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Gender Roles In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

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The confinements of gender roles do not allow people to reach their full potential due to the lack of choice and self-identity that comes with a set of rules set and encouraged by societal standards. This idea is present in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale with the idea that from the lack of choice comes acts of rebellion against the government in protest of the roles that may not be wanted by all. Forced gender roles also cause the Gilead citizens to remain poised and proper in their roles out of fear, which in turn contributes to both genders being degraded by one another in order to protect themselves from being punished. Due to this, society would be destined to become heteronormative and leave no room for any variation among citizens. The importance placed on both genders fulfilling very limited and strict roles in The Handmaid’s Tale creates a miserable society with unfortunate consequences. The ever-looming presence of gender roles that causes much misery had the Gilead citizens stuck in the mindset of women must do one thing while men must do another. An example of this attitude is present in the Commander and his feelings towards Offred, as in the …show more content…

From the forced gender roles, acts of rebellion rose in a meager attempt for the citizens to fight back. The citizens appeared to be obedient, but this was just fear in disguise. This fear was constructed by the Gilead was propelled by placing people in gender constraints, and both men and women were subjected to criticism about deviations from their roles that was no fault of their own. Society became dominated by heterosexuality and everything different from that became erased and penalized. If the mutilating stress of gender roles continue to be placed upon humanity, our society may be looking at a similar series of tragic

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