The Handmaid'S Tale Essay

The novel The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is a dystopian novel in which the protagonist Offred is cut off from any outside information and is supposed to assume that she is constantly being spied on. Offred is a handmaid and is only valued for her ability to produce offspring as the world she lives is suffering from declining birth rates. Atwood incorporates several features of dystopia such as the idea of power, totalitarianism, and war. Atwood also includes the features…

Living in a city with constant surveillance would drive anyone to paranoia. This is exactly what happens in Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. In this novel about a handmaid named Offred, the multiple strategically placed methods of surveillance drive her to moments of senselessness and cause her to lose sight of control, individuality, and independence. Gilead has several methods of surveillance set up throughout their community. First, they have the ominous Eyes. These are people…

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the idea of… Offred is a Handmaid whose sole purpose in the society of Gilead is to reproduce by having sex with a man known as the Commander. However, the Commander has a designated Wife known as Serena Joy, and the Wives of the Commanders cannot produce children due to infertility. These two women, existing both separately and together in a lifeless world with a declining birth rate, interact in subtle yet strained ways. In a particular scene…

Women’s Support for Patriarchy: When Things Fall Apart from Within In The Handmaid’s Tale, author Margaret Atwood argues that the success of patriarchy is built not only on the obedience of but also on the support from women, who are used as the most effective weapon against themselves. By depicting the Wives who seem to be adamant supporters of patriarchy but suffer as pathetic victims as well, the Aunts who brainwash the handmaids and also abuse them physically and mentally, and the working…

challenges she faces only to be victorious in the end. Women, such as African American slaves, can relate to Offred because these women have dealt with verbal abuse, inequality, and sexual encounters with their owners. A student described The Handmaid 's Tale as “one of the most fascinating and compelling novels she had ever read. She became so wrapped up in the novel that she found it difficult to put the novel down. She felt she was alongside Offred, experiencing everything that Atwood 's…

language is oppressive. Some have freed thousands of people with an outstanding speech, while others have destroyed lies and created fear with a few words. Both The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margret Atwood and Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson, explore this and how language is used as a tool of power within in societies. In The Handmaid’s…

of women by men remains to be a perpetually timeless topic in literature and discussion. The history of women, as a group, is a dark one and the only one that continues to persist in every civilization. Similarly, Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, exhibits how the oppression of women exists in a society when women are valued only for their functionality, when there is a difference in rights for men and women, and when a society holds very strong conservative principles. The author’s…

Margaret Atwood's, The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian style novel published originally in 1985. Set in a city in what used to be in the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead, this alternative future state had the democratic government overthrown and replaced by a theocratic fundamentalist governing force. In this society of declining fertility rates, fertile women are elected to become Handmaids; 'ambulatory wombs' that reproduce for the 'infertile' wives of privileged couples that…

The Commander In the beginning of the book, Offred notices the Commander standing right outside what she now refers to as “her” room. He has his back to her and is peering intently inside of the room. Offred instantly feels that her privacy is being violated just as he is violating the rules stating that he is not to be there (49). That was the first time that Offred encountered the Commander. The Commander’s motivation was to see who the new woman was that moved into the previous mistress's…

When reading The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood capitalizes on the uses and misuses of language in Gilead, as well as our society. In the book, she demonstrates that language is vital for any form of power, whether in the privacy of a bedroom, or in the public streets of the republic. Atwood demonstrates how language can undermine the human condition, namely self identity, community and self expression. However, the use of language that can enrich lives, can revitalize memories or communities…