StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - Common Motives - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay “Winterson’s The Passion and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale - Common Motives” considers volitional women, ready to confront many life challenges. The isolation of feminists who can do better themselves, without men, contrasts particularly with the lack of character of some men…
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.7% of users find it useful
Wintersons The Passion and Atwoods The Handmaids Tale - Common Motives
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - Common Motives"

Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale can both be considered feminist works. They both look at the different aspect of feminism, which can be seen in the remarkably different environments in which the stories in these novels are set, and these give a hint of the authors’ thoughts on the feminism. The Passion is a novel set in the Napoleonic age, and it is a story based on two characters, Henri, who is a cook, and Villanelle, a web footed cross dresser who works in a casino. The Handmaid’s Tale on the other hand, is a story set in a futuristic New England after the destruction of the United States, and it is based on the experiences of Offered, a handmaid. Both of these stories are told according to the view of the main characters and they often display a strong sense of the feminist ideology, whether the authors do it consciously or unconsciously. One would be tempted to say that these novels are attempts by the authors to advance the feminist agenda by showing us the progress that has been made by women so far and the way this progress might be quickly eroded. They attempt to show the weaknesses that plague the feminist movement and the fact that, despite all its recent gains, this movement is still extremely new and if anything catastrophic were to happen; then all these gains would be lost in an instant mainly because of the nature of these gains. In the state of Gilead where The Handmaid’s Tale is set, women are kept apart from the men, and it is expected that they support each other in all aspects of life. If these women are in the same household, they are expected to work together to fulfill the various duties which have been set for their gender. In this novel, women are presented, as to be strong being able to deal with many of the issues, which face them on their own without the help of men. It is said that women are better suited to handle the problems, which face them, and it is this more than anything that ensures that they are isolated (Atwood 3). The theocratic state of Gilead justifies the isolation of women in their society by using teachings from the bible. The Passion, on the other hand, is a novel that is based on two characters, one male and one female. Of these, the female character, Villanelle, is portrayed to be the stronger of the two and through her cross dressing displaying those characteristics which one would consider being extremely masculine. The male character, Henri, is the complete opposite of Villanelle because he feels inadequate in his position in society and tends to compensate for this through his dedication to writing enhanced stories about himself in a diary. Furthermore, although he is a soldier in Napoleon’s army, Henri is depicted as a person who is afraid to kill, something that one would not expect from most men (Winterson 160). One would say that the women being isolated in Gilead is as a direct result of the feminist movement belief that women can do better on their own without the presence of men. It is Atwood’s means of symbolizing the weaknesses of the feminist movement because no matter what they do, men are still as necessary in their lives as women are in men’s lives and none can do without the other. On the other hand, the strong, independent nature of Villanelle shows a significant support for the feminist movement from Winterson. This is also accompanied by a desire to achieve what Villanelle wants through her dressing as a boy, which could be interpreted as a symbol of women trying to step into the roles traditionally reserved for men. While Villanelle is depicted as being of a strong personality and fearless, Henri is shown to be weak and incompetent, and this might be considered to be Winterson’s attempt to show that women are as good as men and that gender roles are not just limited to one gender and that they may in fact, be considered to be universal. Villanelle’s character is in direct contrast to that displayed by Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale because Offred is depicted to be a weak character who willingly submits to the circumstances, which have been brought her way. Not only does she submit to the circumstances, however, demeaning they are she also looks down upon the feminist ways of her mother as a way of dealing with them. Despite the dislike for Moira’s feminism, her daughter also displays a tinge of admiration for her mother because Offred cannot help but admire the way her mother always stood up for what she thought were the rights of women. The strength, which women are able to display is shown in both novels because while both main female characters may seem to be weak on the outside, they are shown to have a very strong will. In The Passion, the strength of character of Villanelle is shown when her willingness to tell a story is accepted by the men to whom she tells it to and this is despite the fact that during her times, women were rarely ever assertive, or would they openly speak in public. Furthermore, Villanelle is depicted as a woman who knows what she wants, and this is seen when she has the strength to leave her abusive husband and go elsewhere, which is something which also rarely happened in the period where the story is set. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred is also seen to have a strong will because although she is used sexually by the commander and that she is treated as nothing more than a vessel through which children can be made, she still refuses to let these circumstances bring her down and in fact, she gains her strength from it. She views the sexual intercourse she has with the commander as being nothing more than a business, which does not involve any emotional attachment on her part. The strength of character shown by these women can be considered a true depiction of a woman according to the feminist movement. In conclusion, it can be said that it is indeed true that the main female characters in the novels above are both unconsciously being feminists in their actions. This is because although they live in times where the female voice is rarely hard, they still find ways to fight back against the male dominated society. Despite their appearance as weak creatures at first, as the novels progress, one discovers that there is more to them because their strength is not shown physically but mentally, and this is where they are far much better than their male counterparts are. Work Cited Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart, 1986. Print Winterson, Jeanette. The Passion. New York: Grove Press, 1997. Print Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - Common Essay”, n.d.)
Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - Common Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1459104-comparative-essay-between-the-passion-by-jeanette
(Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid'S Tale - Common Essay)
Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid'S Tale - Common Essay. https://studentshare.org/literature/1459104-comparative-essay-between-the-passion-by-jeanette.
“Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid'S Tale - Common Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1459104-comparative-essay-between-the-passion-by-jeanette.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Winterson's The Passion and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - Common Motives

