Theme Of Misogyny In The Handmaids Tale - 1778 Words

Why the persisting theme of misogyny is unavoidable for females? In the year 2008, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) conducted a survey on workplace sexual harassment. Out of 500 respondents from 92 companies, seventy-nine percent of sexual harassment victims were females. In the Republic of Gilead of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the protagonist and narrator, Offred is a handmaid with a ticking biological clock. A Handmaid’s purpose is to repopulate the world by having sex with their respective Commander’s but at the age of 33, Offred does not have that much time left. If she remains infertile then a cruel fate would be awaiting her, All the while during this crisis, Offred reminisces back to†¦show more content†¦When the Commander went to with Offred to Jezebel’s, a brothel filled with loose women. The Commander puts a tag which helps identify Offred so that she would not be mistaken for a prostitu te. When the tag was put on Offred, she thinks the Commander views her more lie his property and less like an actual human being. Through Offred s narration, Atwood depicts the females of Gilead are robbed of any traces of their identity. Furthermore, the modesty taught and practiced by the handmaid s also helps show that the theme of misogyny is an everyday part of life. The modesty of the Republic of Gilead is oppressive towards females. This oppressive version of modesty is best defined when Aunt Lydia says, â€Å"Modesty is invisibility†(33). Aunt Lydia compares modesty to being invisible. Being modest should mean that you maintain your inhibitions so that you remain humble, not for you to become invisible. This incorrect form of modesty taught to the handmaids is on display when Offred says, â€Å"Like this†¦ I used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized, they used to call it†(32). When Offred meets the Japanese tourist, she becomes jealous of the openness and the femininity that women from other countries seem to enjoy on a daily basis. Freedoms like dressing in a â€Å"westernized† fashion are inconceivable to Offred. These cruel limitations on females are not only evident in Handmaid s, but also with other femalesShow MoreRelatedThemes in Literature991 Words   |  4 PagesOften in literature there are common themes that occur throughout eras and genres to link two otherwise different pieces of writing. One particular example of this occurrance can be seen in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Although these works have been written in very different time periods and use separate styles, there are two themes which link both stories and convey a very similar message. 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