Essay on Theme of Feminism in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Introduction

Margaret Atwood's novel on Handmaid's tale is termed as feminist because it talks about a more controlled world where women are pushed towards darkness by the injustice in the society. It also shows how women have to break some identities in the community for them to live in peace. They are also objectified for sexual pleasure and meant for household chores such as cleaning clothes and sweeping the compounds. The novel Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood contains more information on passages that may be interpreted as criticism of certain kinds of feminism. Since some women had to oppress fellow women, to achieve the sense of satisfaction and feel equal to men (Atwood 12). The oppression encountered by the women in the Gileadean society is the primary focus of the novel. The paper shall focus on feminism as it has been exposed in the Gileadean community by showing how women have realized they are suffering at the hand of men.

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Language

Margaret in her novel shows some cases where language use is restricted and used as a tool to oppress some citizens in the government. In the Gilead society language use is limited to oral communication and all written words are said to belong to men domains in that society. For this case, women are neither allowed to read nor write, and even some things like shops' name are termed as many temptations to them(Atwood 125). Offred also longs for a different language for small talks and even talks which she's denied. The denial of the right to read and write for offred is an impossible effective way of controlling the inhabitants of Gilead, and this language use restriction also leads to limit to free thoughts in the society. The handmaids are also denied the access to their real names, they cannot even choose the names to describe them and they have thus lost the control over their own. This idea of control through the language and also the oppression for the word use is a tool mainly used throughout the world by dictatorial regimes.

Class

Different functions of men and women in Gilead society define them. The society assigns every citizen a particular task where the different classes are identified by the uniform they wear. The commander's uniforms are coded black as their wives wear blue and the handmaids put on red meaning that the decision on whether the person is worth respect is made whenever their uniform color is seen according to the societal rules of the Gilead (Malak, 7). Classes of women in this society are linked to the economic and social status, for instance, Econowife will never be the wife of a commander and handmaid will never serve in the Econowife's household. Another factor which determines the class of women in the places they are accorded to sit during the social gatherings. Wives and the daughters of high-class officials in the society have their rank woven chairs on the right side, the galleries with concrete railings are then set for lower-ranking women and the handmaids (Atwood 213).there also exist a class structure in the Gilead society were different people in different classes have different opportunities and freedoms. Wives of high-ranking officials in the society can move to any place of her interest for leisure, but this is very different for the handmaids as they only leave the house when performing various task

Women and Childbearing

Women' control on their reproduction in Gilead society is oppressing and dehumanizing. The worthiness of a human in this society is determined by her ability to give birth since many are rendered sterile resulting from both nuclear and chemical pollution. As a result of this, the few fertile women are turned to handmaids and used as sexual objects to deliver babies to the commanders' families.(Atwood 273).the importance of having children to womanhood as opposed to manhood is illustrated by the way Gilead society considers the failure to conceive a baby as women's fault.

Self-Control

Women are denied the control over their bodies as depicted be offered in the novel; she said she longed for the life she had before the revolution which led to the establishment of Gilead society. The control she had over her body and her space has been taken away from her. The Gilead disciplinary technologies have been established to condition women to become intelligent as expected by men (Miner 148). This move is meant to reinforce the idea of human beings as docile creatures, meaning they have a nature of being submissive to be controlled. This disciplinary technology is intended to monitor a woman movement, talk, and thoughts. This is why despite being controlled by the society and the Gileadean technologies, Offred experienced a bodily awakening and started to resist the manipulation in her society. She was craving for freedom that she should be able to lead a life where every move does not monitor her and conditioned to meet the expectation of individual members of the society. She believed that her identity as a woman in the society was enough and she should be appreciated with or without her flaws, hence had to resist the oppression (Pettersson 20). The woman body is seen as a national, and through government functions, the hierarchical society determines that women of different levels should wear different colors of dresses. Different categories of women are forced to dress according to their status in the society. There are seven categories, and each has a color prescribed for them by the government, for instance, wives and Handmaid to dress in blue and red respectively. This technique is to ensure women can be easily identified and treated differently based on the class they reflect (Stein 270). Such oppression where women are given uniform clothing per class is demining, and Offred was not willing to tolerate such treatment. Women are also treated as trophies since they are assigned to the leading men of Gilead as rewards. For instance, the fertile women are sent to the commander's house as prizes as the Handmaid. Once she is done giving birth to that house, she is sent to another one, and the cycle continues. Women were kept like animals, and according to Offred they were being fed and fattened like big which was a tradition for the ideal body of a woman during their days. Women in this story have lost autonomy and only operates at the mercy of men who have dominated the society. Offred revealed that these experiences were worse for women in the lower class who are exploited without care by the men in the society. These women have nobody to stand-up for their rights, not even a man since their class does not have value in their totalitarian society. It was unfortunate that Aunts were not allowed to dress in a manner that exposed their feminine body parts, as it would send a signal to men that she needed to be raped.

