Power In The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale has explored the disempowerment of individual power that is implemented by the society. Margaret Atwood demonstrates this through the main ‘protagonist’ of the story, Offred, with her minimal amount of visible power in society. Individual power can catalyse minor change but lacks the strength to impact upon large scale power regimes. While confined behind the “white wings of the Handmaids”, Offred and Ofglen “learned to whisper almost without a sound” to share information they had heard “through the grapevine” about what is withheld from them. Although the government has immeasurable power driven by fear of being taken away in the “black van”, they battle for what little individual power they can get.

In the novel “The Handmaid's Tale” the author Margaret Atwood uses language as a form of power and a means of escape. Margaret uses language to help readers understand themes such as identity, oppression, and representations of power. Offred in particular uses language as a tool to escape the plight of her existence. There are many different ways that Margaret Atwood used language in her book.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a disturbing novel that displays the presence and manipulation of power. This is displayed throughout the novel and is represented significantly in three ways. As the book takes place in the republic of Gilead, the elite in society are placed above every other individual who are not included in their level. Secondly, men are placed at the top of the chain and they significantly overpower women in the society (elite or not). Finally the individuals within the elite society also overpower each other and have their own separate roles. This can be interpreted as a chain. Men of the elite are placed at the top, the men who less elite

In “The Handmaid 's Tale” by Margaret Atwood, there is the addressing of freedom, abuse of power, feminism, rebellion and sexuality. The audience is transported to a disparate time where things normalized in our current society are almost indistinguishable. Atwood uses each character carefully to display the set of theme of rebellion within the writing, really giving the reader a taste of what the environment is like by explaining detailed interactions, and consequences as well as their role in society.

I have refined by working thesis to be about how men have power over women and they use this power to control what they will do, what they say, and what they remember. A quote from Cooper’s essay that supports my working thesis is, “Thus the doctor fully exploiting both his official authority and the tacit permission it gives him to quietly break the rules, first judges Offred ready for fertilization and then offers to impregnate her himself” (52). The meaning behind this quote is that the doctor is able to do almost anything he wants to do to Offred because he has control over her. In the society of Gilead men have much more power than women, as seen in this quote. The power the doctor has leads to him being able to control Offred.

While observing her body, she thinks, “My nakedness is strange to me already. My body seems outdated. Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach?” (63). While most of the women around her are resisting the Gilead rules, Offred never seems to rebel. Even during the most traumatic experiences, such as the Ceremony or beating a man to death, her moral judgments cease to exist, as if she has accepted her fate as a handmaid. It is only until her knowledge of the resistance when she finally decides to participate and even then, it is still kept on the down low. She gives into discreet affairs only under the request of her Commander and Serena Joy. She participates at the Jezebel club under the request of her Commander. Her most daring acts of rebellion are her stealing butter, the thought of stealing from the living room, or her talking to Ofglen. During all of this mutiny, she still binds herself to the color red and her duty as a

The words control and Gilead, the setting for the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, are interchangeable. Not only is control a pivotal feature of the novel and its plot, it consequently creates the subplots, the characters and the whole world because of its enormity in the Republic of Gilead. Resistance also features heavily, as does its results, mainly represented in the salvagings, particicution and the threat of the colonies.

In paragraph twenty nine of Handmaid's Tale the author explains that the influence of power and appreciation is a tool used in theocratic societies to gain control over the masses. Particularly Artwork is very intrigued by the relationship of society with men and women. In the book women are placed below men in every respect in society having no rights and being in a lower social caste than men. To conclude Margaret Artwork in her book Handmaid's Tale uses power and oppression to censor women and to keep the status quo.

Hungry for power. Metaphorically querulous. Weak. The Commander is the representation of male insecurity. This character is derived from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s novel reveals that hunger for control can lead to the oppression of women, this is demonstrated through the Commander’s characterization, the Aunts attitudes, and some of the Gileadean rules/laws.

As you read through the handmaid’s tale you see the relationships of the characters develop and the fight for power, however small that glimpse of power may be. The images of power can be seen through out the novel, but there are major parts that stand out to the reader from the aunt’s in the training centre to the secret meetings between the Commander and Offred.

It is necessary for the government to impose a certain amount of power and control on its citizens for a society to function properly. However, overuse and misuse of power and control in a society eliminates the freedom of the residents, forbidding them to live an ordinary life. In the dystopic futuristic novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates the idea of power and control through the oppressive society Gilead. The government establishes power and control with the Wall, the Salvagings, and military control. As well, the government’s unique use of the Aunts and “Red Centres” demonstrates the unfair oppression and indoctrination of the women and potential Handmaids within the society. This type of control can be compared to

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.

A Critical Analysis of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In this dystopia novel, it reveals a remarkable new world called Gilead. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, explores all these themes about women who are being subjugated to misogyny to a patriarchal society and had many means by which women tried to gain not only their individualism and their own independence. Her purpose of writing this novel is to warn of the price of an overly zealous religious philosophy, one that places women in such a submissive role in the family. I believe there are also statements about class in there, since the poor woman are being meant to serve the rich families need for a child. As the novel goes along the narrator Offred is going between the past and

Despite the little dependence on women, they are still objectified and subjected to injustice because of their gender, regardless if they were a female in general or as a poor female. As something as simple as what a person is born with affects the respect that is given to them. Margaret Atwood formulates Offred’s personality much like any other handmaid in the community. Offred becomes familiar with the functionality and role of women in the community, therefore she adjusts herself in order to be up to par with the unethical standard. “I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born. (Atwood, 75). To be what is required of her, Offred must act unhuman because the expectations of females exceed the

Though the English language has its roots in a male-dominated society where the true meaning of words are now taken for granted. In The Handmaid’s Tale, language facilitates power. In order to effectively rule over class and gender the level of censorship on literature and control of discourses runs high. Atwood uses word choice to expose the shocking structures of the Gilead society and how faulty its foundations are as it was built upon gender inequality. The repercussions of gendered language are evident throughout the novel, implying that the sexist structure of Gilead is a result of oppressive language modern Americans accept and use in every day talk.