How Does Orwell And Atwood Use Sex As a Symbol Of Essay

How does Orwell and Atwood use sex as a symbol of control?

In both novels, 1984 written by George Orwell and The Handmaids Tale written by Margret Atwood, use sex as a symbol of control in similar ways. Firstly they both use it to control the people's emotions, In1984 the party forbade sex as they do not want any emotion shown between proles, and if they had sex then they would be showing love and affection. In the hand maids tale sex is only an   act between a hand maid and a commander, and during this process there is no kissing or caress which would also show love and passion.

However sex is also a symbol of rebellion as well as control as they both use it to a way of fighting for their freedom, hoping it would make a difference to their lives. In 1984 Julia and Winston have a sexual relationship playing their part against the party, to disobey the rules. Meeting each other in total secrecy without showing any acknowledgement to each other when in public, so as to confuse and betray the party. By meeting in private they were able to be strong against the party. Whereas in the hand maids tale, the maiden has a sexual relationship with the driver Nick after listening to the commanders wife instructing her that she should become pregnant as soon as possible. This was beneficial to both women as the commanders wife wanted to be rid of the hand maid as quickly as she could, and is was also a way of the hand maiden   to escape from the world she was being controlled by.

Therefore the novels also use sex in different ways of control,   Atwood uses it to   differentiate between sterile women and unsterile women. The sterile women are dressed all in red so it shows that they are being used just as prostitutes. They are surrogate mothers giving birth to babies for the commanders wives who are unable to have children. The women that are able to reproduce are also watched in a gym and controlled by Aunts, as they are not allowed to speak to each other, however a few...