The Handmaid's Tale: Chapter Analysis and Responses

[Name of Student] [Name of Instructor] [Name of Course] [Date] the handmaid's tale: Chapter Analysis and Responses The novel the handmaid's tale written by Margaret Atwood is one of the classical novels that have enhanced the feminist view.... This paper aims to provide an insight to the first six chapters of the novels....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

The Handmaid's Tale

the handmaid's tale Summary: In the opening of the novel, the narrator (Offred) portrays her confined life in a gymnasium.... In Margaret atwood's work, the narrator states that “We yearned for the future” (4).... Other two characters (say, Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth) are authorized to do patrolling duty....
3 Pages (750 words) Book Report/Review

Literary Criticism the Book The Handmaid's Tale

Name: Professor; Course: Date: Summary The book the handmaid's tale is centered on the happenings in a futuristic state that replaces the US due to low productivity rate of the latter.... The character of the commander depicts the chauvinistic inclination and sexual immorality so common among the men in the Gilead state....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

The Handmaid's Tale

Name Professor Course Date the handmaid's tale Introduction Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale is based on the ideology of leading societal oppression that had been formulated in the Republic of Gilead.... The events within the tale suggest the achievement of redemption in the rebellious group and the quest to seek lost love that has been within the previous regime.... atwood's vibrant reference to the moral decay within the society serves as the lesson to highlight the use of humanity as tools to impress a tyrannical regime....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Critical Analysis of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale

CRITICAL ANAYLSIS OF ‘A handmaid's tale' Submitted By Prepared For Class Name Date Your Name Class Name Today's Date Critical Analysis of ‘A handmaid's tale' Throughout history there has been a battle for equality between a man and a woman.... Such is the tale presented in Margaret Atwood's “A handmaid's tale”, which whisks the reader away to a dystopian futuristic society; the horrific setting of the dictator government and the oppressed subjects is narrated from the perspective of ‘a handmaid', offred....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

The Handmaid's Tale

Date the handmaid's tale The book tells the story of a woman living in oppression following the fall of the United States government and the takeover by the Republic of Gilead, which employs totalitarian governance.... The commander is lonely and unhappy in his marriage; therefore, the relationship he establishes has selfish motives and does not care about the risk he puts Offred in....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

(Atwood, 73) Therefore, atwood's the handmaid's tale can be best realized as a novel which predominantly deals with the plight of the women who are in subjugation.... The following book review "The Handmaids tale by Margaret Atwood" is focused on the feminist dystopian novel, a work of science fiction and speculative fiction where the novelist offers a fascinating vision of the modern society which is fundamentally knocked over by a theocratic revolution....
1 Pages (250 words) Book Report/Review

Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tale

This book review "Margaret atwood's the handmaid's tale" presents the Handmaid's Tale as written by Margaret Atwood that narrates the ordeal of the Protagonist of the tale, Offred as a handmaid in an imaginary Republic of Gilead that was run by a tyrannical Christian regime.... The last part of the tale was a projection into the year 2195, where there was a seminar in a University on Gileadean studies, and the tale of Offred the Handmaid was narrated to a large audience....
1 Pages (250 words) Book Report/Review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us