Preview

The Role Of Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
377 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Role Of Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood is about the feminist movement and how it would be if women were not equal to men. The book begins to describe where the women live. It takes place in the Republic of Gilead. Each women was assigned to a specific job and had no choice what to wear the color the commander said to wear. The narrator of this story's name is Offred. Offred is known as one of the Handmaid’s in this book. She is forced to wear a long red habit. Due to the low reproduction rates her job is to produce children for the elite couples that have trouble conceiving. Offred is the handmaid’s for the elite couple named the Commander and his wife Serena Joy. Serena Joy is a former gospel singing. In these camps they give
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood
    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood

    Author Margaret Atwood’s writing has been shaped by one particular movement- the push for women’s rights in the 1960s and 1970s. When Atwood was a college student, “a woman was expected to follow one path: to marry in her early 20s, start a family quickly, and devote her life to homemaking” (“The 1960s-70s”). Employers assumed that the females who did work would soon become pregnant, so ladies were unlikely to advance in their careers. What money they did earn was controlled by their husbands, or their male wardens, as females are legally subject to them. With the development of the birth control pill a few years later, women could now chase professional careers and “the double standard that allowed premarital sex for men but prohibited…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaid's Tale Analysis
    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Handmaid's Tale Analysis

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Women In The Handmaid's Tale

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On The Handmaids Tale
    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On The Handmaids Tale

    Society can both be really great and progress forward, but at times society can turn for the worst and progress backwards. In Margaret Atwood’s Fictional book the Handmaid’s Tale. The main character Offred in the Republic of Gilead as a handmaid. In the book the purpose of a handmaid is to reproduce and bear children for older, wealthier men whose wives cannot have children. In addition to being a handmaid Offred and all the women of Gilead are not allowed to read, write, not own money, or dress immodest, men however have more power being able to read, write and are able to have their own money.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 2436 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale

    Feminism has always been an incredibly relevant issue in all societies and is still no exception in today’s day and age. One of the most highly acclaimed writers of today that tackles the plaguing issue of feminism and the unfortunate belittling of women is Margaret Atwood. Among her many successful novels, poems, and other works, her masterpiece of a novel The Handmaid’s Tale emphasizes the dangers of downplaying women and their roles in society. Set in a future dystopian society, Atwood’s novel is best understood and interpreted from a critical feminist viewpoint; if the reader adapts this perspective, the novel comes to life and its message to protect women’s rights is unmistakable.…

    • 2436 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of The Handmaid's Tale
    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary Of The Handmaid's Tale

    Offred lived a normal, American life when all of the sudden, her family was taken from her so she could go have somebody else’s baby. The Handmaid’s Tale is about a woman’s tale of her life, her story, and her struggles in a new society and how she got there. This story by Margaret Atwood tells the life of Offred, a handmaid for a wealthy couple and her daily struggles trying to adapt to her new world. Offred tells how she makes deals with her Commander and his Wife with hope of getting out and how that changes her life. The progress in this book is not as one would probably describe progress, but it is as follows: the government and society had to make major changes in order to bring about the new system and laws, Gilead is thinking of and executing ways to raise the birthrate in their country, and handmaids and women in general are protected at all costs.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analysis Of The Handmaid's Tale
    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis Of The Handmaid's Tale

    “The beginning of the feminist movement in the 1960s changed her attitude toward a self-destructive mindset that she later labeled a "post-Romantic collective delusion” (“The Handmaid’s Tale”).…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Handmaid's Tale Analysis
    • 137 Words
    • 1 Page

    Handmaid's Tale Analysis

    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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Misogyny In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Theme Of Misogyny In The Handmaid's Tale

    The issue that has been persistent for as long as one can remember is Misogyny in the society. The belief that women are inferior to men has been contaminating the human mind. The issue can be commonly seen in the society in form of domestic abuse, violence, objectification in name of advertisements, and especially in the music industry where the lyrics are filled with hateful messages towards women. Even though the governing laws consider men and women as equal, but the mistreatment of women continues to be the headline of every newspaper.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Social Injustice In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Social Injustice In The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood’s 1986 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, fixates on the social injustices against women, the use of an overpowering rigid social caste system and the inescapable rise of a dominating Puritan right wing, the idea of social justice is skewed to the point of inequality. Atwood takes real world examples and exaggerates them by taking every aspect of right wing and left wing ideals to the extreme. She inherently provides a satirical view on the state of society by magnifying what is supposedly sinful and intensifying its consequences. As such, much of Atwood’s experiences with both the right and left wing are reflected in the novel.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rebellion In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rebellion In The Handmaid's Tale

    Atwood combines the use of literary techniques and form in her novel The Handmaid's Tale to effectively display two main thematic concerns - rebellion and the place of an individual. Offred's first evening with the Commander is one in which these two thematic concerns are exceptionally prevalent.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sexuality In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 129 Words
    • 1 Page

    Sexuality In The Handmaid's Tale

    When any substantial power is taken from people, they still have the capability to maintain control over themselves and have the power to rebel. Even though the handmaids appear to be hopeless, Offred sneakily uses her sexuality to gain power and control over the commander. There is a scene in the novel where Offred uses her body and sexuality in order to tease the men, she gains attention and a feeling of rebellion, letting her feel powerful and in control over men. "I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt sway around me.” Which shows that the only power Offred has left is her own body and her body language along with it, evidently displaying that even small actions like this allows her to feel…

    • 129 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Handmaid's Tale as a Feminist Dystopia
    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Handmaid's Tale as a Feminist Dystopia

    Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, written in the 1980s, is a highly complex post-modern dstopian text that explores the issues of feminism. The dystopian genre attacks the myth of a utopia, bringing all possibilities to an extreme while the term post modernism explores the consequences of monocracy on modern society and the dynamics of language. Atwood’s use of a female perspective on a hypothetical dystopian society enables her to pursue the controversy of feminism, the impact of power play in a patriarchal society on individuals and the subjective nature of narrative. A better understanding of the text can be gained from the study of Atwood’s execution of language to portray meanings and the role language plays in the narrator’s to survival oppression.…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Dystopianissm In The Handmaid's Tale
    • 2195 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Dystopianissm In The Handmaid's Tale

    The doctrine that all societies have a fear of social breakdown has led to the common desire in Literature to construct idyllic and prosperous societies. Manifestly, these ideas have also been of great interest to Atwood and Huxley as seen with their novels The Handmaid's Tale and Brave New Word. This is closely related to concepts of utopia and dystopia. Utopianism, coined by Thomas More in 1551 etymologically equates to nowhere; this was semantically ameliorated however, to any perfect place by 1610s. Dystopianism, coined by J.S. Mill in 1868 refers to an antithesis of utopia, usually characterised by oppressive social control such as an authoritarian or totalitarian government.…

    • 2195 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Handmaid's Tale as a Dystopian Novel
    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Handmaid's Tale as a Dystopian Novel

    “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood takes place in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state where women are seen as an object. Because of low reproduction rates, the Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples. Atwood wrote this novel based on a dystopian society to warn the reader about the dangers of a theocratic and oppressive society. She creates a dystopia with the elements such as; the oppression of women, the perversion of religion and the anti-feminist ideologies.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics