The Handmaid's Tale Women

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The protagonist, narrator, and handmaid Offred lives in a dystopian world where a theocracy, Gilead has taken the place of the United States government, and women have lost all of their rights. Offred has been forced to become a handmaid, but dreams of escape. In the essay we will be looking at how certain themes in the novel can be applied to the wider society, more specifically how women are oppressed.

The government exerts power over women by implementing phrases and responses. They have created a Gileadean language that citizens, especially women, are legally bound to use to communicate. High-ranking officials are not restricted in their use of language, and this gives them power over other members of society. For the Handmaid’s the right to freedom of speech has been taken away, and this is to tighten the hold and power that lawmakers, like the commanders, have

This can be seen the first time she is invited into the private chambers of the commander, who is a high-ranking government official and the head of the household that Offred is assigned to. The commander wants her to play board games with him “We play two games. Larynx. I spell. Valance. Quince. Zygote. I hold the glossy counters with their smooth edges, finger the letters. The feeling is valuptuars. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it” (149) She uses the word ‘freedom’, which means that for a moment she feels that she controls the language and it does not control her. It can also be seen when Offred finds the words that are carved into her bedroom drawer “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum” which is a phrase of resistance which gives Offred a sense of ‘power’. These experiences show that the government uses language as a way to oppress women, and by controlling language they are also able to maintain control over the women, thus oppressing