Margaret Atwood 's Handmaid 's Tale

In today’s news we see many disruptions and inconsistencies in society, and, according to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, humankind might be headed in that direction. The deterioration of society is a concept often explored biologically in novels, but less common, is the effect on everyday social constructs such as the position of women as a item that can be distributed and traded-in for a ‘better’ product. The Handmaid’s Tale elaborates the concept that, as societal discrimination towards women intensifies, gender equality deteriorates and certain aspects of societal freedoms are lost. Offred’s experience with serving Gilead demonstrates a victim’s perspective and shows how the occurring changes develope the Republic.

In her 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood has created the fictional Republic of Gilead, in which women are heavily oppressed by the newly installed regime. The new regime values women solely on their fertility, thus objectifying them to no more than a means of reproduction. By confiscating control over the process of and the rights to reproduction, the Gilead regime denies women ‘’any sense of control or independence’’ (Byrne). In this essay, I will argue that, although the female body is the main subject of oppression in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, it is also the key to resistance for women in the so-called nation of Gilead, and that women hold the ultimate bargaining power, as they have the ‘’final say’’ on what happens to their bodies.

Within the totalitarian society created by Margaret Atwood in the Handmaid’s Tale, there are many people and regimes centred around and reliant on the manipulation of power. The laws that are in place in the republic of Gilead are designed and implemented so as to control and restrict the rights and freedom of its inhabitants.

The Handmaid's Tale, a film based on Margaret Atwood’s book depicts a dystopia, where pollution and radiation have rendered innumerable women sterile, and the birthrates of North America have plummeted to dangerously low levels. To make matters worse, the nation’s plummeting birth rates are blamed on its women. The United States, now renamed the Republic of Gilead, retains power the use of piousness, purges, and violence. A Puritan theocracy, the Republic of Gilead, with its religious trappings and rigid class, gender, and racial castes is built around the singular desire to control reproduction. Despite this, the republic is inhabited by characters who would not seem out of place in today's society. They plant flowers in the yard, live in suburban houses, drink whiskey in the den and follow a far off a war on the television. The film leaves the conditions of the war and the society vague, but this is not a political tale, like Fahrenheit 451, but rather a feminist one. As such, the film, isolates, exaggerates and dramatizes the systems in which women are the 'handmaidens' of today's society in general and men in particular.

Throughout the course of world history on Earth, humans have always worked harder and harder in order to improve society and make it more perfect, although it still hasn’t been done quite yet, because it is merely impossible to achieve perfection in a world with close to seven billion people. There is a very distinct difference between a utopia, which can also be known as perfection, and a dystopia, which can also be known as a tragedy; and the outcomes normally generate from the people in charge or the authority that sets up the foundation, the rules, and the regulations for a society. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Republic of Gilead is created by a powerful authority group called the Eyes after a huge government take over and the assassination of the US president. It’s very strict rules and goals are set up to protect women, to increase childbirth, and to keep all violence, men, and powerful social media under control. The novel is set in a first person point of view and the narrator, Offred, tells her story to us readers about her experiences as a handmaid and how her life was completely turned upside down. Throughout the course of the novel Offred reveals many sides of herself; although her thoughts do not remain consistent, her personality and opinion tends to change revealing, that she is hesitant and strong because she learns to make the best of what she has and silently overcome the system of the Republic of Gilead.

Written by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in the near future where the United States is overthrown and a military dictatorship forms called the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is a society that reconsolidates power and creates a new hierarchical regime that limits women entirely of their rights. The rulers of this dystopia are centrally concerned with dominating their subjects through the control of their experiences, time, memory, and history. A woman called Offred narrates the story and works as a Handmaid for reproductive purposes only. In her storytelling, Offred describes flashbacks consisting of portions of her life before the revolution. These flashbacks are the only thing that keeps her going in this

Most dystopian fiction takes place in the future but purposely incorporates contemporary social trends taken to horrendous extremes. The novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, by Margaret Atwood focuses on the choices made by those

