Dystopian fictions and feminism. The Brave New World, The Handmaids Tale, and The Wastelands novel - Coursework Example

Dystopian fiction and feminism Introduction Dystopian fiction is an aspect of literature writing that creates a disregarded society and terrible society called dystopia. Many authors use this as a way of presenting the various directions that humanity may take due to the choices that they make hence creating one of two possible futures. This aspect tallies with utopian fiction as they both apply in science and speculative fiction novels. Ideally, dystopian fiction has an intense portrayal of abject mass poverty, suffering and relative oppression that a society may experience. In essence, most authors use dystopian fiction as an analogy to the real issue experienced in the world [1]. They are mostly political warnings that present characters as lacking justice, fulfillment, and freedom. Tentatively, dystopian fiction may be a genre that most feminist writers any use as a way of asserting the conflict between individual desire and societal will on matters sexual. In this regard, this essay will delve on the resilience aspect of dystopian fiction that tends to topple political resistance within sexuality aspects. Additionally, the focus will be on the comparisons between the Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Wastelands novel within the aspect of sexuality in the dystopian society that that the authors create. This would be through language use, character presentation, themes, and structural component. Summary of the three literature pieces The Brave New World 1931 novel by feminist Aldous Huxley anticipates the development of technology for reproduction, psychological tampering, learning during sleep that combine to bring substantial change to that society. In essence, the title of this book draws influence from Miranda’s speech in Shakespeare’s Hamlet play where she had lived most of her life in an island in isolation. The only people that she knew were his father, servants, a slave, and spirits that lived in the island. In essence, Aldous presents a contrary view to utopian fiction by other authors that had put men in high places while placing women low in the social circle. It was a negative approach to author Herbert George Wells that he gave a frightening view of the future. It is a futuristic novel that deals with present issues of sexuality that men were the only ones deserving of contentment as compared to loneliness for women. On the other hand, The Handmaid's Tale of 1986 by Margaret Artwood is a novel that created an anti-utopian aspect of society that had intense relations as compared to the Brave New World. In essence, the novel presented a world that was terrifying to those that lived in it as they had restrictive attributes. It was also a feminist dystopian vision due to the conservative revival experienced at that time. Partly, it drew influence from the sexual revolution of the 1960s where religious movement criticized the excesses of the sexism in the west [2]. The horrifying idea that the novel created was that the religious conservative aspects had the potential of reversing the gains made in terms of feminism. The novel discussed the possible consequences that may befall society if there occurred a contravene of women’s rights. In essence, the society that Margaret talked about being one that had extremists that based its view on women from the traditional values that portrayed women as people whose fate was to be home caregivers. Lastly, The Wasteland poem by Eliot Thomas Stearns was one of the literature pieces that contributed immensely in the modernist movement[3]. Modernism in poetry was taking back the old forms of traditional instigations on romance that was slowly fading into oblivion. As a poet, Eliot wrote the poem when his marriage was failing and a when the couple was experiencing nervous breakdowns. It had elements of prophecy and satire that characterized the dystopian future element as it was obscure. Analysis of sexualism and political themes in the three literatures In the three pieces, the sexual theme is dominant as compared to the politics surrounding the development of the dystopian fiction in the stories. For a start, the Brave New World’s the futuristic environment has promiscuity as an accepted practice and where emotional entanglement becomes an illegal aspect. The dystopian future indicated by the author is that sexual relations would no longer be procreation but would be an element of distraction of the futuristic society [4]. In essence, this act in the future no longer has passion as a thrill to making it more affectionate but rather it takes up a more dehumanized form. On the contrary, The Wastelands poem has a contrary approach to sexuality and romance as its approach in trends to regain the passion that once existed in the early days. Eliot intends to reestablish the romance that modernity and culture had robbed society of since the end of the II world war. As per the poem, the Dystopian future here is that a woman with supernatural abilities lives well into the future but is immortal and that she wishes to die. This translates to the fact that Eliot has to contend with the fact that the society that he lives in had decayed morals and that it never expires hence had no option other than living with memories of the past Shakespearean society. In addition , the poetry gives another aspect of the oppression of feminism through the fertility rituals that women in that society tend to experience. Eliot borrowed this aspect from Sir James Frazier’s The Golden Bough and Weston Jessie’s From Ritual to Romance where the subject of events was one Fisher King. He got injuries on his genitals that were his source of procreative meaning that the dystopian future would be a wasteland because no more children would come out of his manhood. Essentially, Eliot referred to the situation that he and his wife Vivienne were in meaning that their nervous breakdown condition and failing relations might might not allow them to have children of their own hence foreseeing a wasteland in their future. This would be through the culture of mot having romantic relations that he society had deviated. On the other hand, The Handmaid’s Tale also encompasses a fair