IndexIntroductionSuppression of the female voice in Gilead societyConclusionIntroduction“Despite the rigid patriarchal structure of Gilead, in the end it is the female voice that wins in the end. ” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay One of the main features of Margret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and its sequel "The Testaments" is the strong feminist message that Atwood communicates through them. Despite the force with which we see the manifestation and control of the patriarchal structure of Gilead society, the female voice that permeates the story is ultimately the force that wins. The women of Gilead are oppressed in every way possible, particularly through rape and violence. the ceremonial confiscation of their reproductive rights. This is evident through the deeply biblical and sexist views held by Gilead on reproduction and sexuality, especially as it relates to women. Atwood makes use of a metaphor that compares women (more specifically handmaids) to containers and their fertility as the container's contents: "We are containers, it's only the insides of our bodies that are important." The handmaid is despised by many wives and even daughters of Gilead, seen in the Shunamite approach towards them in Agnes' story “They are passed around until they have a child. They're all bitches anyway, they don't need real names.”, they are also treated as sacred vessels as they hold the ability to produce Gilead's future generation. However, the division between valued fertility and personhood is highlighted in Janine's birth ceremony, where Janine's commander's wife pretends to give birth at the same time, and the false birth is treated as the authentic one. The Handmaids are completely deprived of motherhood. They do not have the right to keep the children they bring into the world; instead, their reproductive potential becomes their means of survival. They are also forbidden to read and write, a restriction that deprives women of any opportunity to record their stories. This loss of literary awareness and power is seen in both novels, first in the family reunion in The Handmaid's Tale, "The Bible is kept under lock and key... He can read it, but we cannot read." The reader can see this again in Agnes' story in The Testaments as we see how women are not only forbidden to read, but are raised to believe that men are the only ones capable of the act itself: "That was a talent that women had." because of their special brains, which were not hard and concentrated like those of men but soft and moist and warm and enveloping." This underlines Atwood's special warning to women writers, historians, and artists. In a patriarchal society that has become radical and violent, the female voice will be stifled. This strict enforcement of gender roles and norms can lead women to have a lower view of their own capabilities; creating an underdeveloped sense of self and inhibiting their ability to advocate for themselves. Atwood challenges this view however, demonstrating how the female voice refuses to be stifled, fights back, and is ultimately the thing that destroys Gilead. literature. Most dystopian novels describe totalitarian societies where freedom is strictly limited or non-existent. Jelena Živić argued that "Ofrad's story is similar to the classic slave narrative... As in the classic slave narrative, the Handmaids are enslaved by the dominant minority: the Commanders." the two novels occurs through the manipulation of language itself. We see this first through the removal ofnames of the handmaids. The commander and his wife accept Offred only for her proven fertility, and even rename her as Fred's possession; they are instead referred to through the name of the commander they serve, their body functions are appreciated, but their personality is not, "My name is not Offred, I have another name, which no one uses now because it is forbidden." This shows how Offred's characterization of herself has been affected. Due to the fact that she is constantly degraded and monitored, she believes that personal information, including her name, is not relevant. This quote shows that this society is corrupting the handmaids' and, by extension, all women's opinion of themselves. In Offred's case we see that her personality, often strong and resilient, has been overwhelmed by self-consciousness and vulnerability. This control of freedom of expression causes Offred to present a fragmented narrative, with regular flashbacks to a time when she felt as if she had some semblance of autonomy in her life. We also see this through Gilead's enforcement of the use of religious language among the Handmaids: "Blessed be the fruit... the greeting accepted among us." This suppresses their freedom of expression, leaving no room for thoughts of rebellion or injustice, maintaining the theocratic and patriarchal dictatorship. This restriction of speech brainwashes those in the lower ranks of Galadian society, namely women, allowing commanders to maintain control. Atwood wrote the novel shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West, partly fueled by a strong and well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they perceived as the excesses of the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s. The growing power of this “religious right” has heightened feminist fears that the gains made by women in previous decades would be reversed and thus the female voice silenced. However, ultimately Gilead is unable to fully control the minds of those it oppresses. We see many places in the novel where Offred attempts to assert her individuality in small ways, without ever succumbing to or fully accepting the identity that has been imposed on her. First, he refuses to say "my" room and then, when he says "mine," he asserts his right to do so: "There must be a space, finally, that I claim as mine." This is also seen as she crawls downstairs to steal a dead flower – an almost entirely useless gesture, but one that affirms her sense of individuality and reminds her of "what I once could do". Through the change of narrative voice from a first person perspective to a three we are also able to see that Gilead can't even control the minds of its women in the long term. This shift serves to reflect the growth in power of the female voice within Gilead itself, as well as its refusal to submit to patriarchal control. 