![]() ![]() When women are ‘protected’ they do not have autonomy, but they are, to a greater degree, freed from responsibility and certain kinds of hardship and danger. Nevertheless, Atwood probably intends her reader to consider it seriously. Don’t underrate it.’ – This view is compromised by being spouted by Aunt Lydia (who is ‘in love with either/or’). In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. – but theoretically safe from sexual attack.Ģ4 ‘Freedom to and freedom from. The other extreme – ‘post-Gilead’ – has women under draconian control – unable to bare skin, heavily guarded etc. In Atwood’s ‘pre-Gilead America’, equality and liberalisation have led to women acting independently (running on their own outside), but there has been an equivalent rise in attacks on women (the implication being that this was a far greater problem than in real 1980s America). Like a child, I avoid stepping on the cracks.’ – Evidence both of the underlying anxiety induced by the regime, and also of its regressive effect on its subjects – something that is, at least with regard to the Handmaids, actively encouraged.Ģ3 ‘Women were not protected then.’ – The Handmaid’s Tale, like Nineteen Eighty-Four before it, uses the satirist’s technique of exaggerating societal characteristics is order to make a point. As frequently in the novel, the regime deliberately confuses a spiritual idea with a political doctrine.Ģ3 ‘The sidewalks here are cement. ![]() Gilead is within you.’ – A parody of Jesus’ saying ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’ (Luke 17:21). 23 ‘The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. ![]()
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