Preview

Language Usage by Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2355 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Language Usage by Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale
English assignment 2.
Explore how Atwood uses language to develop the major themes and characters in the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, and consider the effect this language use has on the reader using appropriate terminology (such as theme, image, point of view, tone etc).

Explain how tensions in the text are developed, illustrating this by close reference to the text. Apply a range of terms relevant to practical criticism (such as psychoanalytic reading, Lacanian perspective).

The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian novel set in a fascistic future America. The book primarily explores themes of women’s subjugation and what could potentially happen if an extremist Christian group took over the U.S. The Handmaids Tale explores themes of women and the various means by which they gain agency. This essay will look at how Atwood uses language to create different tensions and themes. It will also look at how feminism is used in the Handmaids Tale.
In the Handmaids Tale, nearly everyone has had their identities striped. Although the more powerful have more privileges than others, all of the others have been renamed and repositioned. The body and its functions, especially the fertile female body, have become more important than education, personality or mind.
In the society of the Handmaids Tale, even the powerful live very restricted lives but the Handmaids are more worse off than most. The Handmaids are confined to their bedrooms except for sanctioned outings to grocery stores. Trapped by their low social statuses and fertile bodies, Handmaids barely get to do anything. Feminism originally referred to equal rights for women. The first wave of feminism began in the nineteenth century and was covered with the sexual division of labour. The second wave of feminism started in the 1960’s and was originally known as the women’s liberation movement. In the Handmaids Tale, different roles of the women in the society are explained. The handmaid’s Tale is a straight



Bibliography: Jamshaid, O,2001, Online. Available on: http://cbhandmaidstale.wetpaint.com/page/Omer+Jamshaid+-+Marxism http://schol.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/the-handmaids-tale-narrative-structure/ http://membres.multimania.fr/fredy8/CriticalApproches.html#LANGUAGE Geddis, D, 2001 Online. Available on: http://www.thesatirist.com/books/HANDMAID.html http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/handmaid/characters.html Accessed 05-12-20112 http://www.gradesaver.com/the-handmaids-tale/study-guide/major-themes/ Accessed 01-12-2012.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margret Atwood uses symbolism to illustrate the handmaid’s role in the society of Gilead. The handmaids are the women who had broken law of Gilead, and were forced into the role of a surrogate mother for a higher ranking couple. The handmaids had no rights or free will. They were under constant surveillance and this caused them to be very cautious. The author characterizes most handmaids as a tentative and distrustful, which is perhaps why Offred never puts in words the magnitude of her discontent with her new life, because it’s possible she doesn’t truly trust the reader. The author uses symbols such as the handmaid’s dress-code, a pigs ball, and even the handmaids names to give the reader a sense of the handmaid’s imprisonment.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author offers that Handmaids Tale, “Atwood’s novels became part of a new wave of fiction writing by feminist who wrote both to entertain and to dramatize the plight of women.” He goes on about all the contributing factors that inspired the new fiction writing. He covers the plot and gives quotes from the book specifically from the women and their perceptions. He goes on to explain the different categories of women and their roles. The confinement and objectification of women are evident in the analysis. Government and religion are discussed in great detail and their part in Gilead societies. The religion influences the government entirely and women pay the price. Rape is discussed is perceived as being provoked that women ask for it. The…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The feelings of the ladies in Gilead is parallel to the emotions of the females in the 1960s and ‘70s. Both report to a male “guardian” who have no legal right to property or money. Also, in each society, it is difficult or forbidden for women to hold an occupation. By creating a realm of female suffrage in The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood was able to criticize the social issues of anti-feminist viewpoints that she witnessed growing up. Although women have more liberties today, the message of The Handmaid’s Tale should not be forgotten- no gender alone can run the…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “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.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood takes place in the Republic of Gilead, in which women are placed in certain groups and stripped of their identity. Gilead focuses on bringing back old religious aspects into life by dividing individuals into biblical groups. The women especially the main character Offred is completely stripped of her name and possessions as well as being forced to not be able to talk, read, or write. In Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the government of Gilead uses religious fear tactics in order to turn women against each other and strengthen their power.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Once the equality crumbles within Atwood’s society, all the power and items are immediately taken away from the women. Moira describes the new situation to Offred by explaining, “Luke can use your Compucount for you, she said. They’ll transfer your number to him, or that’s what they say. Husband or male next of kin.” (Atwood 178-179). Much like the women in Pride and Prejudice, the women in The Handmaid’s Tale are revoked of the privilege to have their own property. Now with no property, the women are left under the rule of men and ultimately powerless and suffering the oppression of male…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood depicts a dystopian society where the United States has been taken over by a monotheocracy and transformed into the country of Gilead. The majority of the woman in this society have been split into three basic categories: Wives, Marthas, and Handmaids. There are also Econowives, Aunts, and Unwomen. The main character, Offred, is a Handmaid. The Handmaids’ sole purpose in this society is to provide babies for powerful households where the wives are deemed infertile. Throughout the novel a struggle can be sensed between most of the women. In The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood demonstrates the way that oppressors will use tension between minoritized groups to distract from their oppression.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Instead of simply standing by and further going along with the unethical treatment towards women, people began to speak up and no longer allow for the discriminatory government to keep reign. Coincidentally, Atwood’s literary appearances during this time established her writing style and craft. Although she’s from Toronto, the Women’s Liberation Movement played a potential role in Atwood’s future works, such as “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Jean-François Vernay also advocates that the historical context of the novel as a “critical feminism…of feminine resistance to patriarchy” which correlates the the movement (Vernay). Since Atwood witnessed the movement and was able to watch the progressive change from a considerably conservative to a more liberal society towards women, she channels those experiences into her literature as a way to prevent the negative aspects of a conservative perspective to infringe on women’s rights again. For example, in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the main character, Offred, is essentially imprisoned by her government which is a parallel to how women were treated by the U.S. during Atwood’s time. Although comparing the misogynistic society in which Offred is surviving in to the U.S. during the 60’s is…

