The Struggle Between Men And Women In The Handmaid's Tale
Imagine living in a world where roles are given, freedom is taken, and you must abide to the rules unjust to everyone. Would you fight back, or reluctantly follow these oppressive rules? Offred is an independent and emotional woman who is forced into labor. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, women are forced into certain labor based on their fertility and status in this new society. Both men and women have become oppressed for the sake of the country. Offred is a handmaid given the task to procreate with a Commander. She is one of many of the women who are basically imprisoned into labels and must abide by many limiting laws. She is given multiple options to break the rules by people who, even though they are blessed, also …show more content…
The Commander and his Wife have high social status and are the most blessed in this new society. They are given so much privileges, yet they still break rules. The Commander and his Wife hardly get affected by the new regime and its oppression towards everyone. Yet this oppression is the reason why they still break the rules. Serena is fed up with Offred being forced to have a child for her. She decides it is best to break the rules and tells Offred “ Maybe you should try another way?” (Atwood 205). She’s willing to break the rules and have Offred become pregnant. She does this because she is upset to have someone else birth their child. She, like other high class citizens, is displeased on these new rules. The Commander and his club members also feel this way. He meets with Offred in secret because “what he wants is intimacy” (Atwood 211). The Commander continues to meet Offred to read, play Scrabble and even go to Jezebel’s. He knows doing this would result in his dismissal of his position or even death for both of them. He continues to meet with Offred regardless. He ignores this because he yearns for something the past took away. The freedom to feel and experiment. This dystopia continues to greatly affect the society, regardless on who benefits or
The Handmaid's Tale Feminist Analysis
649 Words | 3 PagesThe novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a story about a society set in a future world where women’s rights have been revoked. Many values change with this new regime of controlled women and strict laws. Despite the changes in the world it maintains many conservative, religious beliefs while also containing liberal, feminist beliefs simultaneously. Society in the futuristic world of Gilead is structured heavily off of readings from the Bible and traditional views of gender that have been in place for a long time. An example of the Bible being an important part of society is the idea of the Handmaids came from a passage in the Bible about two women, Rachel and Leah.
Essay On The Oppression Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale
1620 Words | 7 PagesThroughout history, women have often been subjected to prejudice and an inferior status to men. Due to sexist ideologies of men believing that women are not capable of controlling their own lives, women have often been reduced to the status of property. This concept is prominent in many pieces of literature to demonstrate the struggles women have to go through in a predominantly, male structured world. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author illustrates a woman’s battle in an extreme society ruled by men to express the misogyny occurring in the time period when it was written, 1894. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia summarizes Atwood’s story as one that “depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property.”
Femininity In The Handmaid's Tale
1008 Words | 5 PagesThroughout the novel, aphorisms play a large role in depicting the role of women as subservient to their male counterparts. By altering distinct aphorisms from the Bible and then locking it away from women, the male leaders of Gilead use the Bible to impose their rules and views. These modified sayings are instrumental in the effort of the subjugation and indoctrination of Handmaid’s. Although Offred resists conforming to such brainwashing, her constant references to Aunt Lydia's precepts are indication of the success of such tactics. One saying in particular, “Modesty is invisibility” (Atwood 28), is so indoctrinated in Offred that she conforms to the doctrines and rules of Gilead without hesitation.
Control Of Women In The Handmaids Tale
678 Words | 3 Pages“You wanted a women 's culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies.” (Atwood 124) Offred is looking back on her past life to a story her mother once told her.
The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood
1101 Words | 5 PagesOver the course of the novel offred goes from an obedient handmaid to a careless, desperate rule breaker. In chapter 11 when a visit to the doctor finds offred faced with a decision to have a baby with the doctor or not she declares, “it is too dangerous… No. I can’t” ( Atwood 61). In this situation, Offred 's decision to not break the rules shows how scared she is of the consequences and how obedient the regime has made her.
Political Issues In The Handmaid's Tale
988 Words | 4 PagesThe subjugation of women is evident in the Gilead system as each Commander is given a handmaid whose name is “Of” the Commander’s name. Handmaids have no identity of their own and are similar to sex slaves at the mercy of
Conflict In The Handmaids Tale
1436 Words | 6 PagesConflict can be described as the struggle between two opposing forces, whether the forces being person vs person, person vs self or person vs society. Good examples of conflict can be found in almost any book. Margaret Atwood’s novel, the Handmaid’s Tale is a source of all three types of conflicts. The Handmaid’s Tale is about a society where females are given specific duties and are restricted from reading, writing, talking to others and looking at themselves in mirrors. The protagonist, Offred whom is also the narrator in the novel faces conflicts with herself, with other people, and the society that she lives in.
