Before entering the homes of those they would work for, the Handmaids were trained to be inferior to others. The Aunts taught the Handmaids what to and not to do. Along with those power-draining lessons, the Handmaids were taught to be inferior to men. For example, one of the Handmaids recalls a story from her past about being raped by several men at once. The Aunts tell the Handmaid and her fellow associates that she is at fault because she led the guys on. The Aunts want the Handmaids to believe that they deserve the pain they have experienced and will experience in life (Atwood 72). In a way, they were making the Handmaids accustomed to ridicule and preparing them for the possible harsh conditions that they were soon going to enter. By leading the Handmaids to believe that they are always at fault, the Aunts are stripping them of their dignity and …show more content…
self-appreciation. With the work that they were going to do, dignity would only lead to trouble. Therefore, the Aunts broke down the Handmaids’ self-esteem so that they will always be inferior to those they serve. As a result of the strict classes, Offred knows that she no longer has any power. She does not even have power over her own body. Her body and its ability to conceive children represent her worth to others. On Ceremony nights, Offred cannot decline the process of sleeping with the Commander. Her body is completely in the hands of the Commander and his Wife. During the Ceremony, Offred’s hands are placed inside of Serena Joy’s hands to signify that they are united while they Commander is trying to impregnate Offred (Atwood 94). However, Offred knows that “what it really means is that she is in control, of the process and thus of the product” (Atwood 94). The only thing that Offred can do is sit still in humiliation and endure what is being done to her (Atwood 93). Furthermore, Offred is treated as the child of the household even though she is a fully grown woman. The Marthas will not discuss certain matters with her because she is dispensable. If Offred were to be replaced, punished, or transferred, their household information could possibly spread to other homes. Furthermore, when Offred asks Rita about the previous household Handmaid, Rita would not give many details out of fear that Offred would develop suicidal ideas. Rita mostly answers Offred’s questions with, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you” (Atwood 53). Therefore, many things are purposely kept from Offred for different reasons (Atwood 53). At one point, Offred shares her thoughts of stealing an item from the house. Offred is not a thief, but the lack of freedom is desperately driving her to feel a sense of rebellious power. If she can steal something, Offred will feel a sense of power and thrill that she has not received in a while. She carefully considers what she could steal and where she can hide it. Offred states, “It would make me feel that I have power” (Atwood 81). If only she could steal something small, she would be exercising a way of taking her power back. However, Offred eventually comes to the conclusion that feeling power such as that is too dangerous and risky (Atwood 81). Furthermore, Offred also takes back power by using butter to replace hand lotion. Handmaids are not allowed to use hand lotion because the mere scent could make them desirable. Also, the Wives prefer dry-skinned Handmaids so they appear less attractive to their husbands. Therefore, Offred takes butter instead and uses it to keep her skin moist. In fact, she even asks the Commander for hand lotion. He supplies Offred with lotion and keeps it hid in his office (Atwood 159). In a way, Offred defies the rules and displays power by creating loopholes. Moreover, power is shown in the simple fact that each set of women has certain colors to wear daily. The upper class women or Wives wear blue clothing. Therefore, when seeing the color blue, a certain level of respect is expected from others. Wives have power over all other women that are “lower” than them, so they demand to be reverenced and obeyed properly. Also, the Marthas wear green and the Handmaids wear red. The lowest class of women wears striped, colorful dresses. They are called the Econowives. Their stripes indicate their low social status and limited power in society. Due to their colorful, striped dresses, Econowives are instantly looked down upon by other members of society (Atwood 24). With that being said, the Econowives do not receive the same amount of respect or power that the women of social classes above them do. Moreover, they all are somewhat inferior to the high-class ladies in blue. Another way that power is emphasized more specifically concerning women is the relationship between the Wives and the Handmaids. The Wives give orders to their Handmaids. For example, when Offred was transferred to the Commander’s home, the Wife gave her specific rules concerning her husband and came off as a rude individual to show Offred that they were not friends. Serena states, “As for my husband, he’s just that. My husband. I want that to be perfectly clear. Till death do us part. It’s final” (Atwood 16). When they first met one another, Serena Joy blocked the entrance of the house so that Offred would know that she could only enter because Serena Joy allowed her to (Atwood 13). Serena says to Offred, “I want to see as little of you as possible” (Atwood 15). The Wives want their Handmaids to feel as though they are powerless under their rule because the Wives no longer have power over their husbands. Instead, they now have to share their husbands with the Handmaids. Therefore, the Wives have several ways of displaying their supremacy over the Handmaids. For