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Handmaid's tale literary analysis
Critical interpretations on the handmaids tale
Critical interpretations on the handmaids tale
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Moira is presented through Offred as the novel is written in first person narrative. The readers get a very biased view of Moira because we only got Offreds view of Moira. This is important because this makes offred "feel safer knowing that Moira is here." When offred is in the Jezebels she spots Moira who had escaped. "I'm willing so hard, she must look at me...before she disappears." Moira was Offreds only friend. Although Moira is presented in her own voice as she is describing how she escaped. Moira is presented through speech it shows the importance of Moira. Moira fills in a lot of Offred's past and things that Offred is not allowed to find out being a handmaid. Moira is presented through her actions as rebellious - through her escape.This shows the importance of the hope for handmaids that they can escape because one of them already has. The reader also finds out through Moira that if the handmaids are caught they are severely punished. "The feet they'd do for a first offence. They used steel cables...they didn't care what they did to your feet or hands. Even if it was permanent." Her escape gave offred hope Moira was free she might be able to set the other handmaids free. "Moira had power now...she was now a loose woman"- although over the time the handmaids would lose this taste of freedom but Moira would always be their "fantasy." Loose woman was an odd way of wording this means a woman adulterer; this could also be taken to mean she is loose in talking very gossipy. Or even loose as in a "tart" or a prostitute which is really what the handmaids could be seen to be doing. Moira is portrayed as an extreme feminist and a lesbian. This shows the strength of Gilead even the strength of Moira's character is still broken down. She is caught and is taken to the brothel "Jezebels." Moira chose to be a lesbian in college almost like two fingers to the world. She wanted to be different she still gets to do this in jezebels, because "woman on woman sort of turns them on." Moira had herself sterilized before the time of Gilead. This meant that when she became a handmaid they didn't know she was sterilized because it would defeat the object trying to get Moira pregnant. This shows that Gilead is not perfect. The technologies that they made unlawful stopped them finding this out.
Atwood is often thought of as a feminist writer, but through this novel her writing is not completely feminist nor patriarchal, but something in the middle. Atwood is also someone who described herself as a “strict agnostic” in an interview with Bill Moyer. In this future society Offred introduces the fact that people in Gilead are divided into separate groups, which have different jobs in society, Offred’s being a Housemaid. A housemaid is a concubine that is assigned to live with a Commander of the Faith and his Wife.
This is a post united states world and some people, in the story, have seen the changes of from United States of America to Gilead. In their dystopian world, the handmaids wear “Everything except the wings around my face is red: the color of blood, which defines us”(Atwood 8). This is an example of the Ordinary World, female servants are used for reproducing because if the decline birth rate due to sexual diseases. During the call to adventure, the reader can consider Offred going to the call of adventure before Gilead, as well as, after Gilead. Both of them relating to the mistreatment against women. Her friend Moira, before Gilead, showed her a world in which women were fighting for their rights in the 1970’s during the women's liberation movement. Her and Moira went to a rally where “(she) threw the magazine into the flames. It riffled open in the wind of its burning; big flakes of paper came loose, sailed into the air, still on fire, parts of women’s bodies, turning to black ash, in the air, before my eyes”. (Atwood 39). Offred was gaining some of her memory back, pre- gilead days, she knew her mother and Moira were apart of the feminist movement. In addition to the rise of the government, her and Luke needed to leave because she feared the safety of her daughter and her husband. In matter of fact, Offred was a bit precautious of entering a new world because she was scared of
They used steel cables, frayed at the ends. After that the hands.” (91). Margaret Atwood is directly challenging Moira by threatening and enforcing escalating punishment to see just how much it takes to break her will. At this point in the book, the initial punishment fueled Moira’s development as a tenacious character with an unending hunger for sovereignty. In chapter 22 when Moira ties up Aunt Lydia, her resolve seems to be even more empowered after her previous attempt at rebellion, “ Moira stood up straight and looked firmly ahead. She drew her shoulders back, pulled up her spine and compressed her lips… Usually we walked with heads bent down, our eyes on our hands or the ground.”(132). Moira is expressing power by her posture, which is essentially illegal in Gilead. Atwood is building Moira's character in such a way that the audience feels fidelity towards Moira and her robust opposition to
She shows us that there are possibilities for Offred. The reason why Margaret Atwood chooses to continuously show the positive and subdued attitude of Offred, is to show the reader that in Gilead there are ways out and ways of breaking the laws however, there are also ways in which Gilead represses you and its up to the individual in this society to choose whether not to take the risks. The Jezebel sequence on the whole is highly significant to the novel. We many different insights into Gilead in jezebels in contrast to the rest of the novel, which makes it one of the most important sections in the novel of “The Handmaids Tale”.
