...extent does The Handmaid’s Tale present the future as a feminine dystopia? A feminine dystopia imagines a world gone terribly wrong, exploring the most extreme possible consequences of current society’s problems. In a feminine dystopia, the inequality of society or oppression of women is exaggerated or intensified to highlight the need for change in contemporary society. The Handmaid’s Tale presents the future as this in many ways. Chapter 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale presents the future as a feminine dystopia. Religion is brought up as Gilead is seen to be trying to purify the values of women, for example Offred is only allowed a single bed, the words “nothing takes place in the bed but sleep; or no sleep” highlight the fact that a bed is only for sleeping, to purify her. The reference to nunneries also suggests there is religion involved in Gilead, Offred states that “time here is measured by bells, as once in nunneries. As in nunneries too, there are few mirrors” this suggests sexual contact for the Handmaids, or anyone, is forbidden, and the use of the word “once” suggests that Offred is like a nun, or feels like a nun, out of a nunnery and in a house. Also in chapter 2, the role of the Handmaids is introduced; we learn they are needed for something very important, as they are not allowed to attempt to kill themselves as it is said that “they’ve removed anything you could tie a rope to.” Also Offred says “I am not being wasted.” This shows that the Handmaids are not allowed to be...
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...and society would be one marked by pure sisterhood and equality. Discuss The Handmaid’s Tale as an exploration of the ideas of feminism, the treatment of women, and the control of women’s bodies. Feminism in The Handmaid’s Tale. Women have been treated very poorly through the years and in the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale women have no control of their bodies, the treatment they get from other is terrible and there is no freedom. Offred the main character is presented in the novel has a handmaid who’s only propose in life is to have a baby with the commander. She lives in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state that has replaced the United States of America. She like other women have no freedom and are only allowed to go for shopping trip, but still someone is always watching. Therefore in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the women have limited rights, limited freedom and limited control of their bodies. The women in Gilead have no rights and have to listen to the rules or the consequences result in death, getting send to the colonies or become a prostitute at Jezebel’s. They don’t really have a choice they can be handmaids to the commander and his wife or become a prostitute at Jezebel’s, but it’s not really a choice thy only have two options. The women in Gilead have to do play their roles in the society and not complain about it. The roles include: Handmaids, Marthas, Econowives and the wives of the commander. Even in these society women don’t stick...
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...How does Atwood’s portrayal of control on pages 22-23 typify Atwood’s treatment of women in the rest of the novel? In Margaret Atwood’s novel ‘The Handmaids Tale ‘women are objectified and live under an oppressive regime. In this essay I will be exploring Atwood’s presentation of women and women’s purpose in society. In ‘The Handmaids Tale ‘phallic imagery is used to distinguish women’s position in society. “The commander’s wife directs, pointing with her stick.” Serena Joy’s stick can be seen as phallic imagery; throughout the novel phallic imagery is used to represent the hierarchy amongst the women. At the red centre the aunts carried cattle prods and this solidified their superiority. Serena Joy also carries a stick and this can be seen as the transition of power from the aunts to Serena Joy, the aunts previously had control over Offred however now Offred is Serena Joy’s handmaid the power over her has been bestowed upon Serena Joy. Atwood also presents Serena Joy as ‘The commanders wife ‘, by not calling Serena Joy by her name we are able to understand how powerless women are in the Gilead regime as they are not referred to by their own name but by their husbands title. This then suggests that women are nothing without their husbands and their only duty is to be wives. In Simone de Beauvoir’s novel ‘ The second sex ‘ she focuses on the concept of ‘ the other ‘ , this concept refers to the treatment of women as the ‘ other ‘ in relation to men. I believe this concept...
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...women in The Handmaid Tales is not defined by money but by surviving while keeping their values intact. The Handmaidens “learned to whisper without sound” and “learned to lip read” so that they could “exchange names”. By using the verb “learned” Atwood shows these women capable to acquire knowledge to adapt to situations while doing this together the women exchange pieces of their identity with one another establishing a stronger relationship. (3)In the past women hadn’t had the same freedom they once did. For example the character, Lady Nijo in Act One stated how she “belonged” the Emperor a position she was “brought” up from a “baby”. The word belonged suggests how she is a possession, an object, a thing without feelings to her a woman capable of making her own decisions. It implies it is the purpose of women to serve men; it’s what they’re bred for. The recurring b’s her conveys that she felt angry but there was very little she could do about it.(4) By contrast the women in the future dystopian novel once had freedom before and lost when Gilead came into power. Offred compares the value of the board game Scrabble when it was “once the game of old women”, “Now of course”; the value is “Now it’s different” it “is freedom”. Atwood uses the repetitive “Now” to emphasize how the sight Scrabble is intoxicating Offred and how she longs for freedom. It also demonstrates how the short sentences here to have more impact and importance to the statements. She also shows how simple luxuries...