30 years after the publication of The Handmaid's Tale, there has been an increase in social uprisings to defend the rights of oppressed groups such as the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements. These help contextualize the more actively rebellious role taken by characters like Aunt Lydia and Nicole and help explain the more action-packed, thriller-like narrative seen in The Testaments. Another primary way the patriarchal system of Gilead works to suppress the female voice is through isolation. We see this being done not only physically but also emotionally and socially. Each woman in Gilead is ranked in a strict hierarchy, with different uniformsin specific colors and names to denote one's role within the state organization. Without choice of clothing, differences in individual appearance are downplayed and differences between groups are emphasized: "The Marthas shouldn't fraternize with us." A great example of this in the novel is Offred's isolation at home as she spent much of her time alone in her room, even forced to eat meals separately from the rest of the family. Segregating women in almost every way and forcing them to feel different from each other. They feel alone and isolated, unable to stand up against oppression on their own, preferring to be pitted against each other, as seen in the Marthas' obsession with gossip: "They are very interested in how other families are run ; these little gossips give them occasion for pride or discontent.' This serves to contrast what we are shown in the Testaments. Atwood shows us how the women of Gilead, namely Aunt Lydia and Offred's two daughters, come together to cooperate despite their great differences and ultimately cause the downfall of the patriarchal system of Gilead. Many argue that the growth of women's rights movements today such as The Women's March and #MeToo have greatly influenced Atwood in this way, presenting how today women unite as a united front against injustice which we see much of the patriarchal control Gilead exerts on female characters through their indoctrination, making use of shame, fear and repression, seen in the character of Agnes. We see that throughout her childhood and schooling, the language employed by characters like Aunt Vidala and Aunt Estée is designed to reinforce the idea of ​​maintaining innocence and purity, "we were precious flowers". Much of Agnes's education, as we see it, is based on reinforcing and emphasizing notions like these. This indoctrination distorts the worldview of all women raised in Gilead, they will believe that the patriarchy exercised upon them plays a positive role, protecting them from their own destructive influence, "we were the innocent and blameless causes that through our very nature could make men drink with lust." The tendency of Agnes' narration is often this mixture of biblical, almost Old Testament language, with a more modern and gentle language, it almost gives the reader a sense of sarcasm and mockery towards the ways of Gilead. Agnes' voice often echoes that of Offred. It demonstrates how the female voice survives within the system where it is powerless, and how, despite the system's attempts to stifle and rob women of their individuality, to indoctrinate them, are able to realize and fight the injustice of total patriarchy we see through the frustration and fear that Agnes feels because she is denied the fundamental right to be able to make choices that influence her life. As a young girl, Agnes witnesses her family's handmaiden, Ofkyle, die in childbirth. While Agnes' family and the doctor praise Ofkyle for making the "supreme sacrifice" and for dying with "noble feminine honor", Agnes is deeply troubled, as Ofkyle's death was not something she chose. Agnes's repulsion and deep sympathy for the Handmaid suggest that it is not even Ofkyle's death, but her total inability to choose whether or not to live or die, that constitutes the greatest injustice imposed on her as a woman. it serves to provide some balance to the narrative, which often sounds defensive of Gilead: "I hope you too will remember that we all feel a certain nostalgia for whatever kindness we knew as children." Libra thehighly critical and negative view that every other narrator has of Gilead. Agnes in fact confesses that she loved the central idea of ​​Gilead and that she supported its original fundamental ideals (I would say that this would be mainly due to the indoctrination that the reader sees during her childhood), but that she struggled against the profound corruption that afflicted the system and oppressed women for the gain of greedy men. I would say this is Agnes' female voice shining through, even though she had love from her early years, refused to be oppressed, and longed for freedom. Nicole performs almost the opposite function to her sister. She also echoes Offred, her mother, in that she actively chooses the path of rebellion against the state. We see this active role heavily emphasized throughout the novel as Nicole actively engages in the only violence we see performed by a female character in the novels other than the 'participations' the Handmaids take part in, 'Nicole did something with her fist... .hit Aunt Vidala in the chest.' She also engages in subterfuge and secret rebellions like all the other female narrators we see in Atwood's choice to give her multiple names throughout the narrative, Daisy, Nicole, and Jade. It serves to demonstrate how rising above the totalitarian control of the patriarchal state can allow the female voice to flourish and become powerful, seen in her almost total refusal to project too much of an outward façade of conformity, "she would make a show of trying, but these attempts would not last long However, I would argue that even Nicole, who grows up in an open, democratic Canadian society and has considerably more power in making her own decisions, finds that she too is sometimes given little choice in important decisions in her life, especially considering that she is involved in external events far beyond her control, “somehow I agreed to go to Gilead without ever definitively accepting Nicole's apparent lack of choice in a decision that could irreversibly change or even cost her life.” comparable to Handmaid Ofkyle's lack of choice regarding her or her child's life. This complicates the concept of choice, since Nicole's unchosen task is her best hope of defeating the Gilead regime, suggesting that an individual may sometimes need to set aside their personal agency for the greater good, which in Nicole's case will free women from the patriarchal control exercised by Gilead and allow them all to exercise their own free will. Aunt Lydia's narrative within The Testaments contrasts sharply with how Atwood characterizes her in The Handmaid's Tale. Throughout the previous novel, the role played by Aunt Lydia and the other aunts in supporting the handmaids was highly ironic. Aunt Lydia seemed to be an archetype of oppressive power and control within Gilead. Gilead used her and other women selected for power to ensure the full oppression of their voices. However she is shown to be playing a role very similar to that played by Offred, secretly plotting to undermine Gilead's goals. It is an example of how the female voice adapts to and subverts the control exerted on it by the patriarchal system to achieve its goals: "I have become swollen with power, it is true, but also nebulous - shapeless, formless." displacement. I am everywhere and nowhere: even in the minds of commanders I cast an ominous shadow.' This is seen strongly in how Lydia's narrative is actually her compliance with all the evils and wrongdoings committed by those who control Gilead. We see her using the only privilege she has been afforded over other women, hers.