The Handmaid 's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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 her 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood has created the fictional Republic of Gilead, in which women are heavily oppressed by the newly installed regime. The new regime values women solely on their fertility, thus objectifying them to no more than a means of reproduction. By confiscating control over the process of and the rights to reproduction, the Gilead regime denies women ‘’any sense of control or independence’’ (Byrne). In this essay, I will argue that, although the female body is the main subject of oppression in Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, it is also the key to resistance for women in the so-called nation of Gilead, and that women hold the ultimate bargaining power, as they have the ‘’final say’’ on what happens to their bodies.

Written by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in the near future where the United States is overthrown and a military dictatorship forms called the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is a society that reconsolidates power and creates a new hierarchical regime that limits women entirely of their rights. The rulers of this dystopia are centrally concerned with dominating their subjects through the control of their experiences, time, memory, and history. A woman called Offred narrates the story and works as a Handmaid for reproductive purposes only. In her storytelling, Offred describes flashbacks consisting of portions of her life before the revolution. These flashbacks are the only thing that keeps her going in this

Throughout the course of world history on Earth, humans have always worked harder and harder in order to improve society and make it more perfect, although it still hasn’t been done quite yet, because it is merely impossible to achieve perfection in a world with close to seven billion people. There is a very distinct difference between a utopia, which can also be known as perfection, and a dystopia, which can also be known as a tragedy; and the outcomes normally generate from the people in charge or the authority that sets up the foundation, the rules, and the regulations for a society. In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Republic of Gilead is created by a powerful authority group called the Eyes after a huge government take over and the assassination of the US president. It’s very strict rules and goals are set up to protect women, to increase childbirth, and to keep all violence, men, and powerful social media under control. The novel is set in a first person point of view and the narrator, Offred, tells her story to us readers about her experiences as a handmaid and how her life was completely turned upside down. Throughout the course of the novel Offred reveals many sides of herself; although her thoughts do not remain consistent, her personality and opinion tends to change revealing, that she is hesitant and strong because she learns to make the best of what she has and silently overcome the system of the Republic of Gilead.

The Handmaid's Tale, a film based on Margaret Atwood’s book depicts a dystopia, where pollution and radiation have rendered innumerable women sterile, and the birthrates of North America have plummeted to dangerously low levels. To make matters worse, the nation’s plummeting birth rates are blamed on its women. The United States, now renamed the Republic of Gilead, retains power the use of piousness, purges, and violence. A Puritan theocracy, the Republic of Gilead, with its religious trappings and rigid class, gender, and racial castes is built around the singular desire to control reproduction. Despite this, the republic is inhabited by characters who would not seem out of place in today's society. They plant flowers in the yard, live in suburban houses, drink whiskey in the den and follow a far off a war on the television. The film leaves the conditions of the war and the society vague, but this is not a political tale, like Fahrenheit 451, but rather a feminist one. As such, the film, isolates, exaggerates and dramatizes the systems in which women are the 'handmaidens' of today's society in general and men in particular.

Offred, in Margaret Atwood’s disturbing novel The Handmaid’s Tale says, “But who can remember pain once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.” The society of Gilead causes the aforementioned pain and demoralization by using women’s bodies as political instruments. Similar to Atwood’s novel, today’s men put immense pressure on women to be a certain way, give them children, and take care of the home and the like. In Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, she examines the theme of demoralization of women through graphic predictions of what women’s futures may look like.

Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, satirizes the movement of religious conservatives that was occurring during its time of publication in the 1980’s. The beliefs expressed by these conservatives are taken to the extreme in the book when a totalitarian government creates a new society that reverses all advancements of women. Through these reversals and formed hierarchies, Atwood creatively makes a statement about the unfair molds in real life that both genders try to break free from. In other words, the story inflates the roles of men and women through the creation of strict regulations in order to show the discriminatory stereotypes that are a reality today.

Margaret Atwood’s harrowing novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, follows the story of a woman marginalized by the theocratic oligarchy she lives in; in the Republic of Gilead, this woman has been reduced to a reproductive object who has her body used to bear children to the upper class. From the perspective of the modern reader, the act of blatant mistreatment of women is obvious and disturbing; however, current life is not without its own shocking abuses. Just as the Gileadian handmaid was subject to varied kinds of abuse, many modern women too face varied kinds of abuses that include psychological, sexual, and financial abuse.