share of fertility and sexualism theme as a result of political and religious influence. As per the book, the aspect of infertility squarely affected women of that society, meaning that the men had an exemption to the blame of a couple lacking children. According to the culture, baby-making is a two-individual process hence blaming the problem on the women alone was a shift that The Handmaid’s Tale negated. With this in mind, the society of that time makes sexual interactions as business ventures that do not have any erotic aspects in any way. This means that the few fertile women left in the society go to bed with the men after applying certain rituals and prayers as a religious aspect. Another non-feminist factor that the novel presents is the idea that the perceived barren wives have two witnesses the intercourse between the handmaids and their husbands. Essentially, this becomes the dystopian fiction that no feminist society would want to wake up to in the future. Therefore, the authors of these three literature pieces give contrary dystopian futures but with similar aspects of social, religious or political influence in relation to feminism and socialism. Language comparison in the literatures Arguably, the three literatures use different language ideas in the presentation of their themes and ideas. However, they all use a language that exemplifies the fact that the occurrence of these different sexual and non-feminist dystopias will be in the future. However, the language tone used in the Brave New Future is as a result of science hence emphasizing that this dystopian fictional possibility will be as a result of social interference through scientific interventions. In essence, the dystopian society presented by the novel is that there would be physical sexual relations in the creation of babies, but instead test tube babies supplement normal child's inception and delivery. Therefore, the language style used is intensely scientific hence making one to have increased concentration so as to get the concept presentation. On the other hand, the language style used in The Handmaid’s Tale is rather political as compared to that of the The Brave New World. In essence, the future dystopian society will be one that the state has immense control over in that the politics of that time tends to dictate how women should live their lives. This contravenes the principles of feminism that allows women to live as they will. The language tone used here is one that emphasizes that women need not work or acquire knowledge. In essence, the author of this poem did not use the poetic language that many artists of that time used, but instead opted to use a non poetic language. In essence, the piece was a poem before other authors made various book publications on the same. The post modernism aspect embedded in the content also reflected through the language approach as it had traits of western culture. Despite the fact that Eliot related to the works of Shakespeare and other poets that wrote about romance, he did this piece as a result of personal experience. He did not write as a secondary character but instead used imagery to depict how the future may turn out for their society. Since he was in a religious society, Eliot’s language in the poem also has aspects related to religion through the use of references from a religious book to serve as the principle and manual for living in the dystopian society. However, his anxieties over how the future would be is clear in the language that he uses as he applies broad symbolism and mastered techniques to instill fear. He uses a great blend of words to portray the gravity of the dystopian future that may occur hence making a reader to share in his vision of the featuring The fictional dystopia is one that would have minimal regard for feminism hence becoming a sexist society that women would no longer strive. Character presentation Ideally, the characters in the three literature pieces appear to have different impacts on the presentation of the sexual realm and feminism aspects that are dominant in the plot. For one, The Waste Land poem by Eliot makes all the characters appear to embrace the modernist's way of living their lives. In essence, the culture of the dystopian society created by Eliot is modern hence creating the need to present the characters as modern men. The male characters by Eliot are intellectuals that have no time for expressing their feelings but are rather keen on innovativeness and creating a powerful economy, which is a Marxist way of thinking. These characters lack the ability to express themselves as compared to the characters that were romantic during the time of Shakespeare. This depicts the fact that Eliot is a creative and original poet that uses remarkable skills in the formulation of characters that complement the storyline of The Wastelands poetry in the development of the sexual and feminism themes. On the contrary, The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel within which the protagonist gives a first hand account of her views on the dystopian future that may occur. The character in the novel experiences flashbacks and digressions as a way of showing the reader her perspective of the themes in question. Moreover, the character in the novel also attempts to portray how human she is in that having to witness non erotic sexual relations between husbands and handmaids is disrespectful and non feminist. The narrator portrays how she refuted passes by Gilead, the main anti-feminist in the novel, but does not emerge as a feminist hero despite her resistance. “My nakedness is strange to me already. [...] Did I really wear bathing suits, at the beach? I did, without thought, among men, without caring that my legs, my arms, my thighs and back were on display, could be seen. Shameful, immodest. I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it's shameful or immodest but because I don't want to see it. I don't want to look at something that determines me so completely” [5]. This quote highlights how the character contributes to the fact that women in that society attempt to express their discontent with the fact that men consider them as the causes for barrenness. Additionally, the novel also presents the narrator as a promiscuous character in that it shows