Assignment 2


Margaret Atwood's unpleasant fictional novel, The Handmaid's Tale, uses the demise of Offred's basic liberties and individuality to portray the limitations and burdens of women inside a dystopian society. The totalitarian Republic of Gilead deprives Offred and many other women of freedom, equality and happiness, because in this society women are merely seen as a means for reproduction.

Gilead was built on very strict religious principles. Women were only useful if they were able to reproduce, if not they were said to be "Unwomen". The Commander, the leader of Gilead, scheduled ceremonies to remind the women of their responsibilities, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the Earth" (Atwood 88). This dystopian society limits women to simple "national resources", a simple means of production. It deprives them of their human rights and their sense of self.

Offred yearns the freedom that she once had, when she lived with her husband Luke and her daughter, when she had a family, a job, a life of her own. She can only remember those times, "I think about... my own clothes my own soap, my own money... I think about having such control" (Atwood 24). In Gilead there is no longer anything she can call hers, and that is what she longs the most. It is these materialistic possessions that represent freedom and autonomy for her. It is when she begins to loose these intangible, essential things that her individuality begins to die.

As Offred was deprived of her possessions and her liberties she began to grow apart from herself. This new, submissive society was consuming her little by little. As she quotes Aunt Lydia, "Ordinary is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will" (Atwood 33). Offred was adapting to this totalitarian society.Gilead became the ordinary for her. Having no freedom, no sense of self, lacking authenticity was suddenly becoming the norm.

Margaret Atwood is able to show the limitation of women in a dystopian society through the demise of Offred's sense of self and individuality.