The Handmaid's Tale Essay

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 Gilead the social relationship that once existed between men and women is a thing of the past. In the former society women had value and felt good about themselves and how they looked. However, in the new society the men have stripped the women of their freedom and equality and lowered them to varying degrees of status. The young healthy women are labeled handmaids and are "issued" (24) by the government to various high-ranking officials in order to offer them the opportunity to create offspring. Getting pregnant is their only hope of survival. Females who are not of childbearing age are called Marthas because their purpose is to work and serve the men. A third category of women is labeled Unwomen because of their worthlessness in this male dominated society. All three categories are divided into colonies to prevent their rebelling against the system. Also, within each colony communication is limited and higher education is denied. In order to enforce this kind of oppressive social structure, the government uses various forms of intimidation.

In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale she explores the concept of a not-so-distant future where toxic chemicals and abuses to the body have left many men and women alike sterile. The main character, Offred, gives the reader a first person account about her submissive life as a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. A republic that was formed after a coup against the U.S. government. She and her fellow handmaids are fertile women that the commanders of Gilead ‘enslave’ to ensure their power and to repopulate their ‘society’. While the laws that govern the people of Gilead seem outlandish and oppressive, they are merely

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

The Handmaid's Tale is set in the early twentieth century in the futuristic Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States of America. The Republic has been founded by a Christian response to declining birthrates. The government rules using biblical teachings that have been distorted to justify the inhumane practices. In Gilead, women are categorized by their age, marital status and fertility. Men are categorised by their age. Women all have separate roles in society, and although these roles are different, they all share the same theme: Every woman is confined to the home and has a domestic duty. Marthas are cooks and housekeepers, and handmaids have one duty, which is to reproduce, growing and giving birth to babies to the childless

It isn't just handmaids, or even only women that have forfeited their personal identity; men have lost theirs as well. Their loss of individualism is symbolized by their generic titles. There are three classes of men in Gilead: the 'Commanders,' the Doctors, and the 'Eyes.' Like the color-coded uniforms of the women, the generic titles of the men announce their function. The Commanders are supposed to fertilize the handmaids; the Doctors examine the handmaids monthly to check for possible problems with their reproductive organs; the Eyes are the spy network of Gilead and are responsible for enforcing discipline. Also like the women's color coded-uniforms, the men's generic titles deprive them of their individuality and reduce them to mere task objects.

The Bible is distorted once again to manipulate the women during the Women's Prayvaganzas. The Commander hosting the service makes a speech to the crowd: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection…All…But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve?(221). The Bible is once again used selectively, isolating only the passages that pertain to Gilead's interests, which in this case is restricting women to be submissive. Gilead is trying to implement the fact that women should be subservient to men in society by literally justifying it from a myth in the Bible. This is only one of the stories of creation in Genesis, and is secluded and appropriated to make the women believe that "if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety,?(to the Republic of Gilead) "they shall be saved by childbearing?(221). The theocracy of Gilead encourages the handmaids and women in their society to continue to obey the hierarchies of their totalitarian-like regime, and in turn also have them provide children

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.

In the Republic of Gilead, children are seen as lawful possessions of wealthy, powerful couples like the Commander and his wife. As such, women called ‘handmaids’ have been reduced to two basic functions, breeding and buying groceries. Moreover, since women are prohibited to vote, write or read, the grocery store labels all of the products

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

Comparatively to Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale has prohibited the use of language and literacy for women in Gilead in order to suppress the independent voice, desire and autonomy. This is used as a means of social control and manipulation as a measure of ensuring that there are no opportunities in which woman can gain political power and be taken away from fulfilling their reproductive duties. In Atwood’s novel, language and reading are considered dangerous weapons in a woman’s hands, as having the capacity to underpin a women’s independence. Allowing women to be ambiguous, to think for themselves generating a desire to be autonomy’s while providing an opportunity to be mobile and rebellious. As a result, as soon as Offred

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

In The Handmaids Tale citizens must abide by the new rules, therefore they are in constant fear of punishment which includes death. “Abortion, possibly the key issue of the Christian political movement, also had its federal funding eliminated, even though attempts to limit or outlaw abortion itself were fought successfully on Constitutional grounds.” (Napierkowoski) Many people like to argue that men are also mistreated in the novel. Men, such as the Commander, may desire to experience a true connection, this can be seen between the Commander and Offreds’ secret affair. The difference between the Commander and the Handmaids is that the Commander gets to raise a child unlike the Handmaids which are just seen as sex machines. “My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved” (Attwood 94). Shows how they are only used as sex machines…. Gilead believes that women are valuable if they are fertile and can reproduce. It can be seen in history where it is seen as the women’s fault, with Henry the Eighth. He killed his wives because they were unable to give him a son, when in reality Henry the Eighths gene left him unable produce a

The problem for the opposition is the widespread system of reporting anyone who speaks negatively of the state. Gilead’s surveillance of the streets and individual homes are constant. In Gilead, most power is in the hands of the Commanders, the male elite in Gilead. They enforce their rule through paramilitary groups known as Guardians of the Faith, and through spies and secret police known as Eyes. The Eyes are said to be everywhere. The only place people are free are in their heads due to communication between individuals being forbidden. The uncertainty and fear of these ‘Eyes’, makes the Handmaids regulate their behavior and act in accordance to Gileadean rules at all times and trust becomes practically non-existent because nobody is sure of one another’s true identity. By restricting communication, the people are restricted in forming networks and expressing their ideas to rebel against the society and therefore are forced to

In this novel motherhood is portrayed as some kind of power and/or privilege. In Gilead not all women can have children so certain women become national resource. They are stripped away from their identity, family, jobs, and money and become used by the government. The government uses women as machines just to create healthy babies for the wives to rise as their own child. The government makes handmaids feel like they are important. They try to make them believe that giving birth is such a good thing. In reality Gilead is oppressing them because even if they were to have a baby they wouldn’t be able to play the role of mothers. Motherhood is a luxury and definitely not for the handmaids.