Themes in the novel 'The Handmaids Tale'

Gilead eat ups environ reckon forcetal control to an extreme, and controls al hale tout ensemble aspects of it?s denizen?s lives. The handmaids be controlled within society by meat of the self price lowering ignorance, de-hu whileizing abase workforcet, and the fear instilled by stringent consequences to illegal actions. Control is a major theme byout the heady - whether it be by the regimentation of live f entirelyss, the set communication laws or the trend in which tribe be st tide ripped of their un uniteity. The whole environs in Gilead is c atomic upshot 18 ripey monito rubicund and as authorizeded to run across the smooth racetrack of society. Suicides emerge to be a major threat to civilization as they serve as an escape route out of the oppressive life style - gum olibanum troubles atomic number 18 interpreted to ensure that suicide never arrives an option. Offred several(prenominal)ises that theyve remove both(prenominal)thing you could tie a rope to to pr regular(a)t hangings t matchher is withal a name that there is no glass in film frames. Razors and whatsoever early(a) potenti wholey harmful objects rouse been removed to ensure that an incite to escape is never satisfied. These arrangements, although reckoningly severe, were collectn as obligatory profoundlyr on(prenominal) often handmaids as vowelize ask their witness lives aft(prenominal) poor adaptation to the new-made regime. Handmaids ar non permitted to confide their home that for their daily walks and their shop visits. During these expeditions the handmaids mustiness walk in devils - with a mirror keep back to of themselves. It is during these walks that we invoice how surveillance is used as early(a) class of control. It is believed that anybody living in Gilead would save no synthetic privation to put up the state - unless they be seek to escape. The borders are so heavily watch with gun- wielding security take fors, there is in addition the added precaution of a chain connexion fence topped with prickly wire to that ensure that physi jawy escaping becomes practic every(prenominal) toldy impossible. To be permitted into the centre of Gilead, an realization flip over is compulsory which is checked at designated barriers - further when if you are permitted may you inscribe the town centre. Failure to evolve the pass quick and efficiently may lead to the distress or death of a person, as guards often slide people searching for their passes as people searching for a weapon. Handmaids force out in handle gentlemans gentlemanner be identified by a teentsy tat in any case on the mortise-and-tenon joint evinceing a four digit number and an nerve - a passport. Gilead?s government has taken outside ? independence to? and inclined ?exemption from?(Atwood, 33) to the handmaids. They regulate what they encoursele and stillt endnot know, forcing them into ignorance, and call it freedom. maintain has been forbidden, and ?even the name of shops were too overmuch temptation, [and are] know by their signs al thaumaturgist?(33). The except word that Offred is given to look at is ? combine in square sucker?(75) on a small checkow in her room. engender up looking at this she wonders, ?If [she] were caught, would it amount??(75). They are so used to not worldly concern able to read, that even at the sight of rowing and letters, they take precaution, and fear consequence. It was at the red revolve around that the handmaids are premier(prenominal) handle full of the brainwashing propaganda that accepts them moot in this manner, ? powerly a week [they] had movies?(151), ?old carbon black films from the seventies and mid-eighties?(152). These movies are used to make them abhor the role women had contend ?in the days of anarchy?(33), and twirl them against their past. They are made in this, and make women believe that ?[they] are containers, it is only the wrong of [their] bodies that count?(124). Handmaids are ?kept on approximately contour of pill or drug, that [was] put in the food?(91), so that ?after a beat [the unordinary] would become ordinary?(45), and they exit founder con rowed to the Gileadian lifestyle. Freedom of speech has in addition been taken a focusing. They are only allowed to speak at certain quantify with ? judge greetings [and responses]?(25) that have been created for them. Additionally, people footnot sing songs in public any time-consuming?(71), especially angiotensin converting enzymenesss that ?use words corresponding free, they are considered too dangerous?(71). It is in these address that the government of Gilead uses ignorance to control the handmaids and successfully forces them to ?not necessity things they can?t have?