example, during sexual intercourse with the man of the home, the Handmaid is positioned on top of his Wife as if the Wife is actually the one engaging in the activity. The Wife even clutches the Handmaid’s hands to ensure that the Handmaid knows who is in control (Atwood 93). Furthermore, when the Handmaids give birth to children, the Wives sit above them then as well. On a Birth Day, the Handmaid and Wife sit on a birthing stool that consists of a low stool and a high stool. Out of tradition, the Wife sits on top to appear as though she is giving birth. However, in actuality, the Handmaid sitting below is doing the work (Atwood 125). The Wives take back power by acting as though the Handmaids are nonexistent and inferior to them. Power is also displayed through the relationships between the men of the home and the Handmaids. Offred is completely subject to the Commander and his desires. One incident in the text describes a moment when Offred sees the Commander looking around her room. Even though she feels as though he cannot be in her territory, she does not have the audacity to stop him from invading it. After the Commander finishes inspecting the room, he moves on and walks past Offred without saying a word. This act indicates his unlimited power in the home by showing Offred that all territory belongs to the Commander, because he can wander wherever he desires to (Atwood 49). Later in the text, the Commander requests Offred’s presence in his office. Even though it is a highly dangerous risk to interact alone with the Commander, it is also a risk to decline what he asked of her. After considering the possibilities of what could happen to her if she was caught by Serena Joy, Offred still accepts the Commander’s odd invitation because he is the head of the household (Atwood 136). As stated in the text, “There’s no doubt about who holds the real power” (Atwood 136). A unique feature of the story that shows power throughout the text is Serena Joy’s garden. Although gardening is a subtle and enjoyable activity, it represents something different for her. Serena Joy is able to exercise power through her garden. For instance, she can choose whatever flowers she desires to plant in the garden and is in complete control of the beautiful product. Through the flowers, Serena Joy is able to fully express herself and some sort of what she feels inside. Offred believes that the garden represents Serena Joy’s hidden rebellious emotional state (Atwood 153). Offred interprets the underlying meaning of the garden as “whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently” (Atwood 153). No matter what the true meaning is, only Serena Joy surely knows what her flowers represent. The garden is her domain and she can do as she pleases with it (Atwood 12). One crucial view on power in The Handmaid’s Tale is the dominion that the Guardians and the Wall have over the Handmaids.
The Guardians maintain order in the community and ensure that no one gets out of line. The Guardians escort the Handmaids if they need to ride to a destination (Atwood 114). They also carry loaded machine guns in case the Handmaids disobey them. Earlier in the story, it was mentioned that the Guardians shot and killed an innocent woman. They assumed that she was looking for a weapon in her clothing. In actuality, she was only searching for her pass in her robe (Atwood 20). In such cases, the Guardians make examples of unlucky people and instill terror in everyone. The fears of being shot or punished, makes those who are not Guardians obey the rules because they have the right to kill freely. Therefore, the citizens reverence the power of the Guardians. Furthermore, the Wall also represents the same power that the Guardians have. Always passing by the Wall and its victims fills citizens with the fear of being the next victim (Atwood 166). As a result, they continue to comply with the
rules. As the story progresses, the power of sexual desire is introduced in the text. Offred and Nick eventually develop a heated intimate relationship. Offred’s husband is gone, and her relationship with the Commander is not thrilling. It can be assumed that Nick does not have a significant other either. So, they both badly desire to be intimate with someone. Even though it is very risky to sleep with someone other than the Commander while living in his home, Offred’s desires force her to continue going back to Nick. If they get caught by the Commander or the Eyes, they both could be punished by death. Although they had knowledge of the possible consequences, Offred and Nick did not change their ways (Atwood 268). They are well aware that their desires are disregarding the household rules. Therefore, their boldness to continue meeting displays how powerful a sexual desire can be over a person. Furthermore, Offred and Nick are taking back their individual power by defying the household rules. Lastly, power is given to the readers. At the end of the story, it is not clearly stated what happens to Offred. The Handmaid’s Tale concludes as Offred is being led away by Guardians that Nick calls to take her away. Offred writes, “And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light” (Atwood 295). Although there are several clues to indicate that Offred is being saved, the readers are ultimately the ones who decide Offred’s fate. In contrast to the happy ending that many people believe to be true, others also think that Offred could have been led to her death and deceived by Nick. Considering the fact that power is a major theme throughout the story, I believe that it was a wise choice for Margaret Atwood to leave the conclusion of the story in the hands of the readers. Meanwhile, she bestowed power upon the audience.
