Totalitarian Society In The Handmaids's Tale By Margret Atwood

any people overlook the privileges we have today, however, these “rights” can be taken away at any time. This is what happened to the people of the fictional city, Gilead, in “The Handmaids Tale” by Margret Atwood. In this dystopian world we follow Offred as she describes the new totalitarian society. Offred compares the new world to how it was previously in a series of flashbacks, describing the fall of democracy and equality. Over time the rights of the people were taken away, stripping the citizens of their being, forcing them into working arrangements, imposing a single religion, and etcetera. It forces its inhabitants to return to former gender divisions, based off of Christian beliefs of gender roles. The government, through various …show more content…
In Gilead, a women was unable to speak her mind, they became property of men, and were forced to conform to a single religion. Women were forced to go back to school so they could learn how to live in the new regime. These schools were specified for what a women was going to do (be a Martha, maid, Handmaid, child bearer, or Wife, “free woman”), but regardless of the school, they women were taught Christianity, the chosen religion of Gilead, and told that they were worthless, by the instructors and by the handpicked selections of the Bible. This brainwashed them into believing these phrases, and mentally brought them to a state where they assumed they were the helpers to man, and should act accordingly (feminine). The new society told women they were the cause of wrong in the world and backed it up with lines from the Bible, steaming their worthlessness from Eve disrespecting the Garden of Eden. Their speech was also censored because if they spoke their mind they would receive harsh punishments. Women became property to men as well. They relied on men to support them but, the unlucky women who were not married to the commander became his property, or rather slaves to him. They lost their names hence, Offred, shortened from “property of Fred”. The woman had to live with man, but also follow his every word. In the novel, Offred visits the Commander in the night, although she technically has the choice to stop visiting him, if she does, she faces the threat of him telling lies about her, and having her killed. Enslaving women to men, made them oppressed by them, and some even devoted themselves to please men, reverting to gender stereotypes the previous generation demolished. Finally, people were forced into a single religion, meaning they had to go against all they knew and believed or die. This took away a person’s