The Handmaid's Tale

Analysis

Margaret Atwood's, The Handmaid's Tale, is a novel that focuses on the control of women and men in the Republic of Gilead. In this society neither the men or the women seem to be enjoying the life they are forced to live. For the women, their rights are taken from them at the start of this new life in Gilead and never returned. They are to live the proper way according to the rules of their Aunts and the jobs they must fulfill such as being a Handmaid to a Commander.



The Handmaid's Tale contains many literary devices, a very important one being irony. Through out the novel it is stressed from the Aunts that the lives women have in Gilead are very good compared to their old ones. The Aunts explain that before the women began to enter this wonderful society they were completely mistreated by men. When Offred was younger she used to witness and take part in the burning of porn magazines with her mother. The magazines were said to be degrading to women and caused men to view them solely as items and not human beings. These magazines were to please the men and it upset many women. The Aunts also mentioned how in the old world terrible things happened to women such as rape. The men took advantage of them and sometimes hurt or killed them. In Gilead women were taught that these things did not occur and women were treated as well as possible.



The irony comes in when the ceremony is introduced between the Handmaid and the Commander. In this society the ceremony is a task between the men and the certain women that is performed to try and reproduce. There is no interaction between the two aloud and no emotion must be shown. It proves to be ironic when the women do not enjoy the ceremony and they are forced to do it such as when a woman is raped. Irony also takes place with the club Jezebels. It is a hidden place where all the commanders go to be in the company of women. They secretly interact with the women while they wear very reveling clothing. The only reason the men sneak out to these places at night is so they can enjoy being with a woman while she is throwing herself at them wearing little to no clothing. Even though the Aunts said this society was free from the harmful ways of men, Jezebels shows that men are still using woman just for pleasure. Irony is a big literary device in The Handmaid's Tale and shows how Gilead is in fact not the perfect place for a woman to live.

Quote:
"I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. Those who believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off" (39).

I think this is a very powerful quote because by Offred believing she is telling a story it gives her hope that she has control over the ending. In Gilead, a place where she has no freedom or rights, telling a story could be her way to rebel from the society. She is not aloud to talk or interact with anyone else so by creating this story in her head it is an escape for her. She also hopes that if she was telling the story and she had control over the plot eventually her life would go back to the way it was, before Gilead. This quote proves that Offred is really upset in her society but has no one to reach out to. She would do anything to go back to her old life with her husband and young daughter.

Opinion
When I first started reading this book I was not sure what to think of it. I thought it was terrible how the women were treated and did not understand why someone would want to write a novel like this one, but I also thought it was very well written. Offred's life was very boring and there was not that much action that took place but the author did a very good job at describing the events that happened.

The one thing that really shocked me in The Handmaid's Tale was the ceremony. I thought it was terrible how they took something that should be so special and filled with love and turned it into something where no emotion is shown. I also did not like how the women had no say in what was going on during the ceremony or at anytime for that matter. There were so many lies to the women just to make this perfect society and no one was even happy. I thought over all the events that took place in this book were terrible toward women but in a way it was interesting to hear Offred's side of the story and the pain she went through.