The Handmaid's Tale Is A Tragic, Dystopian Novel
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a tragic, dystopian novel taking perusers through the trial of Offred, a handmaid in Gilead, an extremely religious group once known as the United States, that has taken all of the rights of women, and has decreased them to objects valuable only for reproduction. Due to the constrainment and imprisonment of the people within the jurisdiction of this new government, Offreds only way to get out is in her psyche, and it is with her mind that she recounts this significant story. An impossible to miss highlight of the novel is the way the narrator recalls certain events, both past and present, in a way that allows the readers to come inside the mind of Offred. However, with the 2017 television series broadcast on Hulu, viewers share a different experience with The Handmaid’s Tale as we walk through this journey with Offred. Although the show and the book both have the same concepts of power, feminism, and religion, the show has changed a few things and also turned Offred into a woman who has a certain fire in her, who knows how to work the system and manipulate her way through Gilead to achieve what she wants, to survive, unlike the Offred we know in the book. When we take a look at the two Offreds, the audience has the opportunity to choose which Offred offers a more relatable and useful protagonist.
The story is set in New England , except it is no longer called that, and our narrator is Offred, who has been appointed as Handmaid to a Commander of high authority whose name is Fred. We only know his name is Fred in the book because the narrator’s name is “Offred,” whose original name has been stripped. In fact, all handmaids adopt the name of the commander they have been assigned to. In the show, Offred’s name is revealed to be June Osborn, and the Commander is addressed as Mr. Waterford. Because of the new laws of Gilead, women are viewed as the property of men and are not allowed to cast a ballot, have cash or personal belongings of their own, or even read. As the overthrow came later in their lives, every person we experience in The Handmaid's Tale, including Offred, experienced childhood in a world like our own, and along these lines each handmaid must be mercilessly taught into their new status as assets, hirelings, and strolling infant “incubators” so to speak. One of the main objectives behind this cultural move is a sensational decrease in the birth rate, said to be brought about by pollution, contamination and radiation. Pregnancies are uncommon, and in any event, when they do happen, there's constantly a noteworthy hazard that it may be what they call an “unbaby,” a baby severely or lethally tormented with birth defects. The women who may have had or can have healthy children dramatically and incredibly important and valuable. In spite of the fact that all of them are viewed as inferior to men, they are managed various degrees of benefits or deprivations relying upon their societal position, conjugal status, age, abilities, and richness. Each woman is relegated to a specific capacity, and must dress in the alloted shades of their rank or position. Keeping in mind that, to this new found government and the men of Gilead, women are only useful for what they can do for men.
Offred’s memories uncover that she was the girl of a women's activist dissident who had decided to be a single mother. Some time before the coming of the theocratic government, the narrator had gone to college and had a near companion named Moira, more like her best friend as she is often thinking of her throughout the book and she is seen many times throughout the show. Offred became romantically acquainted with a then married man named Luke, and in the long run she and Luke got married and had a child, whose name is Hannah in the series. Once the president and congress members were killed, she was fired from her job, and her funds were transferred to her husband's bank account, that is when June attempted to flee with her family. Ultimately they were caught, she was separated from her family, and she was sent to the “red center” to begin the indoctrination process.
The division of power is loosely based on social status and more so about the separation of the men and the women. According to Okupe Mofiyinfoluwa Ademidun’s article “A Man’s World: Gender, Power and Identity in The Handmaid’s Tale,” in Gilead extraordinary patriarchy, devout abuse, religion and totalitarianism has built the culture in a way that a woman’s worth is as it were joined to her spouse, this being the case of the Commander’s spouses, or their capacity to bear children (Ademidun). Actually, the handmaids, who are the ones that have the control to propagate society, are the ones subject to such brutality and ineffective treatment but their pregnancies are continuously honored and 'the birth of a child is glamorised' (Ademidun). In addition, this initiates Offred’s reference to handmaids as ‘two-legged wombs’ since without a doubt they are as it were, only important for their capacity to bear children (Ademidun). In fact, if they were found unable to reproduce, they would then be labeled and called an 'Unwoman and...banished from society'(Ademidun). Also, within the social pecking order, the handmaids are the most reduced people, the control structures are fixed against them, and social status is connected to their richness. The founders of Gilead similarly accept that 'a woman’s role in society is to cook, clean or to be at the beck and call of men'(Ademidun). One of Okupe Mofiyinfoluwa Ademidun’s most notable statements in regard to this issue is when she says,
The societal hierarchy in Gilead clearly places men above women with the Commanders being the most highly ranked, followed by the Guardians, Eyes and Angels. Even among the women, there exist another hierarchy where the Commander’s wives are regarded as the highest followed by Aunts, Econowives and finally Marthas. The Handmaids are not even included in this hierarchy because it is believed that they are not even worthy of being added into it (Ademidun).
In the show, Offred seems to have become rather comfortable in her environment. She does not always keep her head down and in the privacy within the closed doors she addresses her Commander and his wife by their first names, Fred and Serena, who are drastically younger and more attractive than what they are described as in the book. The reason behind this change is unclear, whether it is for better television, adds a bit more drama, or because it gives the audience the opportunity to relate more to different characters. However, Offred is not meek, she does not always keep her feelings to herself, and she proudly gives an answer to any one who asks her real name. Nevertheless, in the book she acknowledges that she has a name, but she refuses to utter the word out loud or even in her own thoughts as she thinks,
In the book, Offred seems to act indifferent toward her real name, she does not seem to care much about the fact that she no longer has the name she was given to her at her birth, it is something that she has just tucked away and saved for later like dinner leftovers. However, she is the hero of the show, a real protagonist, who has a rebellious streak. In season two episode thirteen, she even goes as far as to actually slap the Commander back after he slaps her for saying something outlandish. It is also noted that in the book, it is actually Aunt Lydia who tells Janine, another handmaid, the story of Moira’s escape, add quotehowever in season one episode four of the show, Offred is seen attempting that same escape with Moira only to be caught by the Guardians and sent back to the red center to be punished. She is comfortable enough to sit back and smoke a cigarette with Serena Joy, the Commander’s wife in episode four of season three and she even manages an escape that last ninety-two days in first episode of season two. The power structure in the series, although the same, has shifted in a sense that Offred has found some level of power for herself on her own.
