Freedom In The Handmaid's Tale

Furthermore, the handmaids not only do not have the immunity to have authority over their body, but are also confined for the right to choose. The protagonist, Offred takes the reader back to a flash back where women were not protected. Offred refers to the strict rules that applied and being scrupulous around men since it was likely that they would be groped at or sexually assaulted. She compares the past to present and now how it is apt for women walk on the same street without the worry of a man shouting obscenities at them speaking or touching them (Atwood, 24). She refers back to when Aunt Lydia states that “there is more than one kind of freedom. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to, now [the handmaid’s]
Therefore, in the Republic of Gilead, the handmaids are indeed limited to freedom by restricting their access to education and rights solely by, limiting all forms of social interactions, reducing them to the status of animals and denying their freedom to choose. The high ranking men hold power and control over the women and as Oscar Wilde alludes, “far more things are forbidden to [women]”. The government does not want the handmaids to be in control because the government realizes that if they grant women freedom without any limitations the handmaids will potentially interact, merge together, become protestors, rebelling against the regulations of Gilead. Similarly, in the twenty first century conflicts associated with women’s rights is still an immense issue. Women around the world in one way or another are still subjugated through sexual violence, language, knowledge or power. As a result, in order to have equal rights, men and women need to step up their game and obliterate the mistreatment of women. Since after all, we are both equally creations of