Examples Of Rebellion In The Handmaid's Tale
711 Words | 3 PagesThe Commander and Offred’s relationship is non-existent at first, but then it develops over time. They start initiating a secret affair in his office which is forbidden against both of them. They are not allowed to be near each other because it’s
Injustice In The Handmaid's Tale
1482 Words | 6 PagesIn The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates a quizzical protagonist, Offred, in a dystopian, totalitarian society where fertile women are only a mere vessel for child birth. Every month during Offred’s menstrual cycle her Commander, Fred, and his wife Serena Joy perform detached intercourse while Serena holds Offred’s hands. The handmaids of the Republic of Gilead are not allowed to use their mind for knowledge nor take part in formal society. They are but the vacuous-minded property to their Commanders and their infertile wives. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred discloses the day to day moments and her commicalOffred had once lived in a world where she was her own person with a job and a home with a family of her own but now she lives under unfortunate circumstances that disable her from being a true, soulful human.
Rebellion In The Handmaids Tale
978 Words | 4 PagesShe 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.
Theme Of Power In The Handmaids Tale
1504 Words | 7 PagesIn the handmaid's tale, the Handmaids are treated poorly, making the person no longer themselves. The reader learns that Offred is being told what to do and has no say for her opinion, since it is against the law to go against the government. According to the handmaid’s tale, "You go out through the door and turn right. There's another door, it's open. Go up the stairs and knock, he's expecting you.
Gender Roles In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale
1035 Words | 5 PagesHowever, she is unhappily trapped in this new society she advocated for, where her hands have to endlessly knit for wool scarves and also touch flowers that mock her sterility. She has no choice but to support Offred’s and the Commander’s Ceremony for the future of the household. Through illustrating women who do not show solidarity to their gender, Atwood wants the reader to realize how they are also a product of their society, caught in their gender
Rebellion In The Handmaid's Tale
801 Words | 4 PagesThe Commander’s wife, Serena Joy, is shown to be living a horrible life, and we can see she despises Offred. In fact, through an act of desperation, Serena tells Offred, “ I was thinking of Nick” (Atwood 205). Serena previously had said that maybe the Commander couldn’t have kids. She then does something risky by suggesting Offred sleep with Nick, to see if she then gets pregnant. By Serena’s actions, we can tell she desperately wants a baby, so that way Offred can leave as soon as possible.
How The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood Dehumanize Women
981 Words | 4 PagesSome of these methods include destroying identity through classification, objectification, and indoctrination. Most women of Gilead are sufficiently repressed that they seem to accept their assigned roles, at least outwardly resigned to their fate. Atwood uses gender roles in The Handmaid’s Tale to show the lengths to which misogynistic totalitarian governments will go, to protect their dictatorships. The Republic of Gilead is a hierarchical society which requires complete submission of women to men. By taking away women’s paid jobs, confiscating their property, draining their bank accounts, and giving them no recourse, the male leadership leaves women in a fully dependent and subservient position.
Patriarchy In The Handmaid's Tale
1122 Words | 5 PagesPrior to the revolution Offred had a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship with her husband, Luke. This contrasts when the Commander makes his advances on Offred, as his advances are virtually unavoidable by Giledean law. Offred describes when the pair set off on an adventure to a club for the Commanders, his request for a kiss was a “sheepish one” and he asks for one but only “‘As if you meant it’” (Atwood 163). Offred shows pity for the men.
More about The Struggle Between Men And Women In The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale Feminist Analysis
649 Words | 3 PagesEssay On The Oppression Of Women In The Handmaid's Tale
1620 Words | 7 PagesFemininity In The Handmaid's Tale
1008 Words | 5 PagesControl Of Women In The Handmaids Tale
678 Words | 3 PagesThe Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood
1101 Words | 5 PagesPolitical Issues In The Handmaid's Tale
988 Words | 4 PagesConflict In The Handmaids Tale
1436 Words | 6 PagesExamples Of Rebellion In The Handmaid's Tale
711 Words | 3 PagesInjustice In The Handmaid's Tale
1482 Words | 6 PagesRebellion In The Handmaids Tale
978 Words | 4 PagesTheme Of Power In The Handmaids Tale
1504 Words | 7 PagesGender Roles In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale
1035 Words | 5 PagesRebellion In The Handmaid's Tale
801 Words | 4 PagesHow The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood Dehumanize Women
981 Words | 4 PagesPatriarchy In The Handmaid's Tale
1122 Words | 5 Pages