Inequality In The Handmaids Tale

Improved Essays
In a striking novel of a society that has had to grow and adjust to the threat of ending due to a sexually transmitted disease that denies women the ability to conceive, Margaret Atwood takes up writing a fictional dystopia of how our society would one day turn out to be under the same circumstances. In this totalitarian theocracy, a female’s status is assigned to her by the Republic of Gilead. This government is categorized as such for its “regime that reduces its female subjects to mere voiceless, childbearing vessels [in the name of God] … vividly display[ing] the dehumanizing effects of ideological rhetoric, biological reductionism, and linguistic manipulation.” (Jeffrey and Hunter 1) In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the importance of …show more content…
“The Republic of Gilead defines the Handmaid’s solely in terms of the condition of their ovaries, commodifying them as objectified livestock with the sole purpose of repopulating North America.” (Hogsette 264) Considering the circumstances that the country has to undergo, it is vital for a woman to be able to reproduce and repopulate but in this community it is taken to an extreme when women have to be used as sex slaves and vessels instead of just human beings. Still, in the sector of the government that controls reproduction in the community, it is biased towards males. “‘Most of those old guys can 't make it anymore,’ he says. ‘Or they’re sterile.’ … There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially.” (Atwood 61) It is obvious here when the doctor explains to Offred how the commanders are never blamed for any faults in reproduction how biased the government is towards men. Although it is rather clear to see that a majority of the problem with conception comes from their age and lack of ability to provide sperm. The government tries to protect the commanders as much as possible, it never sends them to doctor check-ups and always keeps sending handmaids accusing the women of their failure in conception. Handmaids are allowed up to three houses, if by their third house they do not conceive a child, they are sent to the Colonies with the rest of the unwomen to clean up toxic waste until they eventually die. Men in Gilead are praised whereas women are torn down. Even in the smallest ways Gilead protects the men, they give them small stupid jobs such as driving the commanders’ car, rather than getting rid of them. In some way, Gilead views women as dispensable, although they are the only hope for creating a new future and keeping the country

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Handmaid's Tale Analysis

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this society of Gilead women are categorized into six main categories that are considered to be “legitimate” and other who are “illegitimate.” Those who are “legitimate” are divided into six categories. The first category is called the “Wives,” they are at the top social level for women. They are wives of top officials; they wear blue dresses, which represent Virgin Mary. The second kind is called “Daughters”; they are natural born or adopted child of the commanders.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Women in today’s society have made leaps and bounds to becoming men’s equals, but what if in the future all the progress women have made was reversed in an instant? What if women were no longer able to hold money, hold a job, or make the most basic decisions for themselves? Their only job is to bear children and listen to the orders from men because men are the superior gender. In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Republic of Gilead exercises total control over its people, women in particular, by the use of religion as the basis for their society and the use of propaganda to restrict the citizens.…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood opened my eyes to how society could be someday, if we continue down some paths we are going. One of the main issues Atwood shows in this book was fertility and how important it is to the town of Gilead. Men have most of the power in this world and women are doing all the “typical” women roles. Women are not valued for the right reasons in Gilead, I think they are being used for their ability to reproduce.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Treatment of Sexuality in The Handmaid’s Tale The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, presents the story of Offred, a handmaid in the oppressive Gilead, a heavily theocratic nation that emerged from the downfall of the United States. This society that Atwood creates, built simultaneously on religious fanaticism and desperation to reproduce due to rapidly declining fertility rates, paints a chilling picture where women are completely at the mercy of men, as well as the identity forced upon them by their own biology. While the main idea explored throughout the book is undoubtedly the oppression of women, as well as the suppression of their individual identity in a totalitarian state, The Handmaid’s Tale examines…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For a period, women were not allowed to work and then that transitioned into there being specific roles for women to play. Handmaids have the role of child bearing for families who cannot conceive. Society’s views on sex and love shifted to fit the new ideals. Love is unnecessary and sex is for purpose and no longer pleasure. Offred has been told that, as a handmaid, she is “for breeding purposes” only (136).…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Handmaid's Tale

