What Is The Feminism In The Handmaid's Tale

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Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale unashamedly places itself in the negative feminist dystopia. Atwood’s novel depicts the society of Gilead, a society that institutes a totalitarian regime that targets women specifically. Concerned with the declining birthrates, Gilead reduces some women to be used just for procreation. They are assigned to Commanders, who undergo a regular practice with the handmaids, with their wives lying directly under the handmaid to hopefully be impregnated. This helps the society’s sanctity of marriage through the Christian belief held in Gilead. There are elements of societal repression taken to extremes in The Handmaid’s Tale but the main rhetorical force is with the repression of women, and of sexuality. The fact that the handmaid’s are assigned new names implies the Western practice of a woman taking the man’s last name upon marriage as a sign of the male ownership. The women in The Handmaid’s Tale are split into separate categories to provide for the needs of the society: the Marthas as cooks, Aunts for those who raise and train the handmaid's for their future roles, Wives who are provided to the Commanders, and Econowives are provided to the poor men of the community. Then there is the group of Unwomen, whom are …show more content…
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale we continue to learn about Gilead society, which is Atwood’s parallel to that of our own, than from fascination with character or plot. Offred starts as the protagonist and quickly moves to that of an anti-heroine as her conflicting emotions towards her society can not be won with the process of which her society ran. At the end of the day, the Eyes save her and we never understand what happens after that or if the society changes, continuing the misogynist
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