Handmaid's_Tale

"The reason why The Handmaid's Tale is such a powerful novel is that its characters and events have their root in our everyday society." Discuss. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, can be said to be a powerful novel due to the relevance relativity its characters and events have in our everyday society. Known to be one of the first feminist dystopic novels, the world of Gilead in which the novel is set in perfectly matches the criteria of a dystopic society. We see Gilead as a world that uses punishment as a tool of fear and control and also uses brainwashing as a way of manipulating its population into believing that this society, one full of revulsion and horror, is a near perfect world, backed up by biblical precedent. Atwood creates a futuristic novel, due to its speculative nature, a novel which subliminally forewarns the audience, particularly women that we should not take our freedoms too complacently or perhaps we could end up with a case of extremism or in the case of the Handmaid’s Tale, Christian fundamentalism. To place convey her message, she uses elements of her novel such as uniforms, female rivalry and executions to demonstrate the powerful link they have to our very own society. In today’s society, uniforms can be used as a tool of identification, a tool which is also evident in the totalitarian world Atwood has created within her novel. However in our world; uniforms are merely benign elements not threats and can be used to differentiate different schools, sporting teams, professions and cultures. In the world of The Handmaid’s Tale, we see that uniforms are a way of stripping away someone’s identity and restricting freedoms, particularly those of the Handmaids. The long red dresses that the Handmaid’s are forced to wear represent “the colour of blood, which defines us” which shows that their only purpose in this society is to bear children. Atwood uses vivid imagery to, through the use of the protagonist, describe a fellow handmaid as “a sister, dipped in blood” which represents fertility but also of the violence that is instigated in order to further continue this society. The Handmaids’ uniform can arguably be compared to the burqa, a full body garment which envelopes the body that is worn by Islamic women, and dresses worn by nuns. The way that the Handmaids’ uniform “keeps us from seeing, but also from being seen,” shows how it is used to restrict their freedoms, similar to how Burqas prevent the women from being seen and identified. Uniforms, in the Handmaid’s tale, are a clear example of how benign elements can become malignant if taken to the extreme. Female rivalry is an underlying theme in the Handmaid’s tale, but also prevalent throughout our world. We see how magazines often plot two women next to each other to see “Who wore it better'” and how television shows create competition between women to see who’ll become the next top model. In the case of The Handmaid’s Tale, we see the rivalry between the wives and handmaids particularly the one between Serena and Offred as well as between the Handmaids themselves who are all in the race to prove themselves as fertile which is evident when Offred sees Janine’s “belly…swells triumphantly". This imagery emphasizes the importance of fertility in this society and how victory can be achieved with pregnancy which is shown when Offred metaphorically describes Janine as “a flag on the hilltop”. The bitter resentment that Serena has towards Offred is derived from the fact that she is infertile and Offred may seem as a sort of competitor for her husband’s affection and sexual desire. This resentment and jealousy is unintentionally revealed when she tells Offred, “"You could have left me something", after she found out about their trips to Jezebel’s. Competition and rivalries such as this are all social aspects of our world, however, in the Handmaid’s tale we see a more deliberate and forced element. Executions have always been of a controversial nature in our society with a constant debate over whether it should be a legal form of punishment. Today, a country that condones execution is America, also known as the land of the free and independence. They are used as a way of serving justice on behalf of many victims but also used as a sort of warning. There are two types of executions that take place in The Handmaid’s Tale; Salvagings and Particutions. Atwood, with the clever use of neologism, creates a form of executions that require complicity and convey to the audience the strong element of Christian fundamentalism in this society. Salvagings, a combination of the words savage and salvation, are a method of punishment that requires savaging women in order for them to receive salvation. When the protagonist first begins to describe the event she reasons that the “Heavy contingent of guards…with riot gear” were “in case of hysteria”, which indicates and foreshadows the trouble to come. Towards the end of the Salvaging, we see that all the entire Handmaids must place a hand on the rope that is being used to murder the other Handmaid, which symbolises that they are agreeing and allowing for this event to take place. The Particution, combination of the words participation and execution, is a more active and involved form of execution, where all the Handmaids physically kill a convicted man with their bare hands. As Aunt Lydia addresses the Handmaids she says “You know the rules for a Particution…You will wait until I blow the whistle”. The use of the whistle to commence such an event allows it to be conveyed as a type of sport, as though it is just a game. Similarly, in our world, stoning is still a form of capital punishment that is practiced today in some Middle Eastern countries. Stoning requires participation from a group of people and no individual may be condemned with murder. Atwood creates a clever comparison and link between the forms of execution we have in our current society to the disturbing and gruesome ones which are portrayed in the world of Gilead which subliminally warns the audience of elements such as Christian fundamentalism and extremism. In conclusion, Atwood creates a powerful novel through the use of her characters and events as they are seemingly parallels to many elements of our world and are often backed up with historical precedent. As the audience, we can make comparisons between the similar aspects of our world such as the Handmaids’ uniforms and the burqas or Particutions and stoning, to create a judgement and understanding of the consequences of extremism and complacency.