the sexual escapades that she once had in her past, hence becoming a possible cause for her state of barrenness. The non feminist portrayal of the character within the novel is through her past relationship with her lover where they rented cheap hotels in order to satisfy their sexual urges. I want Luke here so badly. I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I once could do, how others saw me [5]. In essence, this quote suggests how the narrator longed the past where her lover, Luke appreciated her more than the way her husband views her as a uterus and not as a woman.This attribute negates the chances of the chief protagonist in the play as the hero because she also had a weakness. With this past weakness, the society could not factor in her attempts and contribution towards a feminist society. In addition, the promiscuous factor of the character makes her indulge on erotic relations with several men in the play hence influencing that women having relations with more than one man as an acceptable. However, the male characters do not get any negative criticism hence portraying that society favors them. In contrast, the Brave New World the character named John is the only man born naturally of a woman also adapts to the thinking that sexual relations were painful and tormenting. The character in the story feels that this aspect of procreation is humiliating and hence becoming painful for the natives of this dystopian society. This aspect is what forces the men of that society to have no sexual relations with their women, hence creating a society where there are no erroneous relationships. Additionally, the characters in this novel also have no regard for the babies that would result from the scientific process of procreation in that they accept the term embryo’s rather than babies when mentioning the conceived babies. Essentially, most of the characters in these dystopian fictions created by the authors are substantive in the development of the view on progress of non-feminism and socialism. Structural component Arguably, a comparative essay becomes incomplete if it does not factor in the structural techniques used within the tests that are the subjects of comparison. In essence, the structure attribute within the Handmaid’s Tale is a construct in that the existence of the dystopian society is entirely dependant on the narrator's view and their way of thinking. This is a philosophical scientific approach to which the presented ideas and concepts are ideal objects made to exist from the narrator’s creativity. Essentially, Atwood engages her readers with this fact through the narration offered by Offred, but this does not reflect that the novel is a chronological narrative[6]. In the end, Atwood leaves the story hanging as she does not give an ending that the readers would anticipate. This means that her structure of writing does not give a final feminist commentary by giving a neat ending to the story. However, The Wastelands poem has a different structure as compared to the The Handmaid’s Tale novel in that the author uses the structural approach of chaos and disjoint to create the mythology. This presents the fact that individuals that are resilient to negating non-feminism experience difficulty in demonstrating their ideologies. The author uses the social clustering structure as a way of expressing social barriers brought by traditional customs. He uses this to emphasize how technology has brought about the fragmentation of their dystopian society. On the other hand, the Brave New World novel uses technological structuring as a way of explaining the dystopian society where baby making is a scientific affair. The structure is also systemic in terms of presentation of ideas making Huxley’s ideas to have logical development. In addition, this author focuses on individualism and truth as a means of developing a society that does not embrace the norm of reproduction. Therefore, the author applies a simplistic but rather unique structure that many authors could not grasp at that time in order to portray an anti-feminist society. Conclusion The themes of feminism and sexuality that the three authors attempted to present through their creation of a dystopian future were relatively complex and also fictional. In any case the chances that the extreme non-feminist approaches would exist were relatively slim as no society would allow for such extremities to happen. Additionally, the authors each used different structural approaches so as to express the level of discontent that the dystopian societies may present. Regardless of the fact that these dystopias were fictional, these authors used their view of the future to emphasize on the present situation that faced them and the women in their society in that sexuality was a female suppressive affair. They also pointed out how society accepts promiscuity for men and negates it on the women hence asserting the notion that is a man’s world. Moreover, the theme of feminism was a factor used by one of the authors to assert the need for women to access learning while another author insisted that a fault in delayed pregnancy was not entirely a woman’s fault. Therefore, the dystopian texts on The Handmaid’s Tale, The Wastelands, and the Brave New World had immense aspects of fiction in relation to the resilience in the acceptance of feminist activities that have influence from political, religious or technological aspects. Bibliography [1] Booker, M. Keith, and Anne-Marie Thomas. 2009. The Science Fiction Handbook. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=428197.r [2] Deane-Drummond, Celia. 2003. Brave new world: theology, ethics and the human genome. London [u.a.]: T & T Clark. [3] Bloom, Harold. 2006. T.S. Eliot's The waste land. New York: Chelsea House. [4] Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. 2003. Women in literature: reading through the lens of gender. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press [5] Bloom, Harold. 2004. Margaret Atwood's The handmaid's tale. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. http://skynet.ccm.edu:2048/login?url=http://ebooks.infobasepublishing.com/View.aspx?ISBN=9781438114569&InstID=2577 [6] Atwood, Margaret. 2011. The handmaid's tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Read More