Power and Control in the Handmaid’s Tale

Power and control in The Handmaid’s Tale.

In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood , power and control by the commanders is at a very high level. Throughout the novel the commanders control what the handmaids do at every present time. They enforce certain laws restricting the things that women can do like read books or play games, they take away children born without their parents being married or children from second marriages and send fertile women to a “school” to prepare for having a baby for a commander and his wife. One way that the commanders enforce power and control over the handmaids is by punishments. If a handmaid breaks any rules a van comes and takes them away, no one knows where the van takes them or what they do to them, this makes the handmaids terrified of what might happen to them if they misbehave and break the rules. The commanders also increase their power and control in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Attwood by taking over the entire government and eliminating all of women jobs and money, this gave them more power of women as they couldn’t work and had no money to use, woman were banished to stay home all day and cook and clean as they couldn’t go out and enjoy them selves or work for a living. This shows that power and control in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a high aspect of the novel, the use of control over the handmaids to create the story and most of the events in the novel.