In American society, people deem it unjust to hinder someone due to their gender, race, religion, and more. However, in the past and presently, there are societies that restrict people due to these same characteristics. Atwood criticizes the idea of having these restrictions through her work, The Handmaid’s Tale. With this work, Atwood establishes connections between disparate historic events, which share similarities. Atwood’s book explicitly relates to slavery due her commentary on the power dynamic through her character, Offred. Offred resembles a slave during the 19th century through her emotional, physical, and mental conditions, commenting on the disregard society has for its imperious control over people.

Imagine waking up every day to a closet full of uniforms assigned specifically for you. You have no choice in what you wear and no freedom of expression. Imagine this clothing masks your personal identity, turning you into nothing but a faceless, nameless body. You are banned from reading and have no access to education. Imagine losing your belongings, your control over your finances, your freedom, your family, and finally, your name. Imagine that your worth is contingent upon your reproductive capabilities. This is the bleak dystopian reality portrayed in Hulu’s TV series, The Handmaids’ Tale. The show is not just another sci-fi fantasy. This show serves as a warning for viewers, reminding us that progress should not be taken for granted

The Handmaid’s Tale explores gender and identity as well as domestic politics, which, in turn, ties into social protest. Atwood uses the example of a ‘Unwomen’, who were past protestors demonstrating against violent sexual attacks on women and calling for greater safety on the streets. This relays the knowledge that rebellions and protests have happened in the past and makes readers aware of the dilemma that moral freedom comes at a price. The real threat in The Handmaid’s Tale comes not from males but from the females. In other words, the male-dominated power structure that exists relies on females to regulate one another and enforce social standards within their society.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, set in a futuristic state, women are portrayed as voiceless belongings viewed only as childbearing vessels. Atwood characterizes women as both physically and psychologically oppressed by the totalitarian male leaders through Handmaid characters such as Offred, Ofwarren, and Ofglen. The novel clearly displays the dehumanizing effects of the ideology, the biological reductionism, and manipulation of language through the testimony of the eyewitness’ recollections. The portrayal of women in this novel is conveyed through Offred’s characterizations and descriptions of women in this society.

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).

Margaret Atwood’s greatest influence on the literary world is undoubtedly her progressive views on feminism and misogyny. The Handmaid’s Tale, her most notable work, is an examination of a totalitarian society that lawfully dehumanizes women, whose sole purpose is to breed and reproduce (Napierkowski 114-115). Grounded in reality, this novel portrays complex female characters that endure the same suffering as many people did at the time:

Atwood makes note throughout the novel that women themselves are just as oppressive as their masculine masters. For example, when Janine gives her testimony of her “telling about how she was gang-raped at fourteen”, the crowd begins to chant “Her fault, her fault, her fault.”, this suggests that the society that she is living in is a society based on guilt and victim blaming (72). Likewise, in American society, rape is often wrongly believed to be the fault of women, largely because the legal system in the United State is often in favor of the rapists. Marshall University’s Women Center defines rape culture as being “perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.”, in many ways, Gilead and Western society still perpetuated the notion that it is the fault of the woman (Marshal University, 2014). Victim blaming is quite common in both liberal and conservative regions of the country. In addition to the on-going denigration of women, Atwood presents the audience the issue of class, some women are worth more than others. For instance, the relationship between Offred and Serena Joy is conflictive in many ways how the biblical account of Sarah and Hagar, like Hagar, Offred is mistreated by Serena Joy. Serena is described as “She doesn’t turn her head. She doesn’t acknowledge my presence in any way, although she knows I am there. I can tell she knows, it’s like a smell, her knowledge; something gone sour, like old milk”, Offred is a constant reminder to Serena that she has failed in conceiving a child by her means (Atwood 46). As a result, Offred is subject to contempt by Serena since Offred is having intimacy with the Commander. In essence like Offred, Serena too is subject to abuse via, humiliation. Due to Serena’s