Examine the significance of the power of the individual in The Handmaid’s Tale [25]
In Atwood’s 1983 meta-fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the power of
INTRO the individual is limited by theocratic, male hegemony, and therefore
exertion of personal agency is both a threat to the Gileadean regime
and to the self, when exposed. Offred’s narrative, while a spoken
unlearning of Gileadean values in itself, embraces in its post-modernist
form her power, and the novel explores this theme, and threats to,
through the motif of doubles and small rebellions through theft and
language musings.
PARA 1: “overwriting her former identity” (Rigney) with the name Offred creates a “a
Doubling double identity”- a “schizophrenic existence”. Doubling of latent misogyny in
s
the past and future, perhaps a heavy handed thematic sorting by Piexoto,
te
confining an ecriture feminine to thematic parallels. Latin as a symbol of male
power, only men possess it and the desecration of the venus on the latin
no
book (“a moustache and a black brassiere and armpit hair”). Splitting of mind
and body- eminence of mind over submitting body (Aquinas), body made
docile (Foucault). “congealed around a central pear”, Offred has some of
Emerson’s double consciousness, she sees herself through the lens of the
PARA 2:
en
oppressed and the oppressor.
Offred relies on small outbursts of language, though constantly haunted by
ur
Small the indoctrinating voice of Aunt Lydia, an internal Gileadean conscience,
rebellions telling her that “Pen is Envy”. Stemming from the Freudian theory of penis
envy, Offred is therefore presented as both seeking the power of writing,
at
which according to Helene Cixous has been a historical taboo for women,
and the power of males to do this. “Language can corrupt thought” (1984)-
er
Both Ofglen and Moira use swearing and are defeated, too lax about their
language use.
lit
CONC In conclusion, the power of the individual, especially women and minorities, is
curtailed in Gilead which leads to the fracturing of the self into the motif of
el
doubles, rendering each body both a surveillor and the surveilled, minimising
personal agency. In addition, just as writing and personal property have been
ev
impeded upon by the societies that Atwood bases her novel off of, they are in
Gilead, leading to small exertions of individual power, which must be
regulated by the self, else they end in demise for the bigger rebels in the
novel. All in all, Atwood therefore presents the lack of power given to women
al
as individual bodies, who are robbed of their identity en masse, yet have only
the power to surveil one another and remain therefore divided, yet
collectivised, a dichotomy which fractures the mind.
In Atwood’s 1983 meta-fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the power of
INTRO the individual is limited by theocratic, male hegemony, and therefore
exertion of personal agency is both a threat to the Gileadean regime
and to the self, when exposed. Offred’s narrative, while a spoken
unlearning of Gileadean values in itself, embraces in its post-modernist
form her power, and the novel explores this theme, and threats to,
through the motif of doubles and small rebellions through theft and
language musings.
PARA 1: “overwriting her former identity” (Rigney) with the name Offred creates a “a
Doubling double identity”- a “schizophrenic existence”. Doubling of latent misogyny in
s
the past and future, perhaps a heavy handed thematic sorting by Piexoto,
te
confining an ecriture feminine to thematic parallels. Latin as a symbol of male
power, only men possess it and the desecration of the venus on the latin
no
book (“a moustache and a black brassiere and armpit hair”). Splitting of mind
and body- eminence of mind over submitting body (Aquinas), body made
docile (Foucault). “congealed around a central pear”, Offred has some of
Emerson’s double consciousness, she sees herself through the lens of the
PARA 2:
en
oppressed and the oppressor.
Offred relies on small outbursts of language, though constantly haunted by
ur
Small the indoctrinating voice of Aunt Lydia, an internal Gileadean conscience,
rebellions telling her that “Pen is Envy”. Stemming from the Freudian theory of penis
envy, Offred is therefore presented as both seeking the power of writing,
at
which according to Helene Cixous has been a historical taboo for women,
and the power of males to do this. “Language can corrupt thought” (1984)-
er
Both Ofglen and Moira use swearing and are defeated, too lax about their
language use.
lit
CONC In conclusion, the power of the individual, especially women and minorities, is
curtailed in Gilead which leads to the fracturing of the self into the motif of
el
doubles, rendering each body both a surveillor and the surveilled, minimising
personal agency. In addition, just as writing and personal property have been
ev
impeded upon by the societies that Atwood bases her novel off of, they are in
Gilead, leading to small exertions of individual power, which must be
regulated by the self, else they end in demise for the bigger rebels in the
novel. All in all, Atwood therefore presents the lack of power given to women
al
as individual bodies, who are robbed of their identity en masse, yet have only
the power to surveil one another and remain therefore divided, yet
collectivised, a dichotomy which fractures the mind.
