Handmaids Tale critcisms + lenses + comparisons

M.Atwood - posed question

Wanted to pose what America would be as a totalitarian regime, concluding it would become a theocracy.

M.Atwood - reality

“There is not a single detail in the book that does not have a corresponding reality”

M.Atwood - Puritan

“17th century Puritan roots have always lain beneath the modern-day America we thought we knew”

C.Howell - concern

“Atwood’s feminist concerns are plain here but so too are her concern for basic human rights”

C.Vevaina - legitimacy

“GIlead legitimises its racist and sexist policies as having a biblical precedent”

A.Weiss - selfish

“Offred is guilty of complacency, complicity and selfish concern for her own private needs and desires”

E.Gottlieb - Offred cannot be blamed

“Since the dystopian regime denies its subjects’ free will, the central character cannot be made responsible for their ultimate failure or defeat in the repressive system that overpowers individuals”

Feminist lens

• Written as a critique of patriarchy and totalitarian male control.

• Warning of complacency.

Orwell’s 1984 comparison

• Citizens are indooctrinated into fitting within the desired political narrative.

• Living under constant surveillance.

• Simplification of language to prevent resistance.

Huxley’s Brave New World comparison

• Women are oppressed by men.

• Women are reduced to their reproductive system through forced contraception.