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This extremist attitude is channelled by the 1980s context of declining birth rates, reductions in fertility levels and increasing use of contraceptives that gave rise to these concerns. The sexual exploitation of women is perpetuated and substantiated by the government of Gilead through supposed theological validation, “Give me children or else I die,”(Genesis 30:1-3). This biblical reference allegorises the importance of childbirth and conception, thereby justifying the philosophies upon which Gilead is founded. Here Atwood draws parallels between Gilead and the dictatorship President Ceausescu under whom birth control and abortion became illegal, prophesising the possible reality of her novel. In addition handmaids are denied the right to their real name, forsaking their identity and highlighting their subservience to their Commanders.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood links the United States of the past with the present totalitarian state of Gilead through the use of techniques and themes. Atwood utilises language techniques and literary devices to build the themes of infantilisation and paternalism, acceptance, and division between women. The use of these techniques, which link the past and present, highlight the past’s influence on Gilead’s current values. Atwood’s use of figurative language, flashbacks, and repeated language to juxtapose the infantilisation of women with the domineering nature of their oppressors illustrates Gilead’s roots in the past. Prior to Gilead’s inception, figurative language is often used to portray the infantilisation of women, depicting them as “like [children]” and “small as a doll” (p. 34 & 191).…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A young woman walks down the street, completely covered in cloth from head to toe. As a female, she is considered beneath all of the men around her. She is only permitted to leave the house under certain restrictions, such as retrieving groceries. Most importantly, conceiving a child is considered the most valuable contribution she can make to society. While the scenario sounds familiar, she surprisingly does not reside in Gilead.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Feminist Theory within The Handmaid’s Tale Feminist criticism is a literary approach that seeks to distinguish the female human experience from the male human experience. Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal social structures purloined women while male authors have capitalized women in their portrayal of them. Feminism and feminist criticism did not gain recognition until the late 1960’s and 1970’s(maybe add citation here of where you found this info). Instead is was a reestablishment of old traditions of action and thought already consisting its classic books which distinguished the problem of women’s inequality in society. In the 1970’s, The Second Wave of Feminism occurred known as Gynocriticism, which was pioneered…

    • 1845 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the real world, leaders, governments and even certain countries have been trying to decrease population growth in developing countries with contraceptives and sterilization whereas in The Handmaid’s Tale they are trying to increase the population growth because of their infertility. In Gilead’s society, women are obligated to have children with men they do not care for and are forced to give them away at birth. Women are not only diminished to their fertility and ability to reproduce but they are also prohibited from thinking for themselves and using their bodies as they wish. They barely have any freedoms and their lives are limited to going to the market and the doctor. In both cases, women do not have power over their reproductive rights…

    • 1930 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ‘We’ve given them more than we’ve taken away, said the Commander.’ Do you think that women have gained under the Gileadean regime? In the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, women have failed to gain more than the life they lived before. This is a result of the regime removing their power through the elimination of rights and freedoms and relationships.…

    • 1058 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Handmaid’s Tale is a unique novel that raises awareness of society’s problems after the political uprising of Gilead and the new strict regime. The book portrays a life of a handmaid named Offred and the struggles that she goes through in her daily life. Since all women in Gilead are categorized into groups, varying from Unwomen to Wives; Offred has to serve the role of a Handmaid, which requires her to get inseminated by her husband. Handmaids have to recognize their husbands’ authority and have very little rights.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    These handmaids are indoctrinating into the ideology of Gilead. The Handmaids are taken advantage of and are constantly mistreated. The Handmaids are used as for example, like an instrument; they are used beings. They are treated as objects and nothing else, there is not any emotion shown between…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Margret Atwood’s novel "The Handmaid's Tale" published in 1985 is a brutal and unimaginable prediction of America’s future as a totalitarian state. The Republic of Gilead resorts to old fashion traditions in order to get the population back to where it once was. By recruiting fertile women as handmaids who's sole purpose is to carry children for the social elite. The government of Gilead stripped the women of any right to education, forbidding all women the ability to read and write. Instead, the use of picture was introduced for the women to distinguish one shop from another.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the story The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the United States has fallen apart. It is now the Republic of Gilead and women have lost everything. They are stripped of their money, freedoms like being able to read, family, and they can no longer work. Fertility rates have decreased, and women are blamed for it. Women who are fertile are taken to the Red Center, where they are trained on how to be a handmaid.…

    • 996 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics