Examples Of Oppression In The Handmaids Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is narrated in the first person from the point of view of Offred, a woman who married a divorced man and had a child living the romantic life she always dreamed of. Divorce was however forbidden in the society, so her marriage was not considered appropriate, but her only saving grace was that she had shown the government she was fertile and able to bear children, so she is given the chance to become a Handmaid instead of being sent away until death. Offred chooses on her own free will to be a Handmaid but was it free will? Being a handmaid meant engaging in forced sexual intercourse with her Commander once a month when she is fertile so that hopefully she can get pregnant with his child. The reader following with Offred and women who are not Handmaids know that this forced sexual

Apart from illegal substance possession, Serena and some of her fellow wives were revealed to have organised secret liaisons between their handmaids and fertile men, hurrying the procreation process. This was often done without the knowledge of their husbands, many of whom were suspected to be sterile in any case. However, despite the unlikelihood of any offspring produced by the husbands, it is not right by Gilead and its ideals, for the wives to be taking steps to defy the laws set down for the good of the people and the nations survival. These wives are acting for their own gains and desires, not for the good of the handmaids. The handmaids are placed in a household with the assurance of protection from the wife. The wives are supposed to act as mentors and guardian angels, shielding and caring for the handmaid under their roof, not throwing her at the closest man with the highest viable sperm count. The wives have a strong desire to have children, even via other women, so as to feel power or superiority over fellow women of equal stature. They ensure the provision of a child by ‘setting up’

Offred, within the novel, is seen as being in one of the lowest classes within the hierarchy of women only putting her above the women who are sent to the colonies. Unlike the handmaids, the Martha, who are helping ladies to the Wives, talk about Offred like she is not in their present but viewed her as “a household chore,one among many”(Atwood 48). Although the Martha are women too, they have more control than Offred. By viewing Offred as a household chore conveys that Offred is an inconvenience but still a necessary part of Gilead. Speaking about Offred like this emphasizes that she is below them in the status of society and they are not seen as equals. In addition, Offred, being a handmaid, wasn’t allow to talk to the Wives in a direct manner (Atwood 14-15). By Offred not being allowed to talk to the Wives illustrates that the Wives authority over the handmaids. Furthermore, the handmaid’s are viewed as less and “[reduced]... to the slavery status of being mere ‘breeders’” (Malak). By conveying the handmaids are slaves shows are they force without consent to have sex with men and that the handmaid focus is to breed, unlike the Martha, aunts, and Wives. Moreover, the class system within the female hierarchy of Gilead is utilized as a political tool thus adding to the assumption

The handmaids are one of the many social groups in Gilead. Their main purpose in Gilead is to bear children for the infertile,

Parents typically don’t want their children reading in depth books about sex; however, The Handmaid’s Tale offers great fictional examples that teach sexism and the mistreatment of women, yet these examples can lead some in the wrong way. Therefore depending on the view in society, The Handmaid’s tale should be banned or kept to certain areas of the world because of the unfair treatment of women.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood is a story set in an alternate future in which birth rates have plummeted immensely. In the Republic of Gilead, they seem to have found a solution for this decline in birth rates: handmaids. Handmaids are women who are fertile. They go to houses of wealthy and powerful couples who cannot bear children and have sexual intercourse with the male of the house (also known as the Commander). The problem with this solution is that it is forcing women, such as our narrator Offred, to have sex. When Offred and the Commander have sex, it is during a ritual called the Ceremony. Other than the Ceremony, sex is forbidden. Although, there are still some situations in which it occurs. For instance, at Jezebels, a