    • 2436 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Figurative language was used by Margaret Atwood, through the persona of Offred, to illustrate The Handmaid’s Tale. Figurative Language consists of similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole and idioms.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Because the society views the handmaid's as property, they aren’t allowed basic freedoms, “I’d like to be able to open the window as wide as it could go” (Atwood 55).…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaid's Tale

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing texts forces us to question our values in the context of the author’s zeitgeist and our own. The dystopia novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), written by Margaret Atwood, and the film adaptation Children of Men (2006), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, both examine the abuse of power by totalitarian government regimes which come about as a result of chaotic disasters. These oppressive governments’ abuse of their given power creates a dystopic world, and with it come restrictions to individual freedom. By viewing the two texts together, we are able to gain a greater understanding of the composer’s context.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But the main two are “The theory of the political, economic, and also social equality of the sexes” and “Organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests as well”. (Merriam-Webster) Feminism has been around since god knows when. Feminism was so bad that African Americans had more rights than white women did at a certain point in time. African Americans had the right to vote in the 1870’s. Women had to wait a whole fifty years after African Americans…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood tells the struggle of a woman in a society built for men. When the country of Gilead tore down what was once known as the United States and built a place where women were silenced and oppressed. I this place children are so rare that women who are fertile are forced to provide children for the wealthy that have none or die. All those who didn’t agree with the government are killed. Though while men might possess all of the power, it is not distributed equally. A lot of whom, the men in the book are, is based off how some men choose to operate in society. This is shown by the way Nick and the Commander act, what they stand for, and the way the professor acts at the end of the book. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood presents three different men to represent the differing power dynamics in patriarchal societies.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaid’s, despite being told that being silent is better and there is dangers in evil talking, communicate with each other with whispers, touch and lip reading. Even though these women appear to be passively following the orders of Gilead, they reclaim their identities in the codes the make- up, full of “ silent lips, looks, smiles, whistles, and winks” (The Handmaid’s Tale…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel The Handmaids Tale, author Atwood creates a world where access to all forms of language is a privilege. The oppressive society of Gilead strips women of their engagement in forms of language such as, reading, writing and even restricts how they speak. Which, naturally made language a desire by women, because it's degrading to not have freedom of speech. Atwood utilizes literary elements point of view, dialogue and diction, to convey how powerful language is in this world.…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays