Offred’s fate was not clearly concluded as the story ends. The major question is “did she achieve her freedom or her end?.” Why does freedom in Gilead seemed to be something that is rarely given to anyone but just to who have capacity to buy it? This dystopian novel shows the domination of women by men by governing them with extreme policies. People who held some power in the government of Gilead, describes their past as “no protection for women”. They remind them the essence of the present kind of patterns that have emerged from their society. In the time before Gilead, it was very unsafe and precautions had to be taken. Offred narrated, they are not allowed to open the door for strangers and if it was the police, they should slid the ID into the door for verification. They are also not allowed to go to the laundromat alone at night and they are warned not to help people in the road who have trouble because they might be just pretending. Changing the government was believed to be a product of a failed country. This movement is towards ensuring progress of the new Gilead Republic. These measures were used to protect women from any harm. Those reasons which were given had inflicted great change for the Gilead’s society. They see women as a vulnerable that is always subject to threat but most importantly they see them as something that they could control. In the new Gilead society, women are not allowed to have some any form of independence. Jobs were taken away from them,
The late 19th century was period of repressive Victorian era societal and gender roles that plagued and deprived women of their agency and rights. This was period of patriarchal hegemony that impacted women in both the private and public sphere of society. By, attempting to navigate through this malaise of despondency and loneliness, Moreover, Gilman not only faces an existential crisis, but the narrator had to confront her depression as well as evaluate the conflicting relationship with her
Outward conformity along with inward questioning, that is what the main character, presented in Margaret Artwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, has to undertake in order to survive in a theocratic society. Stepping out of line in any way risks your life, so in a place where freedom of speech and basic human right’s no longer apply, Offered must comply with whatever rules they have in place and pretend to agree with the system, but in the inside, she cannot help but think about her past life, her husband, her daughter, before everything began. Flashbacks are integrated in the novel to not only compare the old society with the new one, but to also demonstrate this fake conformity Offred has to display to others and her internal struggle with giving up on escaping the Republic or just accepting her fate and playing by
The Commander and the Aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead, where they are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. However, while Gilead claims to suppress sexual violence, it actually institutionalizes it. An example is Jezebel’s, the club that provides the Commanders with prostitutes to service the male elite. Another example is the Ceremony that compels Handmaids to have sex with their Commanders. Foster suggests, “...sex can be pleasure, sacrifice, submission, rebellion, resignation, supplication, domination, enlightenment, the whole works” (158).
Tensions between all people, based on race, religion, and ethnicity, have shaped history and affected all lives. It is very easy to see that gender has affected many people’s lives and caused struggle. Women in history were viewed as an accessory to their spouses instead of being seen as independent individuals. From education to work, women were expected to follow the same path and live in the shadow of their husbands and male relatives. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a significant snapshot of the way women were treated in 1920’s.
Title What does the expression of freedom mean? Asking this question would give a lot of different answers depending on the people asked because a word as broad as “freedom” has a variety of connotative meanings to different individuals. This disparity of the word “freedom is shown in the text of “The Story of an Hour” and “The Handmaid’s Tale”, and both texts explain these expressions of freedom through the stories main characters. In these stories, they convey this idea differently through different literary devices and expressions, which creates a contrast between the two stories.
What would become of the world, if our current societal flaws, such as sexism, racism, and classism were ingrained and executed at a systematic level? This is exactly what The Handmaid’s Tale set out to explore. The novel, which claims to be speculative fiction, is set in the theocratic Republic of Gilead (formerly the USA), where birth rates are rapidly declining and women have been marginalized by the patriarchal regime, forbidden to read, write or love and valued only if they are able to procreate. They are separated into classes, including Wives, Marthas, Aunts, Unwomen, and Handmaids, distinguishable only by the color of their clothing. The Handmaids are renamed by combining ‘of’ and the name of the Commander that they have been assigned to, stripping them of any individuality.
Atwood connects the political events to show how Gilead gained control and keeps their control by establishing fear into the women. Gilead stays in control by limiting speech to religious references, keeping the women from talking about the oppression they are suffering. Additionally, women are blamed for the social issues that were present in a pre-Gilead society such as rape, abortion and adultery. Women get the blame for the issues and men do not suffer consequences since it is in their nature to cheat. Atwood uses allusions to the Old Testament and historical events to satirize the oppression of women in political, religious and social
The suffocating society of Gilead is presented where individualism is completely taken away from them, and what it means to be human has been completely eroded away from what we know today. To be human today means, to be honest, affectionate, caring, understanding and to have passions. However, being too passionate for something only leads to chaos as seen through Victor 's overpowering desire for knowledge that led to chaotic results. Offred 's identity and individualism have been completely stripped away from her as he legal rights, name and clothes have been destroyed. She 's just another cog in a machine as she is labeled as a handmaid, only valued for her "viable ovaries".
Gilman incorporates the literary techniques of tone and diction to provide the reader with a clear understanding of how the narrator falls into the beliefs of society, while she is confined and oppressed by her husband’s diagnosis of her being “Nervously Depressed”. Gilman’s use of both techniques allows the work to come together as a whole, and demonstrates the idea that women are content with living in a world were men is seen as more intelligent, able-minded and higher in standard than woman,
Imagine a nation in which its government commands by a religion where women are separated into different titles and must conceive children for their commander. Their rights from before this regime, and anything deemed unholy by the government, are a thing of the past. This situation is the one represent in the Republic of Gilead, where the rules of society and its traditions are not taken lightly if broken. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood shows that an oppressive government leads to the inevitable neglect and remiss of the rules through Offred’s characterization, irony, and flashbacks. Offred 's character development can show that her actions change .
In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Offred has a continuous search for justice for her daughter, in a society in which her idea of justice is starts as one concept and changes to one that she never expected. Margaret Atwood writes Offred as a character who was at once strong-willed, and who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Her strength is dimmed at first, when her daughter and husband are first taken from her. Her strength, however comes back in full force when she finds the opportunity to get justice for her daughter. Offred uses the motivation of her daughter to spur a rebellious side of her that disappeared when the new leaders came into power.
She knows that there are laws, but she is so desperate that she is willing to break them by suggesting this to Offred, “Maybe you should try it another way”(Atwood 204). She encourages Offred to break the law and have sexual intercourse with another man and plant it as the commander’s child. Her desperation make her take desperate actions and how she achieves to rebel against the government. The Commander the one above all and on top of the official classification of Gilead-Men. He has power and in control of the household.
Oppression in The Handmaid’s Tale Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale there are many ways in which the people of Gilead are oppressed. The government of Gilead uses fear and threats of death or violence to control its citizens. The eyes organization play a large role in the oppression of the people of Gilead. The characters do not know who they can trust and are scared to speak their own opinions.
In this written text, the emphasis will be on Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale and as well as the way Atwood portrays women and how it can be argued to show the oppression of women. The main purpose is to analyze the way women are treated throughout this book and depict why they are represented this way in the society in Gilead. Then, comparatively, observe the men’s domination over women and how they govern this society. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women are stripped of their rights, suffer many inequalities and are objectified, controlled by men and only valued for their reproductive qualities. The Gilead society is divided in multiple social group.
She is used by Commander for sex and companionship and had an affair with Nick (higher preganancy chance). Most of her actions are being forced “Which of us is it worse for, her or me?”(151) meant the sex between the narrator and commander is unbearable to the point of watching your husband having sex with another women right infront of you. Her only defiance done totally by herself is “I will use the butter later that night.” (113), everything else including escaping the Gilead, having an affair with Commander, having an affair with Nick and leaving the Commanders house are all stimulated by others. Offred represent those who does not stand against oppresion, being pushed around and used for sex.