Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale

"Rebels defy the rules of society, risking everything to retain their humanity. If the world Atwood depicts is chilling, if 'God is losing, ' the only hope for optimism is a vision that includes the inevitability of human struggle against the prevailing order." -Joyce Johnson-

Margret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaids Tale is a striking work of fiction, with strong characters inundated in a depressing melancholy. A dysfunctional patriarchal society based around the common goal of producing offspring, Gilead, becomes the physical manifestation of modern misogyny and championing of the male. Atwood uses this speculative and extreme example in the future to convey a message about current society, resulting in a famous example of the Dystopian genre. Atwood explores the ideas of individuality, leadership and control, conveying her ideas through a multitude of techniques.

German sociologist, Georg Simmel, once stated, “The deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life.” A little after a century following his death, his remark still reigns true today. With the advancement of technology and mass media we struggle to find what makes us different as social constructs triggers us to act a certain way. Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, presents its readers with a dystopian society called Gilead, in which citizens are constantly under surveillance. Instead of adapting to the belief system of the totalitarian

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, one discovers the dystopian society of the Republic of Gilead. This society was created in order to keep the birth rates from the continuous decline and deals with the problem by requiring women to have government-sanctioned sex. Women are only treated as if they are a pair of ovaries and the only purpose that they have is to keep the country populated . If a Handmaid is unable to reproduce, they are punished for their failures. “Having given birth successfully, the Handmaid can rest assured that she will not be sent the Colonies, where ‘unwomen’ clean up toxic dumps and radiation spills. ” (Miner 149). If a Handmaid is unable to do their duties, they are sent away, and there is a great chance they will not return. The sex they are giving to their Commander is in no way romantic, nor is there any real love involved. Offred, a Handmaid, remembers the life she once lived before becoming a Handmaid. The women who become Handmaid’s are given names that are not really their own. “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses anymore because it’s forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter” (Atwood 84). The government has brainwashed these women into believing that they do not really matter and they have no real purpose. The government has taken away their names and given them the names of their Commander. In

In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, The theme of gender, sexuality, and desire reigns throughout the novel as it follows the life of Offred and other characters. Attwood begins the novel with Offred, a first person narrator who feels as if she is misplaced when she is describing her sleeping scenery at the decaying school gymnasium. The narrator, Offred, explains how for her job she is assigned to a married Commander’s house where she is obligated to have sex with him on a daily basis, so that she can become pregnant and supply the Commander with a child. In addition, the uniform that Offred along with the other handmaids are required to wear is a red dress, which symbolizes blood. Offred has little to no freedom as she has duties assigned daily making her feel as if she is in prison. When she occasionally leaves the room she is confined to, Offred is always being watched over by someone else so that she is never alone when she is outside of her room. All through the novel, Offred has habitual flashbacks to different parts in her life. For example, she is nostalgic about her relationship and time spent with her mother, daughter, and husband Luke as she compares her new life to how it was before the regime. Furthermore, the regime denies public access towards acquiring new knowledge and language, limiting Offred’s potential. The Gileadean regime’s primary focus is rule over gender, sexuality, and desire.

Margret Atwood’s novel the handmaid’s tale conveys a futuristic society that restrains basic human rights to its people. The republic of Gilead maintains and justifies its power structure through extreme interpretation of religion. As a result of a drastic drop in birth rate, the regime holds women captive for their ability to reproduce. To avoid rebellion Gilead censors all information and sets up an undercover policing unit called the Eyes. The population mindlessly follows the regime making knowledge and reason very rare. In addition, women experience worse censorship because of their reproductive value, and if women had the power of knowledge they might be able to rebel. Margret Atwood uses repetition to amplify Offred’s ability to think and reason by herself, which marks a shift toward Offred gradually gaining her own power and identity.