In the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale penned by Margaret Atwood, Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state that has replaced the United States of America. The goal of Gilead is to return to traditional values, meaning women as chattel property, censorship, bans on science and technology etc. Due to low reproduction rates, Handmaids are responsible for bearing children for elite households with wives that are unable to have children. Ceremonies are held monthly where Offred must have emotionless sex with the Commander of the household while his wife watches. The author detected patterns forming in American society and writes the consequence of these trends, drawing from the past as proof that

the Biblical context, however, is irrelevant to the modern society which existed before the coup. The context of the scripture is that of an ancient patriarchal society where men often had multiple wives whose value was to produce progeny, and the Judaic laws accorded women few rights. Though there are some similarities between ancient times and Gilead-the high infant mortality rate and death in childbirth--scripture is used by Gilead as a means to an end. In order to increase the birth rate, the regime forced the wives to accept their roles as barren women, hence inferior people, and surrogate mothers. Consequently, the handmaids are not seen as whole people at all, just reproductive machines. Offred observed that her uterus made her like a womb on legs. At the Red Center, the women listened to a tape of the Beatitudes, and Offred knew the reading was incorrect. She recollects, "'…Blessed be the meek. Blessed are the silent.' I knew it was wrong, and they left things out, too, but there was

Offred describes this as being like “ two-legged wombs, that’s all; sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices” (The Handmaid’s Tale 128). If the Handmaid’s get pregnant, then she must give up the baby to The Commander and his wife. However, if the Handmaid does not get pregnant by the end of her third two-year post, then she is sent to the colonies with the other Unwomen to do slave work. The Handmaid’s are desexed and dehumanized. Their worth is based solely on whether or not they can produce a child, which is very out of their control.

If a handmaid goes against the rules, then she is brutally punished or even killed. As Offred tells the story of her daily life, she often slips into memories of her previous life about when she married Luke and they had a baby. Offred and the Commander start to have a little prohibited affair. But on the other side, the Commander’s wife forces

For hundreds of years women had no choice and no power in their own lives. Women in America fought for the right to decide to lead a different life, but in Gilead all of that has been stripped away from them. Women have no individual identity and for handmaids even their real names are forbidden to Say. All handmaids dress in the same red and all econwives dress in the same blue. Offred and all other handmaids are not given the choice of when they have sex or children.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, a social hierarchy is shown, especially between the women and men. It’s interesting that even among the women–women had more power than others. Handmaids, despite not having more power than the Wives or Aunts these women hold power, their ovaries. Handmaids are women who capable of conceiving and are used to bare children. Handmaids, in my opinion, will be in the middle(middle-class). Wives are of course usually married to Commanders because of their husband these women have a certain amount of power and are accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Wives show that who you are married to matters the wives are infertile themselves. If the wives weren’t married to high-ranking men they will be a unwoman, Econowife, or Martha.

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, we meet Offred, or so they call her, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a futuristic dystopian society. Gilead tarnished traditional values and replaced them with shear corruption after the rebels killed the President as well as most of Congress, took over the government, and decided to throw out the constitution. Instead the society relies on the bible to justify its barbaric rules, limitations and practices. In a totalitarian society of decreasing birth rates, the only fertile women left, the Handmaids, keep this fear stricken society alive by giving birth for the older, elite yet infertile couples. With fear comes misogyny, where we not only see men using women, but controlling and

Explaining how because the birth is not natural people view it as unbibical or unnatural. Also how during this procedure could but the mothers health at risk as well as the unborn child. While either side is not deemed right or wrong there is defenity a split on viewpoints. However throughout The Handmaids Tail there is a consistant opinion how soceity views surrgacy. Handmaid's are viewed as merely an object. Being stripped of everything that humanises them; from their names, ability to read and write, freedom, and much more. Authoritative figures like the Commander try to remind Handmaids of their “duty” of surrogacy throughout the book by manipulating them using Bible verses, one of them being, “Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her” (Atwood 88). As the government is based on religion, there is an expectation these authoritative figures are trying to create. Not only do the Commanders and wives have the expectation of the Handmaids to bear children but God as well.

Handmaids are not allowed to leave their rooms unless going shopping and having someone accompanying them whilst doing so. Furthermore, nothing that the Handmaids have is their own possession. To Offred’s own surprise, she calls her room her own. It is the only place that allows her to escape the dreadful authority that Gilead has over her for the reason that there is where her mind can roam freely. This demonstrates how the state of Gilead does everything in its power to deprive its citizens from being anything other than what it forces them to be.