I.

Introduction

A. Thesis statement: In The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood uses one theme,
the power of darkness, to reveal human nature, social status, and fear.

II. Body Paragraph #1

A. Topic sentence: : In The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood uses one theme,
the power of darkness, to reveal human nature

B. Supporting evidence:

i. Offred depress when shes separated from her lover.

ii. Serena Joy hates Offred because she feels jealous.
iii. Commander still goes to the club to satisfy himself.

C. Clincher sentence: Human nature is about ordinary feeling, variety demand,

and thought

III. Body Paragraph #2

A. Topic sentence: : In The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood uses one theme,
the power of darkness, to reveal social status.

B. Supporting evidence:

i. Social classes
ii. Each class has different place to live.
iii. Make everyone wears specific color shirt.

C. Clincher sentence: Only power can manage status..

IV. Body Paragraph #3

A. Topic sentence: : In The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood uses one theme,
the power of darkness, to reveal fear.

B. Supporting evidence:

i. Gilead control people using a man with a gun.

ii. Gilead uses dead body to keep people under laws.
iii. Handmaids fear of punishment.

C. Clincher sentence: People can get controlled by fear.

V. Conclusion
A. Rephrased thesis statement: Only human nature, social status, and fear
are used in The Handmaids Tale by the power of darkness.

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 Thanapol Kulphaisaltham

Ms. Lauren Werner

September 27, 2017

The Power of Darkness

In The Handmaids Tale

There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, for something

without shape or name (p. 3). This sentence is on the first page of the story, it shows the

perspective of the narrator for how dark the hopeless room in her mind can be. Nowadays,

darkness isnt what we dont have, but its what we try to control. People can change to

whatever they want in many possible ways, also their thoughts, and unless there is something

stop them, such as brutality, wickedness, and forcing. There are various things to think of,

tons of themes to use in a story, and one of them is chosen by Margaret Atwood, the power of

darkness. The writer uses the power of darkness as a theme in the story to reveal human

nature, social status, and fear.

Human nature is shown in The Handmaids Tale through a theme called power of

darkness. All characters are human, they are controlled in an impropriety way, as when the

Commander and Offred go the the club, even its officially forbidden, he says, But

everyones human, after all . . . It means you cant cheat nature, nature demands variety, for

men (p. 237). It shows that, nothing can completely control humans, even humans

themselves. Atwood uses this statement to reflect human nature in todays people, using basic

human wants in worse way, as the use of darkness. Human nature is about peoples feelings,

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actions, and their thoughts, which they may or may not act it out or express to others. Thus,

its one of the things that one cant controlled.

In the story, theme of the power of darkness emphasizes the social status of citizens in

Gilead society. In general, when people live in society, social status is what all people use to

represent their positions. Just like in the beginning of the book, when Offred first moves to

the Commanders house, she is wearing a red shirt and stays silent, as being told by Aunt

Lydia, It was best to not speak unless they asked you a direct question (p. 14). The

utterance of medium to low class of people, who cant do anything beyond their given work,

shows that the red Offred is in the position that has almost nothing free to do. In chapter 13,

Offred, the narrator, wants a cigarette of her own, and also wishes that she can embroider or

have something to keep her hand busy in free time. In The Handmaid's Tale, red is the color

of the lowest class women, which is the handmaids, who are always treated unequally, and

this unfair treated status of the story supports to the theme, the power of darkness, that only

power can rules.

Atwood tries to demonstrate how fear is used to control people by using one theme: the

power of darkness. One of the ways to make people in control is fear, as there is a group of

people that has absolute power in the story, Gilead, they fear people by the salvaging. Dead

bodies on the wall shows how cruel they treat the outlaws: making torturous punishment in

public to shame people, being taken to somewhere no one knows and considered as

unwomen. All of these actions are being used to fear people from what they see, doing certain

actions most people are afraid of, and keep doing it darker and darker. As the narrator

mentions in chapter one, when she thinks about Angels who stand outside the door, They

were object of fear to us (p.4). In reality, just only peaceful death is enough to be the most

brutal choice of punishments, but in the darkness, there are many things beyond.

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 In conclusion, human nature, social status, and fear are being used by the power of

darkness in The Handmaids Tale. According to the story, the society is all about darkness,

lack of justice, people are divided into different social classes reluctantly, and the reason they

still follow the dark is, they fear of brutal things around them. In real life, human nature is a

kind of ordinary instinct that most people have, also in the story, since people are humans,

they have the same nature, also the way to control. Atwood reveals things through the events

in the story, in order to represent her thoughts about the darkness, as this is the book of

darkness. As well as todays society, therere many dark things disguised inside, therere still

bribes, outlaw people, drugs, black market, which normal people do not know or pretend not

to know.

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