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Merits and demerits of totalitarianism
Merit and Demerit of Totalitarianism
Dangers of totalitarianism
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In a world where men can create their own heaven by stripping away the rights of others is known to have an enormous amount of power. This power was used to create a world which is known as Republic of Gilead, a society that defies equality by stripping away people’s rights and name in order to establish a more sustainable society. The founder of Gilead, which is the Commander began to build a totalitarian society because of the low reproduction rate, causing him to assign women to certain roles in order to keep the population arise. This leaves the Commander to imprison all the women in Gilead into becoming sex objects in order to reproduce for increasing the population for society.
People who live in Gilead are trapped because of the strict laws that they have to obey in the community. The Commander has made the society into a male dominance country because of the way they are treating the women there. This oppression against women has led the Commander to become lonelier because every women he is interested in shows no affection towards him. Soon later, he would try to bring women who are working for him into his office and force
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He starts off his days by bullying his wife Delia when she tries to work for the white-folks. Syke proceeds to threaten her with a whip because he doesn’t like how she washes the white-folks clothes for money. Their relationship has always been rough because two months after their marriage, Syke beats her for the first time and that’s when everything went downhill. He does not appreciate about the life he has and how lucky he is to have a wife that is a hard worker. Syke is disrespectful and no one in the village likes him because of they way he treats Delia. He cheats on her, wastes her hard-earning money, and worst of all, beating the woman that he is married to. The way that Syke has been functioning seems to be abusing his powers because he’s a
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
Syme can also be marked as a rebel of the party. Although we have very little actual contact with him in the book, Winston thinks that Syme is too smart to have the party favor him for long. This is probably the reason that Syme disappears later on. He was working on a new Newspeak dictionary for the party but may have fell out of favor because of his intelligence. Syme is a rebel because of his brain. He refuses to go along with everyone else and bring himself down to the I.Q. of the masses, so he, in turn, gets himself killed by the party. This is an important note because Syme does not actually hate the party or even dislike the party.
The threat of physical abuse is huge. Being woman is enough of a crime, but “any crime can result in an execution and a public hanging on ‘The Wall’” (Cameron 3). A woman can be hung for just about anything. If they defy the people in charge they can get hurt. The women are constantly abused. The Gilead government is in charge of what goes on in this society. If a woman has an affair with a different man they are taken and possibly tortured or hung. The Red Center, which is where they were taught how to be Handmaid’s, the women were constantly tortured. They had Aunts that looked over them. These aunts were not nice and, “they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts” (Thomas 91). The aunt’s view was all that was needed was the Handmaid’s baby making parts. The women did not need their feet, hands, or any part other than the torso. When the woman did something wrong or tried to run away th...
Syke taunts her with his bullwhip, rolls around laughing in mirth at her fear, and continuously kicks the piles of clothing she is working on. Syke, overbearing and dominating, paints a startling portrait of sexist masculinity. He stands in clear contrast to the ways in which Delia is described in his presence: her “thin, stooped shoulders” sag deeper and deeper. In all his masculine, angry bravado, Delia is painted as his opposite, a portrait of meek servitude.
Imagine a country where choice is not a choice. One is labeled by their age and economical status. The deep red cloaks, the blue embroidered dresses, and the pinstriped attire are all uniforms to define a person's standing in society. To be judged, not by beauty or personality or talents, but by the ability to procreate instead. To not believe in the Puritan religion is certain death. To read or write is to die. This definition is found to be true in the book, The Handmaid's Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood. It is a heartbreaking story of one young woman and her transformation into the Gilead society, the society described above. In the book, we meet Offred, the narrator of the story. This story is not the first to create a society in which the only two important beliefs in a society are the ability to procreate and a strict belief in God. It is seen several times in the Old Testament, the Bible. The Biblical society is not as rigid as the Republic of Gilead, which Margaret Atwood has built, but it is very similar. The Handmaid's Tale holds several biblical allusions.
What does it take to shatter someone's unbreakable will? Many would like to believe that their ideology cannot be manipulated was Atwood addresses this question throughout the progression of its character Moira in the book. Moira in the beginning of the novel shows relentless courage in her animosity towards the dystopia Gilead. Moira represents what most activists might want to believe they themselves represent, a partisan for freedom under any conditions and punishment that transpire. Atwood is directly challenging those who believe that they can sustain their will by slowly perforating the character. After making the audience identify with Moira, Atwood systematically brings the audience back to reality through the dwindling of Moira’s will as she experiences many forms of physical and mental torture. One of Atwood's important questions for the audience reveals itself in the inclination and
As you read through the handmaid’s tale you see the relationships of the characters develop and the fight for power, however small that glimpse of power may be. The images of power can be seen through out the novel, but there are major parts that stand out to the reader from the aunt’s in the training centre to the secret meetings between the Commander and Offred.
