Detailed essay plan - not finished

Detailed essay plan

Introduction: explain what status is, how it differs between men and women in the society of Gilead and in The Wife of Bath. Briefly explain how the society affects both men and women. Outline the hierarchy; briefly outline who’s at the top and who’s at the bottom and also all in between. Generally talk about both societies - pros and cons. Why status is needed.

Status in the Handmaid’s tale

- Different statuses amongst women

- Status between women and men

- Why the society is run based on statuses, how does this fit into the regime of a place like Gilead?

- Why is status needed?

- What does it mean to have some people at the top and some at the bottom

Status in The Wife of Bath

- Status between women and men

- Dominance of men over women in the fourteenth century, how does this view and the image of society contradict the actions and mentality of The Wife of Bath?

- How is The Wife of Bath different in the patriarchal society?

- How does she gain dominance over men?

- The Wife of Bath is controlling through maistrie, makes her powerful

Religion in The Wife of Bath

- High belief in God in the fourteenth century

- People going on pilgrimages, Wife of Bath only goes to gain attention

- Only attends church to get noticed

- How does the Wife of Bath use religion to her advantage?

- What kind of biblical illusions does she transmit in her prologue to justify her actions?

- Can her manner be justified? How much is she going by the rules of Christianity?

Religion in The Handmaid’s Tale

- The society has been based on theocracy

- How do the hidden occurrences in the society of Gilead contradict the religious system that has been set up?

- Is Gilead really based on theocracy? Is it not innovated by the rulers to suit their needs?

- How do the people take advantage of the religion and apply it to their selfish wants?

Uniforms and coding in The Handmaid’s Tale:

- Different colours for all different people in the society

- How does this convey status?

- What do colours mean? How are they successful in portraying the role of a person?

- No freedom to wear what they want

- People are divided and segregated – forms conflicts and a huge status gap

- Easier to tell people/ groups/communities apart

Clothing in The Wife of Bath:

- Her clothes are mostly bright, in seek of attention

- Wants to get noticed so is always in her best garments

- Freedom to wear what she wants, wears red which connotes sexual appeal, lust, passion etc

- Her choice of clothing illustrate her active sex life

- Vibrant clothing – exciting love life

Subjugation of women in The Handmaid’s Tale:

- Women are subjugated to various different roles

- Their wanted not needed

- Handmaids to bear children

- Commanders wives to fill in the elite wealthy section

- Econowives to fulfil all the other jobs of wives such as cleaning and cooking

- Marthas to cook in the Commander’s homes

- Aunts to teach other women that the society of Gilead is fair and reasonable

- All women are there for a purpose to serve the system, they are not living for themselves

Same in the The Wife of Bath?

- Primary role is to be a wife

- Women in the fourteenth century were expected to be submissive wives, but The Wife of Bath is going against all these norms of the society

- She has made up her own set of rules and regulations and justifies them by using some biblical references

- The Wife of Bath on the other hand uses men, for her needs, she does not get used for anything

- She is all about her sexuality and only serves herself not the society

- Her norms and values oppose the society

- She has been a wife but a wife to many, how would this be seen in the patriarchal society of the fourteenth century?

Essay plan

4. Compare and contrast the ways Atwood in 'The Handmaid's Tale' and Chaucer in 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' explore status in society.

Intro - explain what status is, how it differs between men and women in the society of Gilead and in The wife of bath. Briefly explain how the society effects both men and women. The privileges, the negatives and positives. Outline the hierachy, briefly outline whos at the top and whos at the bottom and also all in between. Generally talk about both soceities - pros and cons. Why status is needed

Subjugation of women. Different ways women are subjugated in the Handmaid's tale, Atwood - feminist views. Status is shown in uniform and colours. Different clothing between women for e.g. Econowives were colourful striped clothes to convey that they have more than one role, more than one purpose (cooking and cleaning). Clothing of men is different. Uniform and colours, a way to create segregation and division between people of Gilead. Every uniform conveys a certain role. "Black for the commander, blue for the commander's wife and the one assigned to me which is red".Explain in detail the system of the hierachy. Elaborate on the negatives and positives both with men and women. What it means to be a man in both societies and what it means to be a woman. Use quotes and pee's to justify points.

Dominance of men. Commanders being dominant in Gilead. Handmaid's take the name of their commanders. Shows the commander is in power. Commanders role in the household and the kind of relationship he has with Offred. The private relationship in the office. Use quotes to explain how specific women in the Handmaid's tale feel about the situation their in. Also quotes from men implying things about soceity. Also quotes from the wife of bath that show how people feel in the sort of society they are in. Roles of women in society. How that defines status, why? Who creates these jobs, rules, laws, restrictions. What happens if the job confined is not met? What are the threats and how does Gilead keep the society running 'smooth'. These different roles created- PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY.

