Wicked Women In The Handmaids Tale - 897 Words

Wicked Women In the dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale penned by Margaret Atwood, Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state that has replaced the United States of America. The goal of Gilead is to return to traditional values, meaning women as chattel property, censorship, bans on science and technology etc. Due to low reproduction rates, Handmaids are responsible for bearing children for elite households with wives that are unable to have children. Ceremonies are held monthly where Offred must have emotionless sex with the Commander of the household while his wife watches. The author detected patterns forming in American society and writes the consequence of these trends, drawing from the past as proof that†¦show more content†¦It’s a club?† I say. â€Å"Well, that’s what we call it, among ourselves. The club.† â€Å"I thought this sort of thing was strictly forbidden,† I say. â€Å"Well, officially,† he says. â€Å"But everyone’s human, after all.† I wait for him to elaborate on this, but he doesn’t, so I say, â€Å"What does that mean? â€Å"It means you can’t cheat Nature,† he says. â€Å"Nature demands variety, for men. It stands to reason, it’s part of the procreational strategy. It’s Nature’s plan.† I don’t say anything, so he goes on. â€Å"Women know that instinctively.’’ He says this as if he believes it, but he says many things that way. Maybe he believes it, maybe he doesn’t, or maybe he does both at the same time. Impossible to tell what he believes. The Commander asks rhetorical questions but then does not want an answer, instead he answers them himself because he does not in actuality want to hear Offred’s input. Through this dialogue we understand the behavior of the Commander. The Commander’s moral blindness is apparent in his attempts to explain the virtues of Gilead but the one-sided nature of this conversation shows that he knows a lot less than he thinks he does.. Though, he is a high-ranking official in society he is one of the most clueless characters in the book, showing the nature of the government of Gilead. Most do not know what happens to the handmaids or what a handmaid really even does they are so separated from reality. â€Å"So now that we don’t have different clothes,† I say,Show MoreRelated Portents of the Monotheocracy in The Handmaids Tale Essay2421 Words   |  10 PagesMonotheocracy in The Handmaids Tale  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚   American society has had certain cultural and political forces which have proliferated over the past few decades-described as the return to traditional Christian values. Television commercials promoting family values followed by endorsements from specific denominations are on the rise. As the public has become more aware of a shift in the cultural and political climate through the mass media, Margaret Atwood, in writing The Handmaids Tale, could have beenRead MoreHow Does Margaret Atwood Establish and Develop a Dystopian Narrative in Her Novel ‚Äà ²the Handmaid‚Äà ´s Tale‚Äà ´?2152 Words   |  9 PagesThroughout Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded state is created through the use of multiple themes and narrative techniques. In a dystopia, we can usually find a society that has become all kinds of wrong, i n direct contrast to a utopia, or a perfect society. Like many totalitarian states, the Republic of Gilead starts out as an envisioned utopia by a select few: a remade world