The Handmaid's Tale

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The Handmaid's Tale

Manal Kasbi, Hanane Er-rouisse, Kira Kotova

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INDEX

The Situation of women in the 20th C

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

What is a dystopian society?

The Role of women in The Handmaid's Tale

Characteristics of a dystopian society in The Handmaid's Tale

Bibliography

Why would we read the novel?

Symbology

Thank you

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The situation of women in the 20th C.

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• In the early 20th C. a new image of womanhood emerged.
• The so called 'New Woman' challanged gender roles and patriarchal social structures.
• These drastic changes in the roles of women was significantly influenced by the Second World War.

• Women demanded a new public presence in:

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Work & Economy

1. Before the 20th C married women were limited to domestic labor and house caretaken.
2. During the war men had to serve in the military and in an attempt to preserve the economy, women were able to occupy the jobs of their male counterparts
3. With more job opportunity women became financially more independent
4. Women started exploring work fields that were typically considered for men. Higher possitions such as doctors, lawyers, etc.

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Education

1. Before the 19th C women recieved some sort of education but could not aspire to higher education.
2. If a woman reached higher education, she could not practice her major & if they were, once they get married they had to stop
3. It was in the 20th C were things changed for women in the education field
4. Apparition of more capable, more qualified and less silent women that aspired for renovation and modernization of women's role in the society.

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Entertainment

1. As women's rights developed, their freedom increased.
2. Women actresses became more popular in the screens. The most iconic female actresses of the cinema appear during this time: Marylin Monroe, Dorothy Mackaill, Clara Bow, etc.
3. Women started to play more liberal roles, express their sexuality and do things that were until then forbbiden for a woman to do in public such as drinking or smoking.
4. Women started to be more in the public sphere, assist to theatres, go to the cinema, or just sit at a café.

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Politics

1. Until the 20th C women were not allowed in the politic sphere
2. Right to vote was reserved only for white men.
3. At the beginning of the 20th C with the increase of education of women, there was an increase of demand for the right to vote. Suffragists.
4. The new changes include not only the right to vote but also hold government office jobs and be fully active in the political sphere.

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In the early 20th C when women started to protest for change and their rights, a movement was born, the feminist movement. This movement prevails until our days and has inspired many artists to create works that reivindicate the main goal of the movement: equality among genders.

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2 . Margaret Atwood

Born in November 1939. She is a novelist, prolific poet, literary critic, activist and feministShe was a big supporter of the feminist movement and most of her novels have a strong feminist tone.

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Some novels by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin

The Edible Woman

The Handmaid's Tale

The Penelopiad

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3. The Handmaid's Tale

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The Handmaid's Tale

Published in 1985, it addresses a dystopian world. A patriarchal society in which women are living as slaves, neglected from their human rights and whose only function is to conceive children. These women are referred to throughout the novel as : HANDMAIDS

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In the novel, Atwood creates a new imaginary society that belongs to the future, and it is based in the present days USA. This new dystopian nation is called The Republic of Gilead

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4. What is a dystopian society?

A dystopia is a fictional society where everything is negative. It is a scary or disturbing society. A dystopia is considered to be the opposite of a utopia. The main characteristics of a dystopian society are:

• A tyrannic government
• Loss of individuality
• Lack of Freedom
• Propaganda as a means of control of the masses
• Being watched and over-control
• The illusion of a utopian society
• Futuristic society

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5. Characteristics of a dystopian society in The Handmaid's Tale

Tyrannic government

Loss of individuality

lack of freedom

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Being watched

Violence

Propaganda

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6. The Role of Women in The Handmaid's Tale

Women are the most oppressed group in Gilead. They are divided intro 4 classes according to their function in society. These classes are color coded, giving the impression that these are not actual people, but objects in this dystopian society

The most oppressed class among women are The Handmaids.

The handmaid's role was to concieve children for the Commanders who saw them as property, as slaves.

They are dressed in red, long dresses and white caps to cover their head and face. Other women are the wives of the Commanders dressed in blue symbol of motherhood, the daughters wear white as a sign of purity, the domestic servants wear green which is associated with nature, cleaniness and health, and finally the common women and men in the colony wear grey as a symbol of their lack of importance

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Symbology

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Some symbology in The Handmaid's Tale

Mirrors

Flowers

Costumes

Scrabble

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8. Why would we read the novel?

Here is a video that might encourage you to read this absolute masterpiece and one of the greatest, if not the best of Margaret's work. The Handmaid's Tale novel is a very complex work that portraits the limits to which humanity can reach (or inhumanity in this case) and even though it is settled in a dystopian world, it might help us open our eyes to so many gender discrimination issues of our present days societies.

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9. Bibliography

“Colors in the Handmaid’s Tale - Bing Images.” Accessed June 30, 2021. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=colors+in+the+handmaid%27s+tale&form=HDRSC3&first=1&tsc=ImageBasicHove r. LLC, Clever Prototypes. “Dystopian Elements in The Handmaid’s Tale.” Storyboard That. Accessed June 30, 2021. https://www.storyboardthat.com/lesson-plans/the-handmaids-tale-by-margaret-atwood/dystopian-elements Writing with Charlotte. “The Symbolism of Clothing and Colour in The Handmaid’s Tale,” September 1, 2016. https://charlotteunsworth.com/the-symbolism-of-clothing-and-colour-in-the-handmaids-tale/. ScreenRant. “Who Are The Eyes? Gilead Secret Police Role & Powers Explained,” June 28, 2021. https://screenrant.com/handmaids-tale-eyes-gilead-police-power-explained/.

10. THANKS FOR WATCHING!