How does Atwood present the commander in the novel?
How does Atwood present the commander in the novel? The commander can be seen as a man torn between two worlds, he was one of the founders of Gilead yet still enjoys and yearns for the pleasures of the old society he managed to break. It can be seen as ' he has made his bed and now he must sleep in it'. The commander is cool and collected on the surface but underneath he is bitter and corrupted for the world he has managed to create. I believe the commander secretly longs for the world to be as it once was and this is why he savours his time with Offred because she may remind him of life before Gilead; it is also ironic how both these characters felt under the surface an anger and repression of Gilead and they both wanted to break free but on the surface when they played scrabble with each other they are calm and to a certain extent sophisticated, between the characters there is certain amount of sexual and power play. The commander tells Offred that he believes that the reason why the State of Gilead came into place was because there was 'an inability to feel' and in his words, 'we thought we could we could do better.' This shows a slight resentment by the commander who throughout the novel seems hard character to break down. This can make the reader either feels sorry for the character or see him as cruel and Atwood has presented this very effectively so you feel mixed
The Handmaid's Tale - What do you find interesting about the way that Atwood presents women in the novel? Focus on two characters in your answer.
The Handmaid's Tale What do you find interesting about the way that Atwood presents women in novel? Focus on two characters in your answer. The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel about a handmaid's transcripts account of her third posting in the early 20th Century of the Republic of Gilead; formerly known as the United States of America. The Republic is a patriarchal regime founded on fundamental Christian response to the declining of Caucasian birth rates. The government rules through force and oppression and also by distorting Biblical teachings as means of justifying inhuman state practices. Women are classed according to their marital statues, age and reproductive systems, while men are categorised according to age and membership as Commander in the Faith. Older single women, homosexual men and barren handmaids are sent to the Colonies to clean after warfare and toxic spills which will eventually cause their premature death. A Handmaid serves as a surrogate mother for infertile wives of Commanders. The Handmaid's Tale shares many striking resemblances with George Orwell's Nineteen Eight-Four; both novels tell of a near-future society governed by elite and characterised by distorted language. It is said that an author's purpose for writing dystopian novel is to explore the possible developments of societal trends and warn readers of their potentially dangerous
In 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood and 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro compare how the authors focus on identity through the use of their characters and their relationships.
In 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood and 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro compare how the authors focus on identity through the use of their characters and their relationships. 'The Remains of The Day' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' are two novels from opposing ends of the fictional literature spectrum. On one side we have "THT" a novel set within a dystopian future using relationships between characters to emphasise the strictness of the regime currently being operated in Gilead most fitting would the relationship between The Commander and Offred. In a totally different end of the metaphorical literature spectrum we have "TROTD" which sets its main characters within Darlington Manor in the month of July 1956 where the novels protagonist, Stevens, the first person narrator looks back in retrospect towards the events of the early 1920's where him and his fellow under-staff observe their employer gradually lean towards Nazism and becoming a national traitor in the crucial build up to World War II. The relationships explore within this novel are also used to enforce the hierarchy within Darlington hall. Both novels are shown to explore various themes including that of, Age, Personal interaction, Dignity (or a lack of dignity), regret loss and above all else personal identity and its effect on the individual characters identity. In "THT" Offred's society is set
A brief analysis of 'A Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood.
A brief analysis of 'A Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood First published in 1986 Life as we know it has changed. Women are seen as inferior beings to men and they are ranked. There are the handmaids, whom all other women look down on, the Martha's, who are maids, and the wives. The novel begins with an oppressed handmaid in a training camp, which is really a disused school gym. This is where the girls are educated and taught to abide in an appropriate manner for a handmaid. Throughout the novel there are many flashbacks, which portray to the reader that, these girls once lived a normal life just like us, yet they were suppressed by men and forced into becoming inferior beings. The handmaid whom we learn about lives with a Commander. She leads a very restricted life and is not even allowed to walk into town without another handmaid as a chaperone. She is desperate to rebel yet initially too frightened. Another handmaid introduces her to a 'handmaid secret society' and she realises that there are others like her who also want to escape and live as normal people again. Finally the handmaid starts to become more courageous when the Commander begins to see her privately, as such meetings were forbidden. He gives her presents, which she would not normally be allowed and talks to her about their society. Eventually, he smuggles her out
What is the importance of the Japanese tourists in chapter five of 'The Handmaids Tale'?
What is the importance of the Japanese tourists in chapter five of 'The Handmaids Tale'? The Japanese tourists presented in chapter five may only cover a page and a half in the novel, however, this passage should not be underestimated as the tourists importantly act as a subtle representation of everything that the Handmaids have been stripped of, most importantly their freedom. The way in which the author introduces the reader to the tourists is notably intriguing: 'A group of people is coming towards us. They're tourists,..' To begin the paragraph with this line provides a fundamental theme of 'us and them,' in the sense that these tourists are completely alien to the Handmaid's as they are indoctrinated into conforming to this distopian, regimented way of living. Extensive use of description emphasises the scrutiny in the conduct of observation made towards both parties, it is easy to make the connection between the Japanese and a pack of animals hunting together, desperate for a photographic souvenir of the bizarre surroundings and its inhabitants held captive in this disconcerting and systematic society. The way in which the character in the novel examines the tourists behaviour reflects this point: 'They look around, bright-eyed, cocking their heads to one side like robins, their very cheerfulness aggressive, and I can't help staring.' This shows that the