Oppression In The Handmaid's Tale

Throughout human history, women have struggled to gain equal footing with men both legally and socially; even today, violence toward women is a prevalent issue both society and government work to combat. In Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian society seeks to counteract this violence as well as rampant birth defects with a system that completely strips women of their rights. In the world she has created, Atwood explores the theme of how persecution and oppression can be justified as protection. In the novel’s society, religious propaganda expunges leadership of all guilt and women are forbidden to read, highlighting Atwood’s connection between both the suppression of language and the suppression of women.

The propaganda
As Offred prepares for the Ceremony, she refers to herself as “a made thing, not something born” (66). She is the property of her Commander, a “two-legged womb,” an empty vessel whose sole use is to bear children (248). The society perpetuates such an attitude toward women by justifying their reasoning with Bible verses, the shortage of children, and horror stories of sexual assault intended to keep women in their place. Atwood consistently describes women as “empty” and as “things.” When Aunt Lydia speaks of the future being in women’s hands, she holds out her own, but Offred remarks, “They were empty” (47). Though these women physically bear the future of the human race, their own future is empty. Throughout the novel Atwood elicits that women are property of men—when they outlive their usefulness, they are tossed aside. The disposable attitude the society holds toward women is rooted in the government’s belief that women are necessary for the continuation of the
This government revokes women both of their choices and their access to language and, thus, knowledge. Furthermore, the government shifts blame to women—that it was their fault when they were assaulted, and that society was “dying...of too much choice” (25). The government’s solution, then, is to remove any freedom of choice for women in society. This is an attitude that can be seen today, exemplified in the enforcement of dress codes upon women that is present both in the book and in today’s society. Atwood’s idea that persecution and oppression can be justified as protection is universal. The Handmaid’s Tale is an exploration of ideas that have roots in human history and today’s culture, and it is a criticism of the human capability for justifying unforgivable