Some of the people in society rebel - who does not follow the rules as they should? Jezebels, Serena, Handmaid - Offred, nick

What women have to do for men in the Handmaid's tale.

Subjugation of women

Chapter 16

This particular chapter primarily focuses on the ceremony of sexual intercourse that takes places between the Commander and Offred the Handmaid. It describes everything that goes on while the ceremony is occurring. It consists of the feelings and emotions of the Commanders wife, Offred and the Commander while being a part of this whole ceremony.

Offred illustrated Commander's wife's emotions. "The rings of her left hand cut into my fingers. It may or may not be revenge." This conveys the Commanders wife selfishness and insensitivity that while using Offred she is still trying her best to show her anger and frustration towards this whole situation. She is expressing it through any way she can and in this case, using her rings to cut into Offred's fingers. Is this humane? No. Having said that, the whole idea of this ceremony is not humane. It is a situation made to use women solely for the purpose of reproduction in the society of Gilead. Offred does not refer to Serena through using her name, she says the possessive pronoun "her" which reflects that she probably does not respect her as much as she should according to the position she is in compared to the Commander's wife. These feelings are obviously expressed in her mind and mind only. She dare not speak out loud as she does not want to be sent to the colonies where all the unwanted people of Gilead end up. Offred feels as if Serena might be taking "revenge" out on her but she is not completely certain as she also adds before that "it may or may not be". Revenge for having sex with her husband. This show her heartlessness as the Handmaid has no choice because she has been confined to this role and also because Offred is BENEFITTING Serena in every way possible.

Offred goes on to describe her feelings towards what is happened. She says, "Below it the Commander is fucking...I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing." This expresses Offred's emotions towards what is happened to her perfectly. She feels as if she's a victim of this situation. Offred describes the sexual intercourse between her and the Commander in a disrespectful 'dirty' way. Its almost as if this is happened against her will, which emotionally might be the case. Offred got forced to be a Handmaid so her frustrated feelings show through this.\

TO BE CONTINUED.

The Jezebel Section

Look at chapters 37-39 - the Jezebel section - with the following in mind.

Explore attitudes towards women and sex.
Margaret Atwood, the author of the book The Handmaid’s Tale. She is a radical feminist and believes in all the ideologies that have been formed about men towards women. Atwood illustrates some of the beliefs and ideologies of feminism through different ways throughout the novel. Atwood reveals her radicalism many a times by expressing in her novel that all men treat women unfairly and dictate their every move. Atwood uses a female narrator, who is named Offred (this is not her real name) to show that there is no democracy between men and women, it is a dictatorship. Dictatorships run by men. It values over powering women and being persistent in dominating them.
In the chapters 37 to 39, a place called Jezebel is revealed. The term ‘Jezebel’ derives from the Bible. Jezebel was a woman who passed on iniquity upon the kingdom of the king Ahab. Also the term ‘Jezebel’ is also used to define and describe a rebellious and disobedient woman. Jezebel is a place which consists of women who are solely used for pleasure and fornication. The term fornication is used to describe best what occurs in Jezebel because the commanders are not religiously and lawfully married to the women. This place is evidently opposing and abusing the rules and policies of the government of Gilead. In this section Atwood uses present tense to describe Offred’s experiences of Jezebel. This makes the experiences more effective because for the readers it makes moments come alive as Offred explores and becomes captivated in the contrasting ideas of this place. Up to chapter 36, Atwood expressed her views through using the voice of Offred by conveying that women are mainly used for childbearing. These particular sections focuses on alternative roles for women.
In chapter thirty seven, as Offred is revealing what she observes says, ‘The women are sitting, lounging, strolling, leaning against one another.’ The finite verb ‘are’ is used to emphasise the present tense that Atwood is using to describe Offred’s experience. The finite verb ‘are’ is joined with auxiliary verbs to depict the women’s movements. The auxiliary verbs such as ‘...sitting, lounging, strolling...’ convey a sense of freedom. This is something that the women of Gilead do not have. They don’t have freedom to, they have freedom from. The verbs are portraying that the women are free to be however they want. They do not need any one’s permission to be in any state they wish to be. This expresses how the women of Jezebel differ from the women of Gilead. Atwood has made this Jezebel place to be hidden and a place not many people know about. Women can do as they please in this place. This connotes that Atwood believes, women only rarely have some sort of freedom and that too when men want nothing but pleasure and sex from them. So in theory, women are still not free. They are tied down by one duty or the other.
Another way the women are describes in this section are through clothing. In the society of Gilead, women have to dress in certain colours depending on their status. This therefore makes their status in society prominent to everyone. They are divided and women of different classes do not mix with one another unless for professional reasons. Offred continues to set the scene of Jezebel and then describes the clothing of the women. She says, ‘The women on the other hand are tropical, they are dressed in all kinds of bright festive gear.’ This is just one quote to describe the dressing of the women in Jezebel. Offred carries on great detail describing the different kinds of outfits. The idea of women all dressed differently emits a sense of individuality and originality. They are not under any certain status, position or categorised. The adjective ‘bright’ and ‘festive’ are just some of the adjectives used to describe the clothing. The adjective ‘bright’ portrays a feeling of happiness and the importance of light in a very dark place. In this case the importance of ‘excitement’ in a dull society like Gilead. The adjective ‘festive’ displays a sense of high spirits and energy. This connotes positivity and the occurrences of different things happening at once. Festive connotes festivals and the usual conventions of a festival are many events taking place on one occasion. This implies that there are different events occurring in Jezebel and different in the actual society of Gilead. Although these are just descriptions of clothing, it still conveys ideologies about the opposing environment, Jezebel.
In the opening paragraph of chapter 39 Offred speaks about how she notices and observes the desires of the commander to have sexual intercourse with her. ‘The commander has a room key...he shows it to me, slyly. I am to understand.’ The use of the adverb, ‘slyly’ indicates that the commander has to be sneaky and conniving to get what he wants. He has to be shrewd to fulfil his sexual needs. Offred then carries on expressing her emotions on how she feels when the commander is so physically close to her. She says, ‘But it’s no good, I lie there dead like a bird. He is no monster, I think.’ Atwood uses the simile, ‘like a bird’ to express what kind of feelings Offred is undergoing at this moment in her life. The thought of a bird brings freedom and liberty to mind but as soon as the word ‘dead’ is replaced before it, it suddenly emits a frozen, insensitive and a cold feeling. It’s almost as if Offred has got ‘used’ for sex so many times that now the feeling of being objectified has desensitised within her. After describing the commander as a ‘monster’ which gives him animalistic features, Offred uses the personal noun ‘I’ and abstract noun ‘think’ these two nouns convey a sense of confusion and perplexity. It’s almost as if Offred is not sure whether the Commander is a human with feelings or a evil heartless monster.
In conclusion, after having stated several ideologies expressed in some passages of the novel, it has come to notice that Margaret Atwood has a very negative view about men and their attitudes towards women. She expresses these views in harsh ways, making situations sound extreme and unreasonable which put ‘all’ men in a very pessimistic light. Atwood has made men look like users. It’s either using women for childbearing, using women for sex and pleasure or using women for other various things such as cooking and cleaning. She has somehow in every way possible shown that women are only used by men, their needed and perhaps not wanted as much. There is a different between want and need. Both have different feelings behind them.

