Author(s)

Yue Yu, Qingyuan Li

Corresponding Author

Yue Yu

Abstract

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, originally published in 1985. In the near future, human fertility rates collapse as a result of sexually transmitted diseases and environmental pollution. With this chaos in place, a new, power-hungry, militarized, hierarchical regime of fanaticism took control of the government and established a new country called “Gilead“. They created new social classes, in which women are brutally subjugated, and by law are not allowed to work, own property, handle money, nor read. Women are divided into a small range of social categories that dictate their freedoms and duties: Marthas (who are housekeepers and cooks), Wives (who are expected to run their households), Handmaids (who are forced into sexual and child-bearing servitude) and Aunts (who train and oversee the Handmaids). This paper attempts to analyze the feminist consciousness of Magaret Atwood through the depictions of the characters in the novel. At the same time, it extends to the reflection on the problem of gender inequality in contemporary society.

Keywords

The Handmaid’s Tale, Feminism, Gender Equality