The handmaid Offred is the Christ figure of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, because she posses qualities such as previously mentioned. Firstly, Offred is a Christ figure because she can be described using similar adjectives as those that apply to Christ. The primary physical example would be that both are last scene at the age of thirty-three.…
The book The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood is a literary masterpiece containing a multitude of symbols concealed throughout the text, from the flowers to the clothes worn by the characters. These symbols are used to represent the purpose of the characters in Gilead, the setting of the book. The flower is a symbol for the sole reproductive role of the handmaids and the colors are used to symbolize how the characters are meant to behave; red meaning fertile, white for purity, green for service, and blue for sadness. Everything about the characters in The Handmaid’s Tale, from their names to their clothes, is used to symbolize their roles in the book.…
1.The king administered justice by turning his imaginations into facts. He made his decisions by himself without getting input from no one but himself. He built a public arena. One of the purpose of the arena was to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. Such as having two doors with a vicious tiger behind one and a beautiful lady behind the other.…
Offred is speaking about her daughter, who, when she was five had been kidnapped by the Eyes, while she was taking a bath. Before the declining birth rates and the need for handmaid’s arose, Offred was a working wife in a family of three with her husband Luke and their daughter. Offred says she is lying, being taken by the water in the tub with her.…
As hinted by the quotation, Offred felt guilty for having enjoyed the sex she had with Nick. At first, Offred agreed to have sex with Nick because of a pact she made with Serena Joy. Getting pregnant by Nick would save Offred from shipment to the colonies. However, after the act transpired, a revision occurred within Offred, which saw the return of her old identity. The identity that Offred had throughout most of the novel was a precarious one that Offred created to conform to Gilead society.…
Women have fought hard throughout history to gain equal rights, but is it possible for everything they have worked for to be ripped away? This situation is a very real one in Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood introduces a world where women are nothing more than tools. She published The Handmaid’s Tale in 1986 (Callaway 5), but Atwood’s writing career began in 1961 when she published Double Presephone. Over the course of her writing career, Atwood wrote twelve novels, six children books, sixteen poetry collections, eight short fiction collections, and five major non-fiction books (1).…
Many characters in Margaret Atwood's fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale break various rules. These characters consist of people high up in ranks like commanders to people low in ranks like handmaids. Even characters who you would not expect to break the rules do. For example, Serena Joy she is the commander's wife and also high in ranks but as soon as we meet Serena Joy in the novel she breaks one of Gilead's laws by smoking which is forbidden. During the novel, it reveals that breaking the rules in Gilead will lead to serious consequences.…
In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, Offred and Ofglen visit the Wall every chance they get to witness the hanging bodies from it. The wall is located past the church and the main function of the wall is to keep the citizens of Gilead from escaping or opposing higher authority. According to the narrator, Offred, “No one goes through those gates willingly. The precautions are for those trying to get out...”(Atwood 31). In order to keep their power, the high-ranked men of Gilead have added more security to the wall such as alarm systems and barbed wire.…
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a book about an unethical world controlled by the totalitarian government known as the republic of Gilead. The government uses fear and manipulation to control the people in that society. In fact, Gilead controls every minute detail of its citizens’ lives. Atwood shows that using fear-based tactics is effective and the government is able to maintain its power in this way; however, the author reveals that ruling by fear has its limits, as the citizens of Gilead slowly start to rebel. Thus, the author may be showing that totalitarian governments, while powerful, are not flawless.…
but the mob still managed to break into the palace to search for the Queen – who only narrowly escaped by fleeing to the King’s secure apartments through a secret passageway. Two of her bodyguards were not so lucky; their severed heads impaled on pikes served as a clear statement of the mob’s intent. The women then assembled in the palace courtyard and demanded to see the Queen. She eventually emerged, along with her two children whom she cunningly used as a human shield – but the crowd demanded the Queen face them alone. For ten excruciating minutes, Marie Antoinette stood on the balcony with her head bowed while the angry throng below screamed and pointed their muskets at her.…
The Wall is described throughout the story as a place where those executed are hung for all to see. It is a place of fear as well as mourning. While they are out shopping Offred and Ofglen run into Ofwarren who they discover is pregnant and feel she is showing off. In the Republic of Gilead being pregnant and with child is one of the most sacred thing and one of the best things in terms of being a handmaid, because it guarantees your life at least for a little while.…
The Handmaid’s tale is a feminist science fiction novel by a Canadian, and feminist writer Margaret Atwood. The story depicts psychological and physical struggle of a woman named Offred due to suppression of women by men in her society. Thus, the title Handmaid’s tale is representative of the life of Offred, the Handmaid or a female servant. This novel vividly portrays the cruelty of biological and social categorization. Handmaid’s tale takes place in a futuristic fictional society where revolutionists have wiped out the United States of America and a new totalitarian society called Republic of Gilead is established.…
The Power of Narrative Narrative is the central element in storytelling. As existence is constructed through the narrating of stories, the ambiguous nature of narrative is a position of real power to interpret history. In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, the author demonstrates the power of narrative through Offred’s resistance in a totalitarian regime that seeks to erase her individuality and, the loss of context when her tale is reconstructed by humanity. The author’s use and restriction of narrative in the Republic of Gilead demonstrates the attempt to establish existence through the documentation of stories in a society that limits individuality. In Gilead, it is evident that handmaids’ discourses are silenced by the limitations…
Feminist Theory within The Handmaid’s Tale Feminist criticism is a literary approach that seeks to distinguish the female human experience from the male human experience. Feminist critics draw attention to the ways in which patriarchal social structures purloined women while male authors have capitalized women in their portrayal of them. Feminism and feminist criticism did not gain recognition until the late 1960’s and 1970’s(maybe add citation here of where you found this info). Instead is was a reestablishment of old traditions of action and thought already consisting its classic books which distinguished the problem of women’s inequality in society. In the 1970’s, The Second Wave of Feminism occurred known as Gynocriticism, which was pioneered…
The Handmaid’s Tale is a unique novel that raises awareness of society’s problems after the political uprising of Gilead and the new strict regime. The book portrays a life of a handmaid named Offred and the struggles that she goes through in her daily life. Since all women in Gilead are categorized into groups, varying from Unwomen to Wives; Offred has to serve the role of a Handmaid, which requires her to get inseminated by her husband. Handmaids have to recognize their husbands’ authority and have very little rights.…