Gilead

novel, the narrator and protagonist, Offred is a Handmaid in the “Republic of Gilead.” Handmaids are female servants, who supposedly are fertile and forced to bear children for the elite infertile couples. While living in the “Republic of Gilead,” Offred undergoes various adversities to where she is left to feel inferior. Through Offred painful physical and psychological burdens of her daily life in the “Republic of Gilead,” Atwood effectively communicates her theme that inequality of the sexes…

available.”(Random House for High School Teachers). In this same interview, Atwood says that Gilead is a regression to the Puritan period and the text represents that with present-day characteristics. She states the Puritans did not only come to escape religious persecution but to establish a theocracy where dissent would be dealt with harshly. (Random House for High School Teachers) Much like we see in Gilead, Moira’s beating after her attempted escape and the “Salvaging” are examples of…

this story contains such a government. In The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood, she demonstrates that some ideologies lead to the suffering and oppression of others as shown by the beliefs and practices of the Republic of Gilead. The main protagonist, Offred is forced into procreating due to falling birth rates in the country and has to find a way to survive the highly oppressive government. Relevant in this Trump era Atwood’s book is effective in its use of plot,…

The only thing wrong with The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, is that it had to come to an end. After deeply analyzing this wonderful novel and writing numerous papers on it, I still wanted to learn more about certain characters and of life in Gilead. Throughout the novel there are many addresses to Offred's husband, Luke, with only a vivid explanation of what had happened to him. My fan fiction wanted to elaborate on Luke’s story, by immersing the reader into the Lukes own shoes through his…

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 Handmaid’s Tale In Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”, the Republic of Gilead, a strict Christian theocracy, has overthrown the American government. One of the first acts of the regime was to take away any means women had of supporting themselves; fired from their jobs, bank accounts suspended, all rights given to their immediate next male of kin. As it gains more power, Gilead denies women the right to read and all access to technology, beyond the occasional biased news program,…

Atwood’s familiarity with the power of literature materialized from her enlightening professor Perry Miller, who taught her American Romanticism at Harvard University in the early 1960’s. Perry Miller was an admirable teacher who Atwood dedicated The Handmaid’s Tale to after his death (Sullivan). From under his tutelage, Atwood began to evaluate and understand the connection between literature and power structures as she asserted, “it was a big eye opener for me” (Sullivan), because from him she…

To what extent does Atwood portray women as being responsible for their own oppression in the Handmaid’s Tale? Explore this with reference to use of language and structure. Atwood presents the women in Gilead as being responsible for their own oppression. At the time of the novel’s creation, the conservative governments lead by Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher were threatening to return to a patriarchal society with the nuclear family at its core. Atwood wanted to make it clear that women…

The laws of Gilead are shaped after strict interpretations of the Bible. The laws take away the freedoms of both men and women. Men and women, in all positions, must watch what they say and are not allowed to reference their past lives. The disbandment of the Constitution…

forced to wear in The Handmaid’s Tale is designed to shelter them from the glances of men, which demonstrates the cultural fantasy of women needing to protect their innocence. All the women in Gilead are required to wear outfits that both reflect their…