Offred is a handmaid, in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, who no longer desired to rebel against the government of Gilead after they separated her from her family. When Offred was taken away from her family the Government of Gilead placed her in an institution known as the Red Center where they trained her along with other women unwillingly to be handmaids. The handmaid’s task was to repopulate the society because of the dramatic decrease in population form lack of childbirth. Handmaids are women who are put into the homes of the commanders who were unable to have kids with their own wives. The Handmaids had very little freedom and were not allowed to do simple tasks by themselves or without supervision like taking baths or going to the store. There was an uprising against the government of Gilead and many people who lived in this society including some handmaids looked for a way to escape to get their freedom back which was taken away from them and to reunited with their families which they lost contact with. Offred was one of the handmaids who was against the government of Gilead before she was put in the Red Center, but she joined the uprising after she became a
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.
Offred, among other women depicted in this novel, tries to overcome this dominion. In her own way, she attempts to do this by ensuring the Commander’s expectations of her behavior which could result in her freedom. Thus, there is a present power struggle between the Commander and Offred throughout The Handmaid’s
In The Handmaid’s Tale there are three types of women: handmaids (the breeders), wives (the trophies), and the marthas (servants.) The narrator of the novel is Offred, who is a handmaid. Handmaids are women with viable ovaries. Every two years, handmaids are assigned to a commander; the leader of the household. Weekly, the handmaid and Commander try and conceive a
In the novel, Moira epitomizes the female resistance to Gilead. Not only is she a lesbian, which is indicative of the fact that she rejects male-female sexual interactions (the only proper' relationship in the eyes of Gilead) she is also only character who stands up for the truth and has the audacity and courage to attack authority stabbing a uniformed Aunt and doing two attempts at escape. When Offred runs into Moira at Jezebels however, Moira's fighter spirit has been broken, and she has become resigned to her fate. This is meant to show what horrors the state is capable of: crushing the human spirit and shredding its will.
Fear is power. Fear is ever-present in Gilead; it is implemented through violence and force. It is through fear that the regime controls the Gileadian society. There is no way Offred, or the other Handmaids can avoid it. The dead bodies hanging on the wall are a relentless reminder of what rebellion and conflict result in. The abuse of power is also present in chapter fifteen after Moira attempts to escape, she is taken to the old science lab and has her feet beaten with steel frayed wires and is then left on her bed, ‘’Moira lay on her bed as an example.’’ (pg. 102 ) She is an example of what rebellion results in. Therefore, creating fear in the other Handmaids to prevent them from rebelling.
Each play a part in how the reader interprets the situation and the story. One major motif is the concept of stripped identity. The Handmaids lack an actual name due to the fact they are forced take their husband's name with the addition of the prefix “of”, “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s forbidden” (Atwood 96). The Handmaids are stripped of their identity and is replaced with a new one. This act is used repetitively to remind the readers these women are the property of men. Just like pets, these women have a little nickname. Their real names mean nothing to anyone else. A person’s name is one of the person’s form of identification, Without the person’s name, they do not technically personally exist in society; they are stripped to
The second person point of view helps the reader to connect with the girl in this story. It shows the reader a better understanding of this character and how she is being raised to be a respectable woman. This point of view also gives us an insight on the life of women and shows us how they fit into their society. Through this point of view, the reader can also identify the important aspects of the social class and culture. The daughter tries to assert a sense of selfhood by replying to the mother but it is visible that the mother is being over whelming and constraining her daughter to prepare her for
In Gilead handmaid's are seen as female servants that have one duty, which is to bear children. The government does not care for Offred’s personal needs, they are only taking care of her body because they have to be healthy enough to have children. At some point Offred has to steal butter just to keep moisturized and feel like she has a reason to take of her skin, she then states,”We are containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important...as long as we do this, butter our skin... we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire” (96). Offred tries to take care of herself as much as she can by maintaining her beauty in hopes of one day going back to her normal life. Gilead has deprived handmaids of many personal necessities one of them being basic face lotion. Offred has to steal butter to moisturize her face and when she does this it gives her some type of faith that one day she'll be able to feel the love she once had. The control over handmaids is very extreme, and shows how low they must be perceived in society to not be able to have such necessities they used to have before these strict
Offred’s journey is a prime example of the appalling effects of idly standing by and allowing herself to become a part of the Gilead’s corrupt system. This woman is a Handmaid which was recently placed within a new
In this manner, Atwood’s characterization of Offred through her individuality and defiant nature, ultimately allow her to present just how societal expectations go hand in hand with gender roles as Offred challenges them just to retain the most basic parts of her identity as a female.