Summary:
In The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, women are oppressed by men, and right and wrong are corrupted. Atwood takes modern cultural stereotypes to the extreme by creating uniquely female societal roles.
Women in today's society are considered and viewed as less important than men; this is mostly due to the expectations men have set for these women and how women cannot escape from this subtle oppression. When the men formed the Republic of Gilead, they sought to rid society of mistreatment of women; nuisances such as pornography and sexual abuse were all outlawed in this new Republic. However, due to the culture of the dystopian society in which The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, takes place, women are oppressed by men to the point that their very ideas of what is right and wrong is corrupted.
Offred, the protagonist of the story, is a woman transformed into a "handmaid" who has experienced oppression by men in both societies. However, in Gilead, the intensity of the oppression has fundamentally corrupted women and forced them to accept where they stand in the culture. The Aunts preach to the women like Offred who experienced the transition of governments to help infiltrate them into the new culture. New women who are born into this culture have no idea that it was ever different, so they already think that how they are treated and what they are forced into is how it has always been. "They can do what they life with me. I am abject." (286). This statement by Offred shows that she folds to the pressure to fulfill the role and expectations men have set forth for her. Rather than just forcing women into certain roles, men have used Aunts to brainwash them into believing that the society and the role they play within it is normal and that there is nothing to question.
One way that the men justify to women that this hierarchical system is right is by using the Bible. "[The Bible] is an incendiary device: who knows what we'd make of it, if we ever got our hands on it. We can be read to from it, by him, but we cannot read." (87). If the handmaids were allowed to read the Bible, they have the power to use their imagination to find their own meaning from what they have read. As only high ranked males in the Republic of Gilead, specifically Commanders, can read books, this imbues them with the sole power to interpret the holy texts. By twisting the meaning of the words set down by God's followers, men can use religion and a common belief among the people to their advantage.
The particular passage that the Commander reads from is about a woman who cannot have babies, so she offers her maid, Bilhah's womb to her husband to populate the world. "She shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her." This passage from the Bible justifies the duty handmaids must fulfill. During "the Ceremony," Offred is being "fucked," as she puts it, by the Commander while Serena Joy sits and watches. Relating this back to the quote, this refers Offred to being a maid, whose only purpose was to be the vessel for Serena Joy's baby; her maid, or as in the Republic of Gilead, a handmaid.
Though women faced may troubles while under the government of the United States, the Republic of Gilead strips them of all power they once held. The men in this dystopian society hold all the power over woman and interpret what they think should be women's role in the society. During her training with the Aunts, she is taught to accept her position and even think of it as a privilege. "You see what things used to be like? That is what they thought of women, then," said Aunt Lydia after showing an old porno (118). This comment is very ironic because though the pornography represents oppression by men and portrays the power men have over women. Women are seen as just objects from that perspective. However, now, in the Republic of Gilead, women face a different kind of oppression. Men tell the women in this dystopian society what their role is - to reproduce and serve the Commanders. What society thinks of women have not changed, just how women are oppressed has changed.
The Republic of Gilead created a better environment for women in many ways, according to Aunt Lydia. "Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities to us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from." (24). This quote is very interesting because while it addresses the problems that the Republic has fixed, it also brings in a concept about freedom to and freedom from. Aunt Lydia portrays the new government as a step forward for women.
However, in reality, sine the installation of the Republic of Gilead, women have lost almost any resemblance of power. The only power Offred realizes that she has is to play at the young men's fantasies who man the gates. "They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the fill red skirt sway around me. It's like thumbing your nose from behind a fence or teasing a dog with a bone held out of its reach...I enjoy the power." (28). Offred makes a big deal about the little insignificant power she has over these young men because she is powerless otherwise. In this society, she obeys prominent men who tell her where she belongs and what she can and cannot do.
This is also ironic because while men have theoretically given women more respect by abolishing pornography and such, there are still clubs like Jezebel's where men like the Commander can fool around with other women. While the Republic makes it seem like it is rid of the problems with respecting women and relationships, loopholes in the society such as this are contradictory to those ideas.
Although Offred experiences momentary grasps of power, she still realizes that the men are the ones that really control her world. "I know this can't be right but I think it anyway. Everything they [the Aunts] taught at the Red Center, everything I've resisted, comes flooding in." (286). The Aunts preached a culture where men were at the top of the pyramid, and women formed the base. When Offred tried to resist, even my just communicating with Ofglen, she felt the consequences. "Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like. I'll empty myself, truly, become a chalice. I'll give up Nick, I'll forget about the others, I'll stop complaining. I'll accept my lot. I'll sacrifice. I'll repent. I'll abdicate. I'll renounce...I feel for the first time, their true power." (286). At this point, she is accepting to some degree the role which men have forced her into as long as can live. Fear, like in most other dystopian societies, is playing its part in converting Offred into a true believer.
Women in the Republic of Gilead are fundamentally brainwashed through the preaching of the Aunts, their inability to read and therefore come up with their own ideas of society, and by believing there is no other way to live. By forcing them to believe that the situation they are in is inevitable and right, women no longer know what is wrong and right with society. Margaret Atwood uses ideas and stereotypes of today's culture and takes them to the extreme by creating positions in society specifically for women, such as a handmaid and Marthas whose work is primarily in the house. Women in this dystopian culture cannot rebel and begin a better society because they don't know how and don't believe they can. They have obliged with the expectations of men who have limited their very ideas and thoughts by restricting literature and using Biblical texts interpreted in their favor to convince women that their rung on the social ladder will always be below men.
This is the complete article, containing 1,339 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).
