What Is The Change In The Handmaids Tale

999 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Feminism in margaret atwood the handmaid tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is a riveting series from the start. Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, Bruce Miller tells the story of the handmaids through the eyes of Offred (June). In a corrupt society laced with twisted scripture, sexist discrimination, and insane amounts of abuse, the handmaids are doing whatever they possibly can to survive. Imagine waking up and going about the day in your usual way at the café after a run. “Insufficient funds,” the new male barista says from behind the counter. “F*cking sluts, get the f*ck out of here” he shouts as you walk out the door. That’s how it was for June Osborne (Elizabeth Moss) and her friend Moira (Samira Wiley), right before the collapse of the United States government. Many laws changed that day; women lost …show more content…

Little did they know, that was just the beginning. In exchange for these changes, people protested their new government. As a result of the protests, the new government was equipped with an army that was not afraid to shoot down protesters. It was not America anymore; Gilead had risen and with that everything changed. The population had already declined rapidly, and infertility rates went up. If the Fundamentalist regime that ruled Gilead didn’t do something soon, they were surely going to die out. Women were being abducted and marked for their new roles within the walls of Gilead. Those unable to reproduce are marked as Marthas, a name derived from the bible. Their job is to cook, clean, and watch over the handmaids and the children. However, those who were able to reproduce got sent out to the Red Center where they became handmaids. Handmaids have only one job, and that is to conceive and carry a child for their commander and his wife. Handmaids have very little freedom and are only allowed to go out on a daily walk to the markets with a partner. Like any society, there was a rebellion working against them.

Show More
Related

  • How Does Margaret Atwood Use Power In The Handmaid's Tale

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    Forming everyday life in different ways. Majority of all power in Gilead has been passed to the men and

    Read More

  • Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    In "The Handmaid's Tale", Margaret Atwood tells a saddening story about a not-to-distant future where toxic chemicals and abuses of the human body have resulted in many men and women alike becoming sterile. The main character, Offred, gives a first person encounter about her subservient life as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a republic formed after a bloody coup against the United States government. She and her fellow handmaids are fertile women that the leaders of Gilead, the Commanders, enslave to ensure their power and the population of the Republic. While the laws governing women and others who are not in control of Gilead seem oppressive, outlandish and ridiculous, they are merely a caricature of past and present laws and traditions of Western civilization. "The Handmaid's Tale" is an accurate and feasible description of what society could be like if a strict and oppressive religious organization gained dominant power over the political system in the United States.

    Read More

  • The Threat of Physical, Emotional, and Mental Abuse if you Disagree: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Handmaid's Tale: Societal Complacency

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...hat it was the women participation that allowed the government to regulate every aspect of their public and private lives. Women such as the Aunts especially Aunt Lydia where willing participants in the republic by indoctrinating women to the new way of life. The women became the eyes and ears to the government, condemning other women who don't follow the laws. If the women had the strength to rebel they might not have been able to change much but, at least they were taking a stand on what they believed in. The government had such control on every aspect through rules, conduct and rituals that were followed by the people with little to no questions by the people. That is why I feel that Societal Complacency played such a role in the success of the Republic of Gilead.

    Read More

  • The Handmaids Tale: Oppression of Women for Male Political Gain

    1779 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 by people being oppressed.

    Read More

  • Biblical Themes Of The Bible In The Handmaid's Tale

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale is a story heavily influenced by the Bible and has many biblical themes that are used to prove Atwood’s belief in balance. The novel is set in the Republic of Gilead, which was formerly the United States. The story is told through the perspective of a handmaid named Offred and begins when she is placed at her third assignment as a housemaid. Offred describes her society as a fundamentalist theocracy where the Christian God is seen as the divine Ruler over the Republic of Gilead.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Handmaid's Tale

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before the war handmaids had their own lives, families, and jobs but that’s all gone now; They have all been separated from their families and assigned to A Commander and his wife to have their child. Handmaids did not choose this life but it was forced upon them. 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

    Read More

  • Handmaids Tale: Destruction of Family

    1394 Words  | 3 Pages

    The government in Gilead is afraid that because there are not many women able to reproduce that the town is going to fall apart. They have come up with a solution to make sure there is enough reproduction every year to make a town. Piling all the women together and sending them to different homes to reproduce is what they thought was best. Once the handmaids have a child with a commander then they give up the child to the commander’s wife.

    Read More

  • Handmaids Tale Analysis

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Handmaid's Tale - Conventional Relationships and Love

    1566 Words  | 4 Pages

    The setting of The Handmaid’s Tale – known as Gilead – is a totalitarian government, originally based on Old Testament patriarchy. This structure forbids rival loyalties or parties, so all loyalty must be for the group of men that govern the State. Such a structure means that women are assigned ‘roles’ according to their biological ‘usefulness’.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Puritanism In The Handmaid's Tale

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    Here, they are trained to become proper handmaids, so that they may fulfil their duties with dignity. The Center also serves to “educate” the handmaids on hand picked passages from the Bible. “Give me children, or else I die” (Genesis 30:1), Rachel cried to Jacob, ashamed of her infertility. The phrase is presented to the handmaids in the novel as a form of a mantra, teaching them to be associate shame with their lack of children. However, while Rachel only fears shame, the handmaids are taught to fear more, since “there 's more than one meaning to it” (Atwood 68). If deemed infertile, the handmaids are declared to be “Unwomen” and sent to the colonies to work under hazardous conditions among radioactive waste – waste that will kill them. The handmaids’ threatened future also creates a contrast between them and the families of Commanders they are meant to serve. The Wives of the houses fear shame, just as Rachel does, but they are protected under the Gileadean law in that they have very little chance of becoming Unwomen. Their desire for children is merely a desire for praise within their social circle, since the Wives that are able to “bear” children are held up with respect and admiration, with barely any consequences if they are childless. While the phrase is more applicable

    Read More

  • Handmaids Tale

    3082 Words  | 7 Pages

    ‘The Handmaids Tale’ is a blunt warning to modern society, Atwood underlines that all the points in her novel have occurred in the world previously, and if propaganda establishes itself it could take place again.

    Read More

  • Patriarchal Society In The Handmaid's Tale

    1678 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout time women have been oppressed. The journey women have had has been a long one. Women were oppressed from choosing whom to love, speaking against her husband or any male, getting jobs outside household duties, voting, etc. Women were looked at as the weaker sex. The oppression in Gilead is no different. These women are oppressed by the patriarchy. In Gilead women are valuable, but not all are treated as such. Handmaids play a role for the greater good, but the Wives are treated above the Handmaids, even though the Handmaids, such as the narrator Offred, are the ones giving society a chance. The patriarchal society set in place makes all of the decisions over the greater women populations. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale examines the overall effect of a patriarchal society on

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 to own their 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.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of The Handmaid's Tale

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about What Is The Change In The Handmaids Tale

Open Document