Women are Led to Complacency

Atwood suggested that in a totalitarian society people will endure oppression willingly so long the ruling system allows them some freedom. For instance, Offred stated that mothers were saying that they were astonished by how much they can endure as long as they get slight compensation (Hsieh 4). Offred in her relationship with Nick is a revelation of what woman could endure for being given little tokens. She was oppressed, but all the experiences were washed away by the physical affection and companionship she received, to ease the pain she was undergoing as a woman in the Gilead society. She even started feelings safe at the hands of the commander such that when Ofglen asked her to collect some information that would use to land the commander in trouble she refuses to comply (Zarrinjooee and Shirin 68). Therefore, women exist in Gilead as agents of the totalitarian government, since they willingly face the oppression and are not showing signs for wanting to resist since they have been blindfolded by the little rewards which should be their rights. For instance, any wife should receive free companionship from the husband, but in Gilead they have to work and earn it, symbolizing the manipulation at the highest end (Kirkuk 14). It is unfortunate that other women feel relieved by oppressing fellow women just to make themselves powerful. For instance, Serena Joy does not have power in the male-dominated society, and while she craves for it, she is limited to exercising it within her household. Thus, she oppresses Offred which gives her delight as she feels authoritative in such encounters. The women refer to as Aunts, for instance, Aunt Lydia and her team have been mandated to watch and identify any woman showing signs of a rebellious attitude and be dealt with promptly before infection others with such ideologies. This situation reveals that for Gilead's women to be moved out of the bondage men have forced them to endure it would be almost impossible, as they are the same instruments used to facilitate their suffering.

Conclusion

The Gilead society is full of male chauvinism and women do not mind supporting such a lifestyle. The government instead of protecting all citizens and treating them with equal dignity, women have been made second-class citizens by the oppressive policies that ensure they are kept in the kitchen and when they are outside, they are closely monitored to ensure they cause no chaos. The women from different classes are asked to dress in uniforms, used as an identity when they interact in the society. They have become used to the oppression such that others like Serena Joy have launched her frustration to on Offred who was working in her household. Women preferred small tokens and would endure so much oppression than they could imagine. Offred had started to see the light and made little steps in opposing such order.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The handmaid's tale. Vol. 301. Everyman's Library Classics &, 1986.

Hsieh, Julia Pei-Hsuan. "The Handmaid's Tale-The Female Body as a Site of Resistance." English. fju. Edu. tw (2009).

Kirkvik, Anette. Gender Performativity in The Handmaid's Tale and The Hunger Games. MS thesis. UiT Norges arktiske universitet, 2015.

Malak, Amin. "Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale'and the Dystopian Tradition." (2006).

Miner, Madonne. "Trust Me": Reading the Romance Plot in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." Twentieth Century Literature 37.2 (1991): 148-168.

Pettersson, Fredrik. "Discourse and Oppression in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." (2010).

Stein, Karen. "Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Scheherazade in Dystopia." University of Toronto Quarterly 61.2 (1992): 269-279.

Zarrinjooee, Bahman, and Shirin Kalantarian. "Women's Oppressed and Disfigured Life in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale." Advances in Language and Literary Studies 8.1 (2017): 66-71.