, an author of a dystopian novel, took it upon herself to write a novel reflecting how women are treated in society with a theocracy. Several other writers have made it their mission to decipher what Atwood's work is trying to convey.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a compelling tale of a dystopian world where men are the superior sex and women are reduced to their ability to bear children, and when that is gone, they are useless. The story is a very critical analysis of patriarchy and how patriarchal values, when taken to the extreme, affect society as a whole. The result is a very detrimental world, where the expectation is that everyone will be happy and content but the reality is anything but. The world described in The Handmaid’s tale is one that is completely ruled by patriarchal values, which is not unlike our society today.
A new form of military government is set up in Gilead, the United States; stripping all women from their normal behaviors and way of life. Even though the lives of men have also been changed they are still the ones in power able to rule, control, and restrain women as they feel they should do. Women no longer have the choice, judgment to personal freedom; to say what they want to do with their lives and how they go about operating it. They must follow the rules that have been placed on society and to break them would mean death. We see through Offred’s eyes, hear through her ears, and feel with her heart the torture an...