The Dystopian Scourge of Women in Gilead Society as Portrayed in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale

Abstract

—The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's most renowned dystopian novel, is one of those works whose memorandum appears to transcend period. It has been analyzed to demonstrate the presence of various layers of feministic and dystopian cultural concepts in the novel. A qualitative investigation of secondary resources reveals that the situation of women in the novel is portrayed as a reproach to the patriarchal construction of the contemporary world. The women characters in the novel position as testimonies of the subjugation that unescapably concentrates them, helpless against a societal and political organisation that interprets the position of women as a reproductive machine. According to Atwood’s novel, by representing the repercussions of the revolution in the United States through the fake theocracy and totalitarian law insists, women must serve the commanders of Gilead society for sexual and biological reasons. Infertile women and working slaves should both serve as servants to the elite couple; the Handmaids addresses both historical and contemporary cultural issues, particularly those affecting women. This study further points out the oppressive, matriarchal position and sexual cruelty, diminishing the autonomy of women.