English 121: Power Dynamics in The Handmaid's Tale

This report analyzes Margaret Atwood's *The Handmaid's Tale*, focusing on the themes of power, visibility, and oppression within the dystopian state of Gilead. The study explores the power structure, state surveillance, and the control of communication and movement. It examines how the ruling class manipulates and controls the citizens, particularly women, and their lack of power and influence. The research employs a qualitative, formalistic approach, analyzing the primary text alongside secondary literature to formulate a conceptual framework and test the hypothesis that visibility is controlled by the atrocities of power. The report aims to answer specific research questions regarding Gilead's power dynamics, surveillance, and the control of citizens' lives, ultimately revealing the significance of power and its impact on the characters within the novel.

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Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a story of manipulation of power, oppression and
exploitation that encompass a varied range of issues, including hierarchy, power, confrontation,
sex, and gendered conflicts (Banks: 1) It is argued that Atwood criticizes the contemporary
social atrocities through an allegorical tale of a dystopian future. The story revolves around the
totalitarian, theocratic state of Gilead, a fictional nation that allegedly replaces the USA. The tale
revolves around the theme of power, and how the aristocrats use power to manipulate and control
the subjects within the state (Banks: 5).
Atwood deals with state surveillance in The Handmaid’s Tale. The Eye, the police or the
surveillance force of Gilead keeps tab on the every citizen, across the entire social strata (Banks:
10). The people are afraid of the people in power, for they fear the power of knowledge, and
manipulation. Even the doctor, supposed to cure and help the people, tries to manipulate Offred,
although she could not offend him. She thinks “He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for
infertility have me shipped off to the Colonies, with the Un
women. None of this has been said, but the knowledge of his power hangs nevertheless in
the air…”(Atwood: 52).

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As the protagonist recounts, she had to keep her door open at all times to be seen. On the
other hand, the suppression of communication and expression, as well as the limitation of
movement determines how much the people can see. Hence, in Gilead, both the acts of seeing
and to be seen are controlled by the authority, the manifestation of power, something that is
clearly evident in the lines “we learned to whisper almost without sound” (Atwood: 4).
The present research aims to explore the relationship between power and visibility. The
study explores how the state surveillance and the suppression of communication and expression
indicates the manifestation of aristocratic power. It would also try to bring out the lack of power
in women, and how invisible and insignificant they are in the social, political and hierarchical
arena. To this end, the study hypothesize that in The Handmaid’s Tale, visibility is controlled by
the atrocities of power.
This study aims to answer the following questions
i) What is the power structure in Gilead?
ii) How does the state surveillance regulate the lives of the citizen and who controls the
Eye?
iii) How is freedom of movement, communication and expression controlled and
manipulated in Gilead?
iv) What is the position of women and other citizens who belong to the lower strata?
With regards to methodology, the study is set to be an explorative, analytical research.
The research method will essentially be qualitative, while following a formalistic approach. The

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research will first conduct an in-depth analysis of the primary text. Further, it will look for
secondary literature, such as scholarly analysis of the centrals themes of the novel in peer-
reviewed journals, anthologies and online sources. Finally, it will develop a conceptual
framework to test the hypothesis and conclude the research.

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Reference
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Everyman's Library Classics 2006.
Banks, Anjella E. "Breaking the Silence: Feminist Perspectives on Power and Language in The
Handmaid's Tale." (2018).