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...to accept this as a fact, but authors like Margaret Atwood show us that this is often an illusion. Through her dystopian novel she effectively explores themes of control and power and hope in a society that is no longer egalitarian. In order to illustrate the true value of equal rights and to show how women, no matter how often they’ve been subjugated, are powerful enough to reassure themselves time and again. Women play a great role in this dystopian city, but as a powerful symbol of less control. The new form of government presented in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale, must leave women without freedom or choice, because in this way they can assure that their city will consist of their commands over woman and therefore, be successfully transformed into a society focused on traditional ideas. The diminutive control women experience in the Republic of Gilead does not make women feel that it distorts their individuality, even...
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...Compare and contrast the theme of control in The Handmaids Tale and Nineteen Eighty-Four Control is a central theme in both dystopian texts and control is present in both novels. Both societies in the novels are heavily controlled and restricted, but the key difference is in the regime used by the respective governments in each text. In The Handmaids Tale the government’s ideologies are theosophical whereas Nineteen Eighty-Four is based on socialism. These ideologies play a key role in the ways that control is presented in each novel. The governments use different forms of control to maintain their regimes and power and these include: indoctrination through control of hierarchy, language and religion. The governments act as totalitarian regimes which constantly monitor the lives of its citizens to keep them under their control. Orwell took inspiration from the plight of Britain during the time the novel was written; 1948. Britain had just come out of a horrifying war that devastated the world - World War Two - and her economy and overseas relations were in deep water. Britain’s economy was at its lowest in decades and very unstable; her Empire was dissolving in to the common wealth and international relations were quickly turning sour. Similarly to The Handmaids Tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four warns against governments’ overwhelming acquirement of power. Orwell himself was well-versed in the world of politics and strategies deployed by governments to gain control. He was also a traditional...
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...to distance female voices in order to highlight the powerful patriarchal society in which Shelley herself and other females were subjected to in the 1800s. Oppositely Attwood uses Offred as a mouth piece to denounce the unrealistic ideals that women faced in the previous 1980s American society but her conformity to the totalitarian regime allows Attwood to effectively condemn the new gender roles which have been assigned to the women. Conceivably women with in the 1980s enjoyed liberation added by the gains of the second wave feminist movement contrastingly the 1800s confined women to a domestic bubble where her only role was to fulfil their maternal duties. The 60s and 70s encapsulate the removal of conservative views and the emergence into a new age where women governed their own lives and experienced a sense of autarchy never seen previously. Attwood thus uses the hand maid’s tale to reassert the thoughts of whether the freedom is experienced is sustainable or rather an illusion devised in order to make women feel there are becoming increasingly socially mobile. Hand maids are initially restricted to the white wings and full ankle skirt Offred even sees her own nakedness as ‘strange and ‘immodest’. The full skirts are symbolic of the demure nature of the handmaids but are also evidence of how they must constantly fit in to Gilead’s frivolous ideals, this is closely...
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...How far do you agree with the view ‘that women do not possess innate maternal desires’? Compare and contrast the presentation of motherhood in Top Girls with Atwood’s presentation of motherhood in The Handmaid’s Tale It could be argued that women possess innate maternal desires, however some would argue that women are socialised by their environment to be maternal. Churchill’s feminist play ‘Top Girls’ explores the idea of natural maternal instincts through characters such as Joyce and historical figures Lady Nijo and Patient Griselda. ‘Top Girls’ is set during Thatcher’s government and explores the role of motherhood, with an all female cast Churchill uses theatre of alienation and characterisation to constantly keep the audience aware that the play is not realistic, this technique is done purposely so the audience focus less on the plot and more on the political and social issues. Similar to the play, feminist author Atwood explores ideas of motherhood and how women treat each other within society through her cautionary tale; The Handmaid’s Tale, the fictive autobiographic novel presents characters such as Offred, Ofwarren and Serena Joy who all share problems with maternal identity. Most of the women presented in the texts have a desire to be a mother yet the societies they live within prevent them from successfully realising this desire. Top Girls is set in 1979 at the end of the decade and the beginning of Thatcher’s tenure. Marlene is representative of all of Thatcher’s...
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...Tennyson links public and private spaces and their promotion of female passivity to illustrate societal as well as psychological and domestic examples of passivity. In Mariana, the “rusted” and “crusted” atmosphere of decay is representative of Mariana’s psychological deterioration and the stagnant “blacken’d waters” and “moated grange” act as an obstruction to her integration with the outside patriarchal world. This reflects the wider Victorian attitude regarding the home as “the centre of virtue and the proper life for women” and brings to light the impact that passivity in the greater context of society has on the role she plays in her private relationship. This idea of external influences is echoed much less figuratively in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ where “decreased birth rates” stimulated a change in the functioning of the governmental system and the politically organised passivity of women, creating a dystopian vision of patriarchy. A change in societal structure resulting in female passivity is also present in ‘Othello’. Desdemona’s transition from an assertive female who “challenge[s] that [she] may profess...
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...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...
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