The growing power of this ‘religious right’ heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in previous decades would be reversed. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood explores the consequences of the reversal of women’s rights. In the novel’s dystopian world of Gilead, a group of conservative religious extremists has taken power and turned the sexual revolution on its head. What feminists considered the great triumphs of the 1970s—widespread access to contraception, the legalisation of abortion, and the increasing political influence of female voters—have all been undone. Women in Gilead are not only forbidden to vote, they are forbidden to read or write, dress codes are used as a way to subjugate them; ordinary colours become symbolic of their social status while masking individuality, which is discouraged in the regime.
The black and red contrast in general drawing attention and it shows the sin, represented by the red, with the rebellion, represented by the black, which helps to reveal the truth about Hester in the novel. Red also represents passion. By ending with this image of the scarlet letter on a black background, it represents the passion Hester has for her tangible representation of the truth, Pearl. Everyone has seen Pearl for she cannot be hidden, much like the scarlet letter upon Hester, and the
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein The Basic Role of Family Mary Shelley's Frankenstein The Basic Role of Family A reckless, opinionated, driven feminist, who changed the face of literature, such is the perception of Mary Shelley. Truth be told, the general population would be correct in their assumptions. However, if they were to delve deeper into the psyche of Mary Shelley, they would be astounded to see the true harsh reality of Mary's existence. The Romantic era which took place between 1770 and 1848 promoted a profound shift in sensibility and a life rooted in the emotions and sentiments. Mary Shelley, rebellious by nature, produced a literary work of art which through gruesome descriptions, bleak dark imagery, and a scary, depressing
It was a place of slave labor laundries from the 18th to the late-20th centuries to house "fallen women", a term used to imply female sexual promiscuity. Asylums for such girls and women and others believed to be of poor moral character, such as prostitutes and teenage pregnancy. Harwood critiques her society for its oppressive treatment of women who are unprotected by marriage or respectability. So then she uses imagery to emphasize the hypocritical nature of the Christian Institutes that perpetrate it. Harwood recalls to our mind the sympathy for the young women portrayed in the poem and wants the readers to contemplate the sexism within
She also cites facts, while maintaining an emotion, by mentioning George Sodini, who specifically targeted women in his shooting “killing three women and injuring nine others." This intends to bring out the moral woe within the reader. One of the strongest of Valenti’s uses of emotional tone is when she states that the leading cause of death for women who are pregnant are murdered by their partner. It is almost unthinkable: with so much emphasis in America on the sanctity of life, whether or not to allow abortion or the morality of stem cell research; the fact that “the
Christianity was the matrix of medieval life. Everyone was affected by these ideals, but not everyone lived up to these ideals. From the documentary, Inside the Medieval Mind, the church relied on fear and shame to control people. Sex is considered filthy in the Medieval Times, where virginity was the highest virtue. Women were thought of as Satan’s bait and poison for the souls of men.
Abigail had an affair with John Proctor so she gives reveal his wifes name Elizabeth as one of the witches so she can be put to death with the other accused and Abigail can have John Proctor all to herself. Abagial uses the girls to go against Mary and pretends in court that Mary Proctors servant has afflicted them with her spirit. Abigails deceit causes a lot of people to turn against each other and not know who to trust. She causes John Proctor to
This power structure is kept strong by making failures out of oneself and taking away any independence the women may have including the wives. The handmaids are raped and forced into childbirth and the wives are equally imprisoned because they are married to the masterminds of such a hideous society. I cannot imagine living is a society where my choice to have a child is stolen from me. Society that will punish with death or torture if I decide to rebel against child birth. Birth is a gift given to a woman’s body from GOD.
Women in particular are the victims of the way the Gilead authorities exert control through language. The term Handmaid, for example, is a pleasant-sounding Biblical word that completely disguises the fact that the Handmaids are stripped of their humanity, used as virtual reproductive slaves, and forced to commit adultery.
Being compared to the devil in a novel set in a heavily catholic country shows that she is evil, and the subtitle ‘The Tragedy of Paulo Giordano Ursini, Duke of Brachiano, With the Life and Death of Vittoria Corombona the famous Venetian Curtizan’ supports this. The fact that she is a ‘famous curtizan’ supports the idea that she is to blame for the events in the novel, as it is her promiscuity that causes the murders of so many, sparked by jealously in Brachiano. Vittoria is immediately at a disadvantage in the novel and entering the trial however. She is not even given the grace of being the centre of focus in the subtitle, added on at the end almost as if her presence is an afterthought by Webster. This shows how she is handicapped by the fact that she is a woman, in a society controlled by men.