Nick's Monologue

I am excited. I haven’t felt like this in a very long time. This is going to be fun. How can it be that I am going to be so close to Offred. I would only ever dream for that to happen. Sometimes I would touch her leg or wink at her. But that’s it. That’s the furthest we ever got. I could tell though that she has something there for me. I know she does. That flame, that spark, that desire to be loved, maybe through physical means? Or emotionally…I don’t know. All I know is we have this attraction that draws us towards each other more and more. Maybe its love, maybe its lust, maybe it’s nothing! No. Actually, it is something. I am pretty sure of that. So now, I have been waiting for a very long time and the time for going into her room is slowly approaching. I’ve never been this nervous before, yet confident at the same time. Is it normal to feel this way? Is it normal to feel two emotions at once? I guess so. The wait is over. I step into her room. Everyone is sleeping; it’s dark outside and also dark in the room. I can tell from the way Offred is lying on the bed that she has been waiting for this moment too. She has been waiting as eagerly as I have. Oh wow, she looks so tempting. Well, I wouldn’t have to resist her any longer. I guess the time has come, to fulfil this need that I have. I could also call it a ‘want’. I want and need her. Why am I still waiting? This is it…

A letter from a Commander's wife to Serena Joy

Dear Serena Joy,
I am writing to you in hope of recieving a reply very soon! I hope you are doing well. I was thinking of getting in touch with you ealier than the time it has come to but I have been so occupied with numerous other things such as knitting and organising a birthday party, I will be explaining to you further on in the letter.

Since I have finally found the time, I thought it would be perfect to reconnect with you and see how you have been. Are you gradually becoming better and better at knitting? I have to say, many of my friends have complimented the fine definition they have witnessed in the way I knit, something I have learnt to do over time. What kind of hobbies do you have Serena? Apart from knitting, it will be interesting to know if you have any amusing skills!

I would just like to add Serena, I absoloutley despise all Handmaids! Has you're Handmaid conceived yet? Oh, how painful it is to be watching such intimacy between the Handmaid and the Commander. It pierces right through me, but then I remember it is all for a good cause. I want a child, I want someone I can bring up, I want to be a mother so why not? There is no harm, right... there is no loss, just gain. So, I forget about my emotional pain and look at the brigther side. The Handmaid at my house is called OfSola. What is yours called? It is rather a peculiar question but I just suddenly felt interested in asking you!

