One of the main concerns of both Utopian and Dystopian societies is Freedom. How do people maintain the human right that has existed for centuries and it even became the main section of the 948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Should the utopian society be confined? What is the amount of freedom that people should be granted? Sometimes giving absolute freedom might form a dystopian society but so can confinement. Many cultures associate disability with confinement and this event strictly infringes freedom. Society would have to find a perfect margin so as to make this type of society work. The Republic of Gilead, as it is described in the book, definitely is not a free society. Men are not allowed to be with women, families are not allowed to exist, women are not even allowed to satisfy their simplest wants such as reading, eating the food they want, smoking a cigarette. They formed a totalitaristic government, resembling theonomy, which technically disabled most of the United States of America. In the novel The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, Freedom and Confinement is the most widely discussed topic. By examining three main parts of the book, we can see what effect freedom and confinement have on society. These parts are the flashbacks when Offred remembers her past life and compares it to the present, when she talks about Aunt Lydias lectures and what she taught the handmaids, and when Offred starts crossing the law and violate
s the rules with Commander and Nick. In the past, before the revolution happened, she was a free person, with a job and full life but she didnt appreciate it. Later she got brainwashed by the Aunts, they tried to convince her that they should not underestimate the power of confinement and that their life is actually safer in Gilead. And once she started violating the rules, even living in a prison-like environment became bearable. Gilead seeks to silence women, but Offred speaks out, denies Gilead to take control over her inner life, Offreds describing the horror of Gilead as she experiences it from day today. Serena Joy, she used to be a powerful woman but Gileads government seems without freedom of choice. She worked as a gospel singer and anti-feminist activist and crusader for traditional values in Pre-Gilead times. After that, she used to give speeches as a television personality who promoted an anti-feminist about the sanctity of the home she was advocating the women return to the home and submission to their husbands. Now, shes the commanders wife. Atwood makes it obvious how unhappy she is in the current domestic situation, acting as a wife, she is broken inside. This unhappiness derives from the restrictive and male-dominated society. Gileads society cannot bring happiness even to its most powerful women. Only men have the freedom to read, and while he is in the room he opens the bible and reads a verse that Serena Joy is identified.