With these changes to society, members often felt bounded by Gilead and the ability to control one’s thoughts appears impossible, as Aunt Lydia tells Offred, “The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you” (Atwood 23). It appears that Aunt Lydia believes that Gilead is an internal part of each individual and therefore, it is always helping to ‘shape’ one’s thoughts and actions. Gilead’s justification of why women don’t need an education is that since a woman’s purpose in society is to bear children and raise them, they no longer require an education to perform such duties. The male population of Gilead did not lose the same rights that the women lost, however, males still have restricted freedom and restricted access to materials (books, magazines, etc). The restrictions placed on women’s and men’s lives in Gilead appear to match a characteristic of a dystopia. Since men and women don’t receive the same education in Gilead due to the restrictions on freedom, it would be improper to consider Gilead a utopia.

Margaret Atwood’s harrowing novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, follows the story of a woman marginalized by the theocratic oligarchy she lives in; in the Republic of Gilead, this woman has been reduced to a reproductive object who has her body used to bear children to the upper class. From the perspective of the modern reader, the act of blatant mistreatment of women is obvious and disturbing; however, current life is not without its own shocking abuses. Just as the Gileadian handmaid was subject to varied kinds of abuse, many modern women too face varied kinds of abuses that include psychological, sexual, and financial abuse.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel published in 1985 during a period of conservative revival. The story takes place in the Republic of Gilead, a society in which a theocratic regime has replaced the USA. This regime primarily oppresses women as they have been stripped of their sexuality and reproduction rights. Besides that, the women have been segregated into different classes or social groups, distinguishable by the role assigned to them. Our narrator, Offred, is a “handmaid”- a woman who is to be used by the Commander for reproductive purposes.

The Handmaid's Tale, a science-fiction novel written by Margaret Atwood, focuses on women's rights and what could happen to them in the future. This novel was later made into a movie in 1990. As with most cases of books made into movies, there are some similarities and differences between the novel and the film. Overall the film tends to stay on the same track as the book with a few minor details changed, and only two major differences.

In a world where women are used merely as instruments of reproduction, ‘freedom of expression’ is punishable by death, and politics are claimed to be founded on religious beliefs, there does not appear to be much similarity between the Handmaid’s Tale milieu of Gilead and our predominantly feminist and secular society. Despite this, the novel focuses on themes that have caused great controversy and debate. As a result, these concepts have become familiar to us and help us connect to the story and characters despite the tremendous difference in context. The Handmaid’s Tale portrays and develops the themes of feminism, political and religious views, oppression, and relationships to the extent that the reader in a modern-day setting is able to

Living in a totalitarian state that limits the right of women, due to theocracies, and takes away their freedom is heartbreaking. For the narrator in Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaids Tale, escaping reality with memories of her past life made life bearable. While under the control of the Republic of Gilead, women were forced to have sex occasionally to not only please their commanders, but to bear a child for their household. Atwood wrote this novel to expose what the world would look like if it were ran by false theocracies of men being superior and controlling over women. What is so profoundly unnoticed in this literary text is the separation of church and state. Throughout the novel the narrator informs the readers how women were taught to

The Handmaid’s Tale, the classic riveting story of an elaborately designed yet horrifyingly possible dystopia has shocked and provoked thought in readers for decades. Atwood’s graphic and often brutal writing style paired with the political undertones rooted deep within the novel made for a literary masterpiece, as well as a cornerstone for feminist literature. However, beneath the glossy fictional surface the book is a complex political exposé which brings up and illustrates the focal frustrations that come with modern feminist. The book graphically shows the societal wrongs that feminism fights against & uses conceptual imagery within the story to illustrate these wrongs. Simply put, Gilead (the fictional republic in the book) was blatantly designed to illustrate these wrongs through clever concepts & excellent symbolism. The author, Margaret Atwood wrote the book in the mid 80-s in a

Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale explores the experience of a woman called Offred in an American Northeast society named Gilead that’s dominated by the religious right. This society was formed with the intentions of creating a peaceful and perfect way of life, and although there are some true believers in the system, Offred feels confused and unhappy in her role in Gilead as a Handmaiden. Although there are feminist undertones in The Handmaiden’s Tale, the constant objectification of women and their singular role in Gilead society proves this book to ultimately not have a feminist message.