How Does Atwood Use Power In The Handmaid's Tale

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.” .Power is presented as a central theme by Atwood and Chaucer in each respective texts, whilst their female protagonists, are victims of patriarchy; they are able to deviate from the norm of subservience and lack of control assigned to women in the society. In essence, both authors are able to create a compelling distinctive voice for the protagonist. Chaucer is able to adopt a satirical approach through the wife’s narrative to explore how power is assigned
The reader is instantly made aware a war which ‘cannot intrude except on television.’ The verb ‘intrude ‘in its simplest form has strong connotations of imposition and force suggesting that Gilead’s power as a state is predominantly insidious, which fuels their ability to keep the war she refers to at a distance. There is something distinctly Orwellian about a world where a war is apparently being waged but where this might be happening, the identity of the combatants and the reasons for the conflict are not fully revealed because of the power of the state. The abstract noun ‘heart’ delivers the metaphorical sense that emphasises Gilead as a centre of power. Instead of power to be used to make the state better and provide protection for the citizen, their lack of care emphasises the abuse of power taking place.Offred’s rhetoric ‘we’ to refer to her and Luke, provides us with the suggestion that in her past she was privileged enough to dictate her affiliations and actions similar to Alison who was allowed to do the same when with her ‘goode housbondes’. The theme of power is shown through the declarative ‘Gilead is within you’ this expresses that is not merely a place, it is a state of mind; the fact that it is ‘within you’ further indicates its extended power to infiltrate and possibly possess and control its inhabitants cerebrations .This description, coupled with the directive by