Gender Roles In The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood explores how societies, such as Gilead, exist as a result of complacency as the novel serves as a cautionary tale to future societies. Through ‘The Historical Notes’, Atwood explores the continuation of patriarchy and how the female voice is constantly undermined by the male gaze. Dominick Grace’s analysis of ‘The Historical Notes’ ‘questions … the authenticity’ of Offred’s account as it relies purely on the reliability of memories, which are subjective.

Lack of Difference from Women in The Handmaid’s Tale and Women in Modern Day Society

Books that are banned or challenged often have controversial topics but many don't consider the positive effects of these books. The Handmaid's Tale is an example of this because despite including uncomfortable topics, it also offers meaningful themes and ideas.

In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the role that women play in society and the consequences of a countryís value system. She reveals that values held in the United States are a threat to the livelihood and status of women. As one critic writes, “the author has concluded that present social trends are dangerous to individual welfare” (Prescott 151).

Women working men’s jobs were not as welcomed in society as they were in factories. People held on to the belief that women should be house wives and not have to do much in the way of work. The man should provide for the family, and the women should take care of the family. Many of the women who worked were lower class and had to help provide for their families, or were the only providers for their families. Women who worked men’s jobs were looked down upon and thought to be no better than dirt. Although women working in factories were still women, men did not show them the same respect as they did a woman working as a secretary or teacher.

In author’s speech she mentions; “Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman?” she compares herself with a woman who received help from a man. This brings up together relevant information about woman having the capabilities to be as equal as men, to be as hardworking and skillful as man. As a matter of fact; nowadays; there is woman discrimination nowadays such as unfairness in equal pay in job opportunities. Most women tend to earn less money than man and have less opportunities than men. For the fact that women are not as strong and intellectual as man therefore women will not be employed for the lack of efficiency than men.

While social change has brought on more changes than what women are a custom too, at one point in history women actually felt a form of importance in fulfilling their roles not only in the home; but outside as well. “These demographic shifts account for many new or altered roles, such as increased number of duel-earner families, later and fewer marriages, fewer children, increased life expectancy, and the massive migration shifting employees across a nation and across the globe” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 275).

• The narrator wakes up from a dream of her daughter and mother. • While having her breakfast, the sound of the siren on a red Birthmobile reaches the house. • Offred and three other women ride the the van to witness Offwarren’s birth giving • While in the van,Offred remembers some of Aunt Lydia’s lessons. • After the red Birthmobile arrives to Commander Warren’s house,Offred leaves the van and a blue Birthmobile for the Wives arrives. •

In The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood constructs a deeply patriarchal society and warns of the dangers of the future if the need for feminism is not presently realised. Most prominently, misogyny in the text can be witnessed in the subhuman treatment of women. Women in Gilead are split into categories based upon their capabilities to serve men (Marthas, Wives, Daughters, Handmaids)

The women of the story are not treated with the respect, which reflects their social standings. The first image of the women that the reader gets is a typical housewife. They are imaged as “wearing faded house dresses and

For this paper, I would like to talk about working class women. I will use The Jungle and Mother for texts that we have already discussed in class. For texts that we have not analyzed in class I will use Adventure and The Teacher from Winesburg, OH. In these selections, one is able to find many themes that embody women in the working class. From The Jungle, it is seen that women had to work to support the family when times were tough, often times doing work that was as strenuous as what the men did.

Women were traditionally seen as the weaker sex – second-class citizens with a lower social status than men. A woman’s place was in the home. Men did the “heavier” labor, like plowing and hunting.

“Look at us! We’re just like everyone else. We’ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion; this idea that you have to settle down and resign from life.” (April Wheeler, Revolutionary Road). It has become a society norm that women are meant to serve housewives; to cook, clean, garden, and nurture children, even though they are much more capable of other things. The role of women is greatly overseen, as they are not perceived to be of their full potential, rather than as societies idealistic expectation. This is because men and those who are wealthy are unable to look past gender and accept women as of equal significance.

Within history, societies have to try to find a balance between gender and class. Margaret Atwood writes about a country called Gilead: a society where women are broken down into classes while men control all the power. Throughout her dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood utilizes gender and class to alienate the protagonist, Offred, illustrating how women and their position within society are used as a political instrument to gain dominance.

In the novel Atwood writes how Offred the main character transitions from her life before to a Handmaid. Offred wasn’t her real name but the name that was given to her when the Gilead society formed. Prior to the Gilead forming Offred lived with her husband and