Desire In The Handmaid's Tale

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George Bernard Shaw once said “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart 's desire. The other is to gain it” (Man and Superman). Within Margaret Atwood’s (1985) dystopian fiction The Handmaid’s Tale, desire is shown to be a omnipresent aspect in the theocratic military dictatorship of Gilead. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, desire can be defined as “a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen” (388). Within this novel, desire is shown to be a sense of longing for past elements of society that the characters have lost. Although authority is successfully constructed through several methods of indoctrination and dehumanization, this type of hierarchal social structure is undermined …show more content…
Throughout the novel, Atwood shows how Offred desperately desires the knowledge that she is being denied by the Gilead regime. When asked what she requests, Offred responds “Whatever there is to know […] what’s going on” (217). This highlight just how much Offred desires to be intellectually stimulated and have a clever conversation after being indoctrinated into the world of Gilead. She feels it important enough to tell the Commander this despite the risk of being disciplined. Throughout history, humans have always strived to learn and obtain new knowledge and Offred illustrates this exact ideology. Right from the early pages of the novel, it is acknowledged that a desire to pursue and obtain knowledge is an insuppressible trait linked with humanity. Not only does Offred wish to know new information about Gilead, she also wishes to escape, and thus, be able to interact with others in an intellectual manner. Atwood describes Offred’s objectives: “I intend to get out of here” (155). Offred has a desire to escape in order to be able to be acknowledged as a human being, with intelligent ideas. When given access to information from the Commander, this only intensifies her desire to escape. Offred’s situation demonstrates how it is human nature to have a desire to escape and further themselves intellectually, while being controlled. Furthermore, Ofglen, another Handmaid, expresses …show more content…
The Commander, the Handmaid, and the Guardian all long for sensual attention, which cannot be suppressed no matter how effective the indoctrination techniques may be. Furthermore, Offred and the Commander also yearn for relationships similar to those that they have lost. Finally, the Handmaids of Gilead desire to be taken seriously as intellectuals, and thus, desperately desire the knowledge they are being denied by the Gilead regime. One may wonder what famous rebellions began from a simple desire to be sexually active, or to have a meaningful relationship with another human, or finally, just to read. Joan Jett once said “Other people will call me a rebel, but I just feel like I’m living my life and doing what I want to do. Sometimes people call that rebellion, especially when you’re a

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