What do I want to write about?
Allusions-biblical, historical, literacy. Setting-locations, history. Characters-what they represent, what they show us about society. Society-how the book reflects our society-classism. Totalitarian regime. Themes of control. Oppression.
Classism-Control of women-Its happened before it could happen again
Structure of essay
Opening regarding the novel and giving context to the genre the author and what I will discuss Put forward a thesis on..
The Conformity women in Margret Atwood’s novel The hand maids face is oppressive and morally wrong.
Discuss in depth about how and why Margret Atwood has made the theme of Control prominent in her novel. More specifically the control of women. Discuss how the women in the novel are oppressed but are essentially forced to come to terms with their predicament for the sake of staying alive. Discuss why the author has included this idea of being trapped in the novel-its part of the genre, what does it show us about Atwood. Why does Atwood show us how these woman are suffering but shows no sign of hope or alternative.
There is never a sense of the main character ever escaping in the novel, there are no alternatives in this society. It all feels set in stone as if there is no turning back time and going back to what society once was. The women suffer and this is shown explicitly, they take whatever small escapes they can get to gain a little ‘freedom’
Use quotes to back up points and use factual information-Refer back to the book constantly
Make comparisons to other novels within the genre
Conclude
Do the women have rights in this scenario?
Notes: The hierarchy of Gilead is structured around classes shown through the statues that the men hold above women which has a very big influence on how the women are controlled in Margret Atwood’s dystopian novel. There are classes within Gilead that are split into higher and lower ranking roles in society. These roles are entirely designated based on gender and often lower ranking roles are assigned to those who prove less helpful to the society in Gilead.
There are Handmaids who are both treated with respect by everyone within Gilead yet they are still stripped of all their rights. They are forced to bear children for the upper class couples-Commander and his wife. Handmaids are essentially commodities to the upper class people of Gilead, when a handmaid produces no baby she is sent away to a new family whilst in turn replacing an existing handmaid who also provided no children for the household. Handmaids are stripped of their names and have a name given to them that reflects whomever is in possession of them. For instance Offred is the handmaid belonging to Fred.
There are the wives whom are wives to the commander and essentially have no purpose in serving Gilead which results in a lot becoming lifeless and depressed. They cannot produce children which is why they have handmaids who act as surrogate mothers for them.
The Martha’s are the maids of the house that belongs to a commander and his wife. They do the work around the house and are often older women who are no longer fertile.
Econowives are the wives of lower ranking citizens within Gilead and act as servants to their husbands.
Aunts – Hold a higher status than the majority of women in Gilead and are listened to and respected by the men. They are the only women in Gilead who are permitted to read and write. Aunts run the training centers named “Rachel and Leah Centers”(Red Center) These centers are used to house and train handmaids.
aunts are the only women in this society permitted to read or write because they have to give reports and educate the rest of society as to their place in it Atwood.
Unwomen are those who no longer serve any use to society and are sent away to work in the colonies where they will inventively die from radiation sickness.
Gilead is a patriarchal society-a government run by men
Men in Gilead are also put into a class system of their own with Commanders at the top then eyes, angels and guardians.
Makes links between the systems used in Gilead and how they represent modern day society. What is classism like now and in the past?
How are the men in this system classes. When making comparisons keep it simple-Use sexy paragraphs
Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom. Pg 38
Womens bodies in the handmaids tale is their lives.
“So now that we dont have different clothes, I say you merely have different women.”
There are no more, films no more magazines no more substitutes.”
“There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, there are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren.”
“Moira had power now, she’d been set loose, she’d set herself loose. She was now a loose woman.
I think we found this frightening.
Moira was like an elevator with open sides. She made us dizzy. Already we were losing the taste for freedom, already we were finding these walls secure. In the upper reaches of the atmosphere you’d come apart, you’d vaporize, there would be no pressure holding you together. “
“It’s strange to remember how we used to think, as if everything were available to us, as if there were no contingencies, no boundaries; as if we were free to shape and reshape forever the ever—expanding perimeters of our lives. I was like that too, I did that too. “
“The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to freedom. I want to be here, with Nick, where I can get at him. “
“We are not each others anymore now we are just his”
“She doesn’t make speeches anymore, she has become speechless” serena joy
“I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.” This is from Offred’s view and how she doesn’t want to be confined to living a life that Gilead wants her to live page. She believes she is more than what Gilead sees her as, a fertile women. 73
“Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at us, speaks to us, touches us. No one whistles.”
“We are fascinated, but also repelled. They seem undressed. It has taken so little time to change our minds, about things like this.”
” As long as we do this, butter our skin to keep it soft, we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire. We have ceremonies of our own, private ones. “
Then I think: I used to dress like that. That was freedom.
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. Don’t underrate it.
There are other women with baskets, some in red, some in the dull green of the Marthas, some in the striped dresses, red and blue and green and cheap and skimp, that mark the women of the poorer men. Econowives, they’re called. These women are not divided into functions. They have to do everything; if they can.
Shows how the women have their individuality stripped from them
Mother, I think. Wherever you may be. Can you hear me? You wanted a women’s culture. Well, now there is one. It isn’t what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies. (21.34)
Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn’t really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn’t about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.
Now we walk along the same street, in red pairs, and no man shouts obscenities at 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. Don’t underrate it.
“Fertility was the real commodity. And it happen to lay in people”