In the words of Erika Gottlieb "With control of the past comes domination of the future." A dystopia reflects and discusses major tendencies in contemporary society. The Handmaid 's Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. The novel follows its protagonist Offred as she lives in a society focused on physical and spiritual oppression of the female identity. Within The Handmaid 's Tale it is evident that through the exploration of free will and femininity, the dystopian novel presents an understanding that the future is determined by the actions taken in the past and the present. These actions are closely related to the novel 's context and the characteristics that are present in the dystopian genre.

In the period following the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s characterized by a religious conservative revival, Margaret Atwood wrote the novel The Handmaid’s Tale. With the elections of Ronald Reagan as president of the U.S. and Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of Great Britain, both religious conservatives, many feminists feared that all the progress towards equality they had made during the ‘60s and ‘70s would be reversed. Atwood, thinking no differently than them, decided to create a novel that explored the implications and effects of a nation, Gilead, that has completely obliterated feminist progress. In Gilead, women have no decision-making power; they are merely objects. Even though the disparity between the sexes was not so wide in Atwood’s time, Gilead is still representative of a possible future for society. Atwood uses the motifs of color and nomenclature found in the fictitious nation of Gilead to make a connection to society, and prove that society forces both women and men to have feminine and masculine power respectively and pits those two types of power against one another.

Both Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984 present vivid representations of dystopian future societies, and both encompass themselves with the roles of women within these societies. In Orwell 's novel, however, important though women are to Winston’s mental progression, they are not necessarily dominant to the story. Atwood’s novel, however, could obviously not exist within the role of women; the entire basis of the story involves the role of women in the society the author reveals. The Handmaid’s Tale is about the treatment of women; 1984 is about a totalitarian society in which women, like men, are present to aid the Party.

Dystopian themes have been displayed throughout time dating back to ancient times, and literature has found its way to make its argument about dystopian society by sending a message to the near future as a warning to what may happen, through creative and exemplary writing the book 1984 gave a great example of what society might in the modern world. The book Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood displayed a dystopian society, focusing on women presenting problems of sexism towards women, fighting alongside feminism. turn into “language and power” occurs a lot in the book, and it is displayed through the government's control, Offred's thoughts. Three main examples are neologisms, biblical language, and language musings. Religious and biblical language

The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most prestigious books of Margaret Atwood, and many readers believe that this is a feminist novel. Also, like the author, Margaret Atwood, indicated in the preamble of the book: “If you mean a novel in which women are human beings- with all the variety of character and behavior that implies- and are also interesting and important…then yes. In this case, many books are feminist.” Actually, her words were accepted by many people, the Handmaid tale is a feminist book because the book is described from the side of the women and shows the discrepancies of women, the book demonstrates how women suffer the cruel state actions of Gilead, and the book reveals a series of stereotypes on women as well.

Critical lenses are often applied to novels to acquire a different understanding of its meaning. The Marxist theory is based on social status/value by the authority a certain person has, or the amount wealth they have. Marxism is also known as a theory based on capitalism and how socialism is the better route for governing a society. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood can be looked at through the Marxist critique; specifically in regards to capitalism, what role materialism plays, and how the different classes interact with each other. Karl Marx viewed capitalism as a stage in history that would end up in socialism.

In today’s society women are viewed as equal as men, or that is how it should be. There are active women activist who fight for women rights and such today. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale the author Margaret Atwood shows her readers a different society and a different view on women. This novel shows how in the society of Gilead there is discrimination towards women and how women are only seen as a tool to produce babies. Margaret Atwood shows her reader through the life of Offred how one day things are perfectly fine and the next day Offred is a total mess. By using Offred story Margaret Atwood is able to show others how women are not suppose to be treated.

“Women as a Metaphor in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale” by Sonia Chadha compares the treatment of women in society to the treatment of women in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Chadha’s essay leaves her readers in a state of bewilderment after only a few pages. Her disorganized structure and repetitive subjects are only a couple reasons of why this essay is an absolute mess. Chadha’s essay is all over the place and only shows one-side of the argument. Overall, this essay was poorly written and very repetitve.