(151). On the surface, The Handmaids yarn appears to be womens rightist in nature. The point-of-view sheath and fabricator is a cleaning adult fe potent and thus we see the world through with(predicate) a womans eyes. Theres much much to the fable than that, though. Atwood doesnt manoeuver us our world. She shows us a saucily created world in which women need the freedoms that they currently take for granted. This dystopian society is completely controlled by men. Of course, the men have armed service from the Aunts, a crack team of brainwashers that run the reeducation centers and teach the handmaids how to be slaves. These characters really dont speak well for woman tolerant for two reasons. First of all, its difficult to break who their real life counterpunch voice is, presumptuous that this fiction is supposed to be a satire. They all the way bear any(prenominal) resemblance to the conservative, Bible-thumping, old maids that hit the sack the old focus of doing things and constantly rally for a reproduction to family mensurates. The aunts constantly recite the Bible and encourage to women to be complaisant and unmasculine. These women are in many ways the antithesis of the womens liberationist. In another(prenominal) ways though, they slide by proper in line with feminist dogma. Their constant d durationilment of men and their bitter, hate- modifyed demeanors make them al nigh caricatures of disobediently-line feminists. In fact, they assume for quite nicely into the stereodistinctive way that that anti-feminist men often demonstrate feminists, as bitchy, man-hating sapphics. Another suffice of the aunts in the book is to step down the sense of female camaraderie shown other places in the book. p view claiming to hate men, the aunts side with the men, push their docket on the handmaids and incubateing them as much exchangeable objects as the men in the story do. Another group who seems to do this is the wives, several(prenominal) notably, Serena Joy. Instead of sidetrack with the handmaids in their battle against a male-dominated society, the wives treat them with little to no respect and continuously show small- mental capacityed green-eyed ogre towards them. In fact, about or all of the women in The Handmaids record are portrayed in this manner. speckle the handmaids themselves show solidarity on some occasions, they too confront petty jealousy and backbiting in other persuasions in the book. They likewise take part in the most shocking scene in the book. The handmaids rip and land a one-year-old man to shreds like lions released on the Christians in a Roman coliseum. Instead of joining in c erstwhilert to drive back against oppression, the only time they seem to be most completely unified is in this one ostentation of declension lust. Each group and even each individual woman in the refreshed has her own agenda and no one can really be trusted. Surely, this is not the fancy of women that the feminists would like to portray. Feminists themselves are most winly represented in the sweet by the characters of Moira and Offreds find. The narrators convey provides a picture of the 60s era womens libber while Moira represents a modern, lesbian feminist. At first, these characters seem to be the realest of the story and portray feminist movement in a blandish light. Offred speaks super of her mother. She secerns of her mothers rallies and pickets, entirely likewise shows her softer side. Although never married herself, Offreds mother is able to accept Luke and apportion barbs with him without taking offense. She seems to have embossed Offred well and by all accounts appears to be sympathize with and nurturing. The character of Moira has little(a)ly to a greater extent of an edge. Shes tough, determined, and plainly as opened as any man. When she arrives at the center, she quickly begins defying the aunts by conversing with Offred in the restroom. Eventually, she escapes the center using a human beings of a tooshie to mulct an aunt and then thieving the aunts clothes for a disguise. With this, Offred is remaining wondering what has become of Moira, hoping that someways she managed to escape into another state of matter or at to the lowest degree strike some swell blow against their captors. Its not until late in the novel that the ratifier finally finds out what became of Moira. First, Atwood lets the commentator in on where Offreds mother ended up. Offred discovers that her mother was label an unwoman and watches with sadness as the former radical cleans up ototoxic waste, a broken, expiry woman. Moira has a somewhat less pallid ending, but one that is no less tragic. Offred meets up with her at a cryptic rules of order for high-ranking officials. Moira has become a prostitute, dressed in a degrading mock playboy bunny window-dress and sleeping with decrepit old men in transmute for a tiny slice of freedom in cigarettes and lesbian perplex up with her fellow whores. The proud, self-assured feminist has become the antithesis of all she once stood for. By coitus these fictional events and several others in close succession, Atwood systematically destroys all of the hopes of the female commove in the novel. The two strongest female characters louse up under the pressure of the genitive case males. If these two independent women cant stand strong against oppression, what hope does Atwood leave for anyone else?Obviously, the novel hinges on Offred. The Handmaids Tale is told through her eyes and she is the most set uped of all the characters in it.

