The Gothic Elements in the HandMaid's Tale.

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The Gothic Elements in the HandMaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood’s epic novel The Handmaid’s Tale is on all counts a great read and a classic feministic work. But, by examining it more closely it is evident that the novel has deeper roots and shows characteristics of the gothic novel. Throughout this piece, I shall reveal and discuss the gothic elements in The Handmaid’s Tale such as the relevance of the castle, women in distress, the mysterious inscription and others, by comparing it to two other gothic novels; Romance of the Forest and Dracula.

In most gothic novels the heroine is threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male; Adeline’s life is menaced by the Marquis de Montalt (Romance of the Forest) and both Lucy and Mina’s lives are menaced by Count Dracula. The Handmaid’s Tale is a bit different in that the main idea is women of the society being threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male dominated system. In their new society, the women rank importance with their fertility. If a woman is not fertile she is made to be a ‘Martha’ – a cook or a servant. If she is fertile – she becomes a handmaid - and she is sent from house to house to fornicate with the usually impotent Commanders. She has two years at each house, and if she does not bare any children she is sent to the ‘colonies’ with the ‘Unwomen’. Those who do bare children are highly praised and greatly admired. The handmaids must wear the prescribed ‘habit’, and must not look in the eyes of men. The women are treated as slaves in the new society and are brainwashed to think that this is alright. They are dominated by the men who hold all power.

“We aren’t allowed to go there except in twos.

This is supposed to be for our own protection, though

this notion is absurd: we are all protected already.

The truth I that she is my spy, and I am hers.” (p.19)

The men are quite despotic, since they kill those who do not obey their every rule and even punish those who have done ‘evil’ things in their former lives, before the regime was in use. The Gileadean ideas are based on a passage from the Bible, (Genesis 3:1-3) but are greatly misconstrued and misused. The oppression of women is based on the gothic injustice of the heroine in other gothic novels.

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The Castle has always been in the gothic novel. Starting with Horace Warpole’s Castle of Otranto, it has always been an obvious and major component in the gothic genre. The Castle always represents a certain amount of danger; In Vathek the castle is the home of the horrible Prince and his awful mother signaling the evilness of the place. In the Romance of the Forest, although the castle acts as the character’s home, it is also always threatened by being found out, by the duke. It was constantly being menaced. In Dracula, the castle was the home of the ...

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