The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

Offred is the protagonist and narrator of the “The Handmaid’s Tale”. As one of the rare fertile women in this dystopian world, she is put at the bottom of the social hierarchy as a Handmaid, where her sole purpose is to provide children for the Commander and his Wife. Despite being the protagonist, Offred is a passive character who generally conforms to the social stereotypes in Gilead due to her cowardice. Despite this, there are some moments where the reader is able to acknowledge the degree of power she holds within this society.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the Gilead regime oppresses women in many different ways; they take complete control over their bodies, they

Gilead instills fear in the handmaids by publicly displaying the repercussions of those who rebel against the rules set in place by the government. Offred the main character is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. Handmaids are subject to routine schedules, because of this most are unhappy such as Offred who says, “we thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?” (56). The handmaids are not treated as individuals. Rather, they are seen as potential mothers who hate and avoid looking down at their own body’s “not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because…[they] don’t want to look at something that determines [them] so completely” (71). Offred’s life revolves around shopping trips with Ofglen,

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood describes the story of Offred, a Handmaid, that is a woman ascribed a breeding function by society, and who is placed with a husband and wife higher up the social ladder who need a child. Through Offred's eyes we explore the rigidity of the theocracy in which she lives, the contradictions in the society they have created, and her attempts to find solace through otherwise trivial things. The heroine is never identified except as Offred, the property of her current Commander, she was a modern woman: college-educated, a wife and a mother when she lost all that due to the change in her society. The novel can be viewed from one perspective as being a feminist depiction of the suppression of a woman, from another

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 chosen leaders in The Handmaid’s Tale use rhetoric to proselytize religion and Gileadean ideals. In Gilead, women do not have the choice to leave, even the Marthas—who are ranked just above the Handmaids—discuss the possibility of leaving the house in private. However, because the Colonies are where the “Unwomen… starve to death” (Atwood 10), Cora uses rhetoric to persuade Rita not to consider the Colonies. The negative connotation and denotation of “Unwomen” in The Handmaid’s Tale conveys a religious value in Gilead because it is someone who cannot bear children. It should not come as a surprise that the Handmaids’ lives are not always lillies—just like the ones on the FAITH-printed cushion. Though these words are not spoken, it is clear that Handmaids are marginalized, even if they are “spoiled” (Atwood 89).

Prevention of individuality strips away key unique and identifying factors, reducing humans to become machines, uniform in thought, action and persona. Gilead’s regime largely achieves this goal for the Handmaids and the Aunts. Wives, being the counterparts to the masterminds of the operation, retain their individuality, as do the Commanders. Sexual intimacy and relationships, however, are destroyed by the regime. Romance and love being some of the most powerful human concepts and emotions, this means that Gilead truly dehumanises all involved, to varying extents. Atwood used personification to represent the wide-ranging surveillance in the form of the ‘Eyes of God’ state surveillance agency. The intrusion of the state into Offred’s mind was clear at multiple points in the book, mentioning sights of black cars marked with the eye symbol and “men in grey suits” as well as

Not only are they used to have babies for the commander and wife, but the handmaid's start to disperse from their own bodies. They cannot love, speak, or create a life on their own without the thousands of rules created by the Government. The handmaids are no longer seen as a person but only for wombs. Offred begins to accept this part of her that is only accepted as a reproductive organ. This is beyond wrong.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the dystopian society of Gileadean society is described. The role of women and the oppression of women by men cannot be missed while reading the novel. Due to the dropping fertility rates, fertile women are trained to be a Handmaid by the Aunts in the Red Center. The job of the Handmaid is to conceive a baby with the Commander, so the Commander and the Wife can nurture the child. Atwood uses the oppression of women in the Gileadean society to show her thoughts about the danger of historic events and the developments in society nowadays. The novel projects the struggle of Offred, who is a Handmaid herself, against the totalitarian restriction of her society and her desire for happiness and

In the Handmaid’s Tale, Offred, the alienated female figure, suffers from the notion of male supremacy in her society. In Gilead, the Commanders’ own women, specifically the handmaids, as if they were property. For example, a commander comments that his comrade “hasn't yet been issued a woman” (36). This

In Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaids Tale’, we hear a transcribed account of one womans posting ‘Offred’ in the Republic of Gilead. A society based around Biblical philosophies as a way to validate inhumane state practises. In a society of declining birth rates, fertile women are chosen to become Handmaids, walking incubators, whose role in life is to reproduce for barren wives of commanders. Older women, gay men, and barren Handmaids are sent to the colonies to clean toxic waste.

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

Women’s Bodies as Political Instruments: Women Used and Abused for the sake of Bearing Children Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, is a set based in Gilead, where religious conservatives have taken over. Their belief is that birthrates in Gilead are declining due to the women and their infertility. In Gilead, “There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law” (Atwood 61).

Although handmaids were an integral part of society, their role was not looked as desirable by any means. Other women did not want to be in a handmaids position. Offred struggles with integrating and accepting the new laws and customs because she craves normality and power. Offred shares an unusual relationship with her commander. In most homes, the commander and handmaid have little to no interaction, except for their monthly attempt to conceive; Offred’s commander invites her to his chamber nightly, gifts her lotions and magazines, and makes her feel like her old self. She tells herself that she has power over the commander in these visits but she is being bought, and every item has a price, so she sets hers high: normality. As Offred becomes more accustomed to these visits, she craves more “power.” As Offred becomes more accustomed to these visits, she thinks about how she would like to steal something from her commanders chamber; when confronted by off maybe a pen but when asked to steal something of value, of information, she justifies her desire to steal and says its "....a small defiance of rule....like the candy I hoarded, as a