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Freedom In The Handmaid's Tale

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There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don 't underrate it. - Aunt Lydia, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, (1985) In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred (meaning Of Fred), the narrator and main protagonist, recounted her experiences as a red-dressed Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, formerly United States, a twenty-first-century totalitarian patriarchal society. This new ruling regime, run by radical Protestant fundamentalist, designed a new administration to promote a controlled procreation. Because of alarmingly low production rates, the women had been reduced to the status of child-breeders. …show more content…

What does “freedom to” and “freedom from” really mean? Aunt Lydia suggests to the women in the schoolroom that they have “freedom from” rather than “freedom to.” This engages issues around forms of freedom since that provided in Gilead is one of the protective custody rather than choice. The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel about the domination and oppression of women by men. It portrays a dystopian nightmare wherein freedom for women is completely stripped due to this new radical Protestants totalitarian regime. This new society, The Republic of Gilead, presents a satirical condition for women, oppression regime for them, and the rise of sexism. The Republic of Gilead depicts misogyny and it is pervasive to suggest that this republic is only established for the only purpose of setting up a patriarchal society. This book tells us about the oppression of women through believing them that what they are doing is for their own protection. They are lead to believe that their only importance is their ability to bear children. In this totalitarian state, women are subjugated to the point of sexual slavery. Women are also segregated into different groups based on their social function. To add an offense to this situation, a woman’s status may be classified based on their loyalty and the ability to

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