David Winfield 9242 11/03/16

How does Atwood use the presentation of the oppression of women to comment on events hap-
pening at the same time?

Atwood’s dystopian novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is set in a newly founded Christian theocracy, one
which has oppressed women throughout its social stratum. It could be argued that both the Hand-
maids, Wives and the underclass are oppressed by the fundamentalist totalitarian state. Atwood
presents oppression in two ways: freedom to and freedom from to question the morality of en-
forced patriarchy and humanitarian survival through birth. The Handmaids of Gilead have freedom
to protection from the state against rape, and sexually transmitted diseases, yet they have freedom
from independence and romantic relationships.

Firstly, it could be argued that Offred, the novel’s protagonist, is oppressed by societal laws that
completely remove the rights of women. Within Gilead, the charge for having a sexual relationship
with the Commander or any man outside of the Ceremony is death. In her first person narrative, Of-
fred describes the executed Handmaids “like birds with their wings cleared, like flightless birds,
wrecked angels”. The simile retains the Handmaid’s idyllic femininity and innocence. The adjective
‘tragic’ attracts sympathy from the reader, and disgust towards the male authority of Gilead. By
naming the ex-Handmaids 'Angels' a reader can infer that in Offred's allusion men are therefore Dev-
ils. The religious imagery is indicative of

Furthermore, one could argue that Offred is as oppressed as those who are forced to work in Jeze-
bel's, namely Moira. These women are sexually oppressed by the male authority of Gilead. Upon her
visit to Jezebel's, Offred describes the women there "like a sanitary pad that's been popped" (251).
The vivid yet vulgar similie juxtaposes the sexualisation of the women in Jezebel's. Atwood uses this
in irony to certify there is nothing sexy about prostitution, and therefore the male sexualisation of
the prostitutes is flawed. The past tense of the verb 'popped' elicits the idea that their sex appeal
has long faded, and so the reader is left questioning why Jezebel's employs women like Moira, effec-
tively a graveyard for their sex. One could argue the dying sex of these prostitutes acts as a symbol
of the dying or perhaps non-existent spirit of Gilead and, in context, the New American Right move-
ment, and it's heavily right wing patriarchy. One can infer that Atwood has therefore constructed
her text, and it's oppression of women to be a postmodern simulacrum (Baudrillard) of a dystopian
future, she addresses the alarming decline in birth rates and increase in contraception but does not
present a logical solution to the problem, the only plausible solution is the death of women's suf-
frage, and Gilead. 'Jezebel's' is the only section named after a setting in the novel, all other sections
are named after an event or time in Offred's cyclic routine. One reader may argue Atwood named
her section to emphasise the spontaneity of the visit- something that, under usual circumstances, a
reader would think should be welcomed by Offred, offering escape from her routine. The setting of
the section between two 'Night's is quintessential to Atwood's intention of oppressing women by
emphasising their sex and sensuality. 'Night' stresses the promiscuity and, in modern society, illegal-
ity of prostitution; yet Jezebel's glorifies this promiscuity and hyperbolically sells women and simply
objects of sex, dehumanising them in the process. When Offred sees Moria in the club, she describes
"attached to her head are two ears, of a rabbit or deer... One of the ears has lost its starch or wiring
and is flopping half way down" (251). The anthropomorphic language dehumanises Moira and re-
duces her to a sexual object for the opposite sex. Atwood wittingly crafts this situation to remind the
reader that Moira is in fact a lesbian, and therefore she has had her sexual freedom oppressed in
terms of both objectification and homophobia. Atwood presents the sexual oppression of Moria and
her fellow prostitutes as flawed to express the contradictory nature of Gilead, and so the American
New Right Movement of which Giled is a simulation of. Atwood tells us alike communism, Gilead's
David Winfield 9242 11/03/16

male theocracy works in theory, but human greed will always overpower societal pronouncement,
and in this instance it is the sexual greed of the Commander.

Finally, it is also apparent that Atwood presents oppression in the case of Serena Joy and other wives
who have freedom from sex, and thus STDs. During the ceremony, Joy is not able to engage in sex,
what a reader may argue, the most romantic act any people can perform.