Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, published in 1985, is a highly confrontational feminist fiction novel that observes the culture of female identity. The novel portrays the oppression of women on physical and physiological level. The story takes place in the Republic of Gilead (the old United States): a republic with a totalitarian regime. This regime portrays women as being childbearing, voiceless creatures. People living under this manipulative regime are becoming less human-like every step of the way.
Offred, the narrator of The Handmaid’s Tale, is a handmaid to the powerful commander. Offred role in the Commander’s house is being the childbearing, voiceless creature to be made pregnant. The Commander wants to ‘enjoy’ his time with Offred and wants to take her to the Jezebels (the whorehouse). The Commander is married so he and Offred are not supposed to have that kind of fun because of the complications it would cause in the Commander marriage. This conflict shows how men have little to no respect for women including their own wife.