I drove around some areas of Gilead after I was allowed the permission of my Commander. It was nice to get a breath of fresh air! It gives me a content, good feeling. To see the blue clear sky and some nature still present in Gilead. Takes me into another world, a world not so different, but yet still very different. I felt a deep adrelanine rush through me with excitement as I remembered that it is my birthday very soon! So here goes the invite...

Serena, my dear friend, you are invited! I would love it if you can come! It is on the 24th of July, I would appreciate it so much if you would be able to attend. As you know, you are one of my close friends and I would be very much dishearted if you can't be present on such a special day. All the wives will be getting together, sharing laughter and having a good time, I want you to be there, to be a part of it all. It has been a very long time since we have all congregated and I thought my birthday would be a perfect excuse just for that to take place!

Looking forward to reading you're reply Serena.

Take care of yourself,

Noor Solaa

The Handmaid's tale - Top three features

1) About loss, e.g. of freedom, mothers and children

This is what best describes the novel according to me because theres a strong sense of loss amongst the females in the society. The econowives are in financial loss. The handmaid's are confined to one job, their role is to serve the ones in authority by reproducing future generations. They are used as sexual instruments. The handmaid's are in loss of their dignity, self respect and piety. There is no freedom for women, they either do what their told or be sent to the colonies to work their until they die, the colonies are waste land after the happening of war. There are oil spills in that site and also other gunk which the unwanted people of the society of Gilead have to clean up.

2) About male power and conflict

There is a huge status gap between men and women in the society of Gilead. Men are in power and authority, women have no say, they do what they are told, there is no option for them. Even the women of high status, the commander's wives have no say in anything, they do what their husbands require them to. All the power is handed onto men, the society is run by men, the rules and regulations are made by men. Everything benefits them. It is a capitalist society, conveying the exact status of people, this cause conflict between the upper and lower class. Upper class have different rights compared to lower class.

3) About the exploitation of women

Women are exploited in the society of Gilead. They are used for certain requirements to make the society 'better'. Before the war commenced, the poor men that had legal wives got to keep their wives after the war. These wives were called econowives, they serve the needs for 'other kind of women' while the handmaid's have a different role. The handmaids....

The doctor in The handmaid's Tale

Offred visits the doctor regularly to be checked for any diseases ( for example: sexually transmitted deseases ), complications or difficulties. After Offred fornicates with the Commander first time, she gets herself checked by the doctor. The doctor offers to have sex with her to get pregnant implying that the Commander is probably infertile. This conveys the Doctor in a very unprofessional light because he offers his PATIENT to have sexual intercourse with him. The Doctor makes it seem like it's for beneficial reasons, just so Offred gets pregnant but it also implies a sense of sexual desires being formed by the Doctor. It makes his character look 'loose' and 'immodest' because it is not normal for a Doctor to get intimate with his Patient.
The doctor also makes Offred uneasy, this suggests that his body language is not simple and clear to read and that he wants more than just a check up with Offred. This further shows the Doctor's mentality, the fact that he offers to have sex with Offred to get her pregnant expresses how he would go to extreme lengths to gain pleasure. The Doctor has no concern that if Offred falls pregnant because of him, he will be half responsible and in realistic terms the baby will be his but he is ready to form a baby and forget about it. This illustrates that he is someone who probably does this on a regular basis and has overtime built up a careless attitude towards it. Offred refuses to be initmate with the Doctor and having done that saves herself from getting sent away.

More in epigraphs

Biblical Allusion

The Bible is a collection of books that outlines the beliefs and teachings of christians. This holy book is a guide for living life the fullest, in the right way for Christians. The Biblical teachings tie in with other religions as well, such as Islam and Judaism. It is a collection of 66 books all containing the different messages of living life peacefully.

The quotation in the epigraph does not offer a sound model for a happy life as the situation is utterly unfair.

Epigraphs in The Handmaid's Tale

There are three epigraphs in the beginning of the book, The Handmaid's Tale.

First:

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel; and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath witheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
- Genesis, 30:1-3

This epigraph conveys the importance of having children. It is so vital that there is a story in the Bible to get across this message. Women could reach upto extreme levels to have children even in that era. So extreme, that they would find it normal for their husband to sleep with another woman as shown in the Biblical story. This act would otherwise would be labelled as adultery if the wife had not known or told her husband to do so.

Second:

But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal . . .
- Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

This epigraph means that after being through hard, unbearable cirumstances, something good suddenly comes along. This means, after something bad there is always something good. After hard times, there are good times. After every hardship, there's relief. The mind only starts working at it's best once it realises it's in danger.

Third:

In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones.
-Sufi proverb

This epigraph can mean several things. I personally believe it means that you don't necessarily need instructions to do something you want to do. If in life, you think you have to do something, you should go ahead and do it.