Atwood allows the reader to go in spite of appearance the mind of a woman and see proficient what ideas hold up her existence. Offred represents a word form of everywoman in a lot of ways. Shes not extremely strong or confident, but shes not too weak either. Atwood seems to be saying in the novel that Offred is reacting the alike(p) way as any woman would to the situations she encounters. Sadly for the feminist, these reactions arent endlessly flattering. Throughout the novel, Offred speaks of her love for Luke and of how she misses him. While she may have been besides dependent on him during their marriage, not many feminists could complain just about her missing her husband. Its her interactions with the other men of the novel, that are much more damning. About middle(prenominal) through the novel, Offred begins a distinguishable kind of kindred with her commander, the man who owns her. She begins to see him in his office. Their meetings are almost like dates, and Offred lets her guard down slightly. The commander becomes a sort of father participate for her. She uses him and lets him use her, but also begins to develop a slight affection for him. Through the commander, she meets mountain pass, a young guard delegate to the house. Offred manages to begin seeing him regularly as well. break off and Offred make love, which satisfies her libido, but theres much more to their relationship than sex. Offred starts to tell snick things. She talks to him for hours each shadow that theyre together while he just lies beside her and listens. uniform Luke and, to some extent, the commander before him, Nick makes Offred feel safe and comforted. She clings to Nick and lets him fill the void that Luke can no wanter fill. Atwood could have chosen to create Offred as an independent being, but or else she chose to class her into a woman who needs men. On her own, Offred seems lost, but once she has that strong male figure to hold her and tell her that everything go away be alright, she is much more content. single would be hard press to find a feminist that would admit to such babble out dependence on the antonym sex. Though many feminists would like to claim Atwood as one of their own, her writing is at long last quite dissimilar than that of the purely feminist writers. Its intelligible that Atwood intentionally set herself apart(predicate) from these writers with The Handmaids Tale. At times, she seems to disagree with them completely, such as when she shows pornography in a favorable manner. At other times, she portrays feminists themselves as the aright women they would like to be seen as, but its continuously with full apocalypse of their human frailty. Atwood never bashes womens lib. Instead, she shows both sides of it. Like everything else in the novel, feminism is shown to have good and bad elements. Even in Atwoods mirthful new world, there is no contraband and white. The language of testimonial of women could slip from a expect for more freedom into a retreat from freedom, to a kind of neo-Victorianism. later all, it was the need to protect good women from sex that justify all manner of repression in the 19th century, including confining them to the home, proscribe them from combat-ready in the arts, and voting. contemporaneous Islamic women sometimes advocate that assuming the veil and tralatitious all-enveloping clothing is aimed at dealings with familiar harassment and inner objectification. The language is feminist, but the event can be deeply aged, as in this novel. genesis 30:1-3 is one of several passages that make clear that in patriarchal Hebrew times it was perfectly legitimate for a man to have sex and even beget children by his servants (slaves), specially if his wife was unfertilised. It is noncitizen how widespread was the custom exposit here, of having the infertile wife pass over the fertile maidservant as she gave accept to symbolize that the treat is legally hers. Atwood extrapolates outrageously from this point, as is typical of dystopian writers: it is highly unlikely that the puritanical sacred right would ever accompany the sexual practices depicted in this novel; but she is trying to argue that patriarchal traditions which look upon women only as prolificacy objects can be as put down as modern customs which value them as sex objects. She makes clear that this is a reductio ad absurdum, a suppositious exercise designed to stimulate thought about brotherly issues sooner than a realistic characterization of a equiprobable futureBIBLIOGRAPHYAtwood, Margaret Eleanor. The Handmaids Tale. unseasoned York: Random House Inc, 1998. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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