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...
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,
Humans are easily impressionable. They are susceptible to the physical and psychological pressures of society. One of the most common elements of encumbrance in today’s world is peer pressure. Whether it is within children, teens, or adults, oppression is everywhere. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, oppression of groups in society is more prevalent than any other element of a dystopian government. In the Republic of Gilead, the protagonist Offred is a Handmaid who serves her Commander and his wife by bearing children for the family. Her freedoms are completely restricted, as well as the Commander who presides over the family. There are specific sets of rules for everyone and every move is watched by the ever present
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.
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.
The Handmaid’s role is to produce Keepers (babies that are born without any birth defects) for their host family. Housemaids are made to wear all red besides their nun-like white wings that work as blinders. Red represents passion and sin that can be turned white by the cleansing power of God. Commanders are the patriarchal head of the house who have a duty to father children either by their Wife or a Handmaid if needed. “Not every Commander has a handmaid; some of their wives have children.
Due to the fact that the Wives are not allowed to sleep with their husbands, the Wives are all extremely envious of the Handmaids. In Gilead, Serena is deprived of a life of genuine freedom and is forced to watch her husband sleep with his Handmaid. This makes her extremely bitter and jealous and so she takes this out on the Handmaids–including the main character–although it is not exactly their fault. Although the reader is sympathetic to her emotions, they are still completely unfair. The fact that Serena feels hostility towards the Handmaids is ignorant because she knows that they have not chosen their position in society, but rather they were forced into it. At the end of the novel, Serena finds out about Offred’s secret visit to Jezebel’s. She is mostly upset with Offred, which is completely unreasonable because the Commander had forced her to accompany him to Jezebel’s. This is a direct example of the feminist way of thinking: it’s always the fault of a women’s promiscuity, not a man’s. Serena’s attitude supports the order of Gilead, because she tortures the Handmaids, who cannot help themselves. She knows that these women are forced to become Handmaids, yet she still continues to envy them and punish them. Although she should, she has no sympathy for other women and plays the exact role that society requires her to. Women like her allow Gilead to function because they enforce the
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 Gilead, censorship forces Handmaids into a narrow minded thinking regarding the Holy Bible. They are trained to be religious and then are
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.
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
In Gilead most of the wives can no longer have children. Keeping a town alive requires reproduction. In order to do this the government groups all the women able to have children together. They are called handmaids and they are basically like a mistress, “they are continual reminders of the Wives’ failures to conceive” (Callaway 55). When the handmaids go to the commander’s room there is only one thing it is for. They are trying to get pregnant. During the intercourse of the commander and the handmaid the wife is in the room watching. Not only does she watch but she holds the handmaids hand. “Serena Joy grips my hands as if it is she, not I, who’s being fucked” (Atwood 94).
A class system encourages women to control one another. "Wives" of commanders recruit handmaids into their households. "Aunts" train the handmaids, organize their placement into commanders' households, and monitor the compliance of wives and handmaids with their prescribed roles. "Marthas," the housekeepers, have access to information that gives them some leverage over handmaids and wives. "Econowives," spouses of lower-class Caucasian men, are used by aunts as examples of inferiority in handmaid training. All women fear the fate of becoming unwomen.
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
Historically, most people in authority have been using power to benefit themselves. In most instances, influential people coerce and manipulate their subjects so that they can receive specific favors. People who are considered inferior and less powerful usually have no control over their lives as most of their actions are dictated from the top. In fact, women are the most affected individuals because they have been socially constructed as inferior beings. Most chauvinists treat women as pleasure tools. Moreover, women are treated as beings that should not enjoy any rights or privileges with men manipulating even their thoughts. In the novel The Handmaid’s tale, the theme of power and manipulation is widely manifested through the events that unfold. Control is