The Handmaid’s Tale is a classic example of satire as the author employs this approach to ridicule various issues that she raises concerns about in his society. Atwood utilizes satire to highlight palpably comedic sets up of reality. The idea also includes, the utilization of exaggeration and irony to bring out an argument— the category in which the Atwood’s story fall. In particular, satire poses exaggerated situations, irony, and humor to criticize the society absurdity or values especially in respect to the contemporary politics and other sensitive issues. Through Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood has provided a creative work that extensively ridicules the values promoted by her society in the context of religion, chauvinistic attitudes and the law among others. She criticizes the prejudiced attitudes and values that have made the women suffer massive discrimination and exploitation. She feels that some of the customary values and beliefs observed by her society had no position in the contemporary world that needs to be informed by concepts such as democracy, liberty and equality for all. Equality should be accorded despite one’s gender or background; however, the prevailing situation in society is nowhere near this assertion as the society discriminates against on basis of gender and one’s social status.
Atwood’s intention included telling a story that would highlight the dystopian society that exploits women for reproductive benefits of the rich and powerful. It is arguable that the novel highlights the conflict of the persuasive feminist view of the new society with the deep-rooted psychosomatic context of the caste idea of England. Many people feel that the satire in Handmaid’s Tale mainly presents a feminist critique. However, Atwood particularly presented satirical situations to ridicule the Caste model and some values in the new world. She presents scenarios where women witnesses serious exploitations, not only from men. Women are taking up roles in the upper strands of the community, thus are equally vulnerable to excesses, for example, in the case of Serena Joy. However, it is apparent that men are still the ultimate authority in the society. The novel is satirical because he utilizes an ironic and exaggerated approach in presenting these ideas. For example, she presents a scenario where Moira and a resilient lesbian activist succumb to a condemned destiny where she eventually resides in a house of ill-repute acknowledging that the undertaking was with benefits. She argues that her friend should not worry about her, as the situation is not so bad since there are numerous women around. She describes the place as a “butch paradise.” Likening the situation that she was in with paradise is satirical, as in essence nothing good seems to characterize it.
Atwood utilizes irony extensively to highlight the hypocrisy and the weaknesses of the Offred’s society. An obvious example of the utilization of this style is evident where the author employs irony to develop a social commentary on the society’s religious beliefs with the depiction of Ofglen as a Christ icon (Atwood 286). The author states that Offred proclaims “ she has died that I may live.” Upon hearing about Ofglen’s death, Offred feels that this death was a sacrifice. She likens her with the Christian’s example of the Jesus, who dead to save the world. It is apparent that the sense that the author presents Ofglen as the only sacrificial lamb sent to redeem the society creates iron to the situation. This is because such a situation would hardly be expected in a community where the women as essentially identified as reproductive objects. Evidently, the society present mixed reaction towards this scenario wondering that it is a “Chalice”— a savior has come from the female gender. The irony develops the argument that religion in this society is so unpractical that a savior had to be sent redeem others from the ‘savers’ (Atwood 287)
In particular, Atwood employs irony to condemn the society through Offred’s personal autobiography. For instance, Offred gives the account of how her feminist group attempted to convince her mother against getting pregnant. When she failed to observe their advice, many became enemy with her and were served with a disapproval letter. It is satirical to learn that the same association that advocated for the women liberation engaged in activities that oppressed their own. The organization aggressively advocated for the women to be granted a chance of deciding the course of their life. However, the group criticized Offred’s mother upon making a personal decision of becoming a mother. The story highlights that Offred’s mother treasured this decision as she viewed it as a way of rejoicing the gifts of her body (Atwood 287). Unfortunately, she can hardly enjoy this choice as she receives severe criticism. It is arguable that the feminists advocating for women liberation are equivalent of Christians who are attempting to redeem everyone’s soul. In contrast, their effort seems to work against their mission as they are bringing despair while thinking that they are bringing happiness.
Atwood also utilizes the strategy of absolute ethics when describing the idea of ‘falling in love. He describes the good of falling in love yet ridicules the society, as people are not able to enjoy this aspect. Instead of love, bringing happiness (good) as we expect, the society gets ‘bad’ out of it—it brings sorrow and suffering. She states that "Falling in love, we all did then, one way or another We believe in it, this downward motion: so lovely, like flying, and yet at the same time so dire, so extreme, so unlikely" (Atwood 225). Through this statement, the novel highlights a powerful emotion that humanity can experience. However, she criticizes the community’s subpar manner of addressing this emotional powerhouse. She reduces the people’s inability to communicative the emotion of love appropriately. Love presents as the only element that carries the action of falling in a good light. ‘Falling’ can be associated with aspects such as embarrassing, dangerous and painful. Nevertheless, the novel challenges this assumption by arguing that although love brings an amazing feeling such as ‘flying, it is also ‘dire’ as there is always a possibility of crashing when one is flying. This setup is satirical as ‘falling’ and ‘flying’ presents conflicting situations. It becomes apparent that the society might be falling (going down) while they think that they are flying.
The novel also presents political satire in various instances. The idea comes out with the depiction of a situation where some individuals are the legal property of others who they are obliged to obey. The primary objective of law in the society is safeguarding people’s interest including protecting them from exploitation. However, it is satirical to note that the law in this story is utilized to exploit some individual to fulfill the desires of those in authority. For instance, in Gilead, women are exploited to serve the State’s needs. The government obliges women with a mandatory responsibility for helping in growing the population. A Fertile woman must have intercourse with their master at least once in a month to achieve pregnancy. As evident in the case of Moira, the procedure is mandatory with no respect to woman’s sexual preference. Indeed, any woman who failed to obey this decree faces a threat of suffering a death punishment (Atwood 176). Exaggeration is evident in the guidelines that highlight that any who reads needed to have their hands amputated (Atwood 205). This is an exaggeration that describes the stricter version of the Sharia Law on stealing that recommends forced amputation
In conclusion, Atwood criticizes prejudiced attitudes towards women, the law and governance in her society. She utilizes satire to highlight a draconian leadership that the society is subjected to which make them suffer under the same leaders who are supposed to safeguard their welfare. The idea of the laws presented in this novel highlights the exaggerated model of the Sharia law. It comes out that Gilead exercised stricter penalties for minor offenses than Israel, which present an exaggeration that was aimed at bringing out the destructive effect of the Sharia Law. This law mainly undermines women through aspects such denying them right to education and demanding them to cover their body entirely. It, therefore, becomes apparent that Atwood has successfully employed satire in articulating her arguments.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011. Internet resource.