After reading the Handmaid's Tale, I felt that Societal Complacency was the most critical aspect to the success of the Gilead Society. The Republic of Gilead is a run by a strict Old Testament religious doctrine. This government does not tolerate anyone who does not conform, it is run mostly by fear. Fear of death or the wall or being sent to radioactive colonies. This new government is cruel towards women, it robbed them of their humanity under the guise of protecting them. This new republic has forced women to give up jobs, forbidden them from reading, they control or regulate sexual activity as well as reproduction and birth, they have also prohibited or limited speech between women and even renamed women so that it fits in with a more biblical society. The Governments goal is to turn women into dumb subservient slaves dependent on men. The Republic of Gilead is based on "traditional values" with the households being strictly patriarchal. The sexes are strictly divided in this book both men and women have strict protocol they must follow. Both men and women are separated by class and social status defined by the color they wear.
The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will collapse.
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.
Also, religion is the basis for most of the gruesome laws that Gilead has such as the Handmaid’s job. Their only job is to reproduce which comes from the story of Rachel and Leah where servants can have relationships with their owners in order to give the infertile wives a family. “Humanity is so adaptable, my mother would say. Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.” (283). This illustrates that people can adapt to anything even just a job at reproducing which, in itself, is a gruesome way to live. In addition, before the ceremony where the Commander and Handmaid have intercourse the Commander reads from Genesis the story of Rachel and
Syme is Winston's “friend” who works in the Research Department as a Newspeak specialist. Syme was “venomously orthodox” (pg.49) and didn't seem to have any sense of emotion. He talks about hangings and raids on enemy villages as if he were discussing the weather. Winston seems to think that Syme is always trying to detect unorthodoxy or facecrime in his responses when they talk. He believes that Syme is too intelligent and blunt and that the Party will vaporize him. Syme is different from Winston in that he is wholeheartedly devoted to the party. Syme and Winston are both smart enough to see the corruption in the Party, but Syme swallows it with the help of Doublethink, while Winston does not. Winston sees Parsons, his tenant at victory mansions,
The society established by the Republic of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale” is founded on and sustained by false doctrine. They intentionally twist and skew the Bible in order to justify their actions and brainwash the women who are involuntarily participating in their indoctrinated society. The Gilead does not treat the Bible as the divine word of God. Instead, they exploit its authority and use it as a tool for their own benefit. The very framework of the Gilead’s social hierarchy is in sharp contradiction to everything the Bible teaches, but because they are so corrupt and only use the Bible for their own advantage, they seem not to care. Instead of abiding by the teachings in the Bible and letting them shape how things are done, they hand-select and contort certain parts of it to match the framework of their own aspirations and beliefs, which are by no means Christian. Every piece of scripture that the Republic customizes is specifically suited to help them achieve their ultimate goal: indoctrinating an entire society for the purposes of personal power and authority. The end product is the unethical, dysfunctional society that is depicted in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The Republic of Gilead is by no means a true religious group, but they do use religion and skewed religious text as a reference for the foundation, justification, manipulation, and enforcement of their new society.
Margaret Atwood sheds light on two concepts that are intertwined; fertility and motherhood. Nevertheless in Gilead these notions are often viewed as separate. The Republic State of Gilead views women as child-bearers and nothing more. In Gilead, these women are known as handmaids, who’s function in society is to produce children for barren females of a high status. Gilead also prohibits the handmaids from being mothers to their previously born children, meaning before Gilead was created, for instance, Offred, who is separated from her daughter. Thus it is evident that Margaret Atwood generates a state that views birth only as growth in population rather than the beginning of a relationship between mother and child.
Just as Narcissus stole Echo’s heart and broke it, Dorian Gray ruins Sybil Vane’s life and leads her to an untimely death. Influenced by Lord Henry Wotton’s advice on not being young forever and pressured by Basil’s perfect painting of him, Dorian Gray quickly begins to look at life through a different lens. He stumbles upon a theater in a London slum and by extension upon a beautiful young actress— Sybil Vane. He courts her and she is smitten with him instantly. Their relationship escalates quickly, so much so that Dorian Gray proposes to Sybil. As they are engaged, Sybil is unable to contain her love for Dorian. Her newfound passion leaves her unable to assume other characters on the stage, and as a result her talent diminishes. Disgusted at a terrible performance from Sybil after their proposal, Dorian berates her. Angrily, he tells her: “You have killed my love,” (Wilde 88). Sybil is heartbroken and all of a sudden her life feels meaningless. She is unable to cope with so before Dorian can reconcile with her, she commits suicide. Dorian is speechless and shocked at first, however Lord Henry convinces him that she was selfish to kill herself. H...