A Body Caught in Crossfire: A Freudian Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopia set in the near future. Written during the second wave of feminism (1985) it describes a country in which a fanatic Christian regime, The Republic of Gilead, has seized power and has assigned the last remaining fertile women to high-ranking men with the sole purpose to reproduce. These women, including protagonist Offred, are called Handmaids. Her narrative of her oppressed situation and her memories of times before Gilead give the reader a view of what life in this regime may be like. The style of her narration provides a good view of the effect the regime has on Offred’s actions and thoughts. How does this manifest itself exactly? How and why does the regime affect her? Sigmund Freud, the forefather of modern psychology, created a theoretical framework to understand the functioning of the mind that is still implicitly influential today (even if it is often explicitly disowned). His theory makes many conjectures on how suppressed material, such as...Show moreThe Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopia set in the near future. Written during the second wave of feminism (1985) it describes a country in which a fanatic Christian regime, The Republic of Gilead, has seized power and has assigned the last remaining fertile women to high-ranking men with the sole purpose to reproduce. These women, including protagonist Offred, are called Handmaids. Her narrative of her oppressed situation and her memories of times before Gilead give the reader a view of what life in this regime may be like. The style of her narration provides a good view of the effect the regime has on Offred’s actions and thoughts. How does this manifest itself exactly? How and why does the regime affect her? Sigmund Freud, the forefather of modern psychology, created a theoretical framework to understand the functioning of the mind that is still implicitly influential today (even if it is often explicitly disowned). His theory makes many conjectures on how suppressed material, such as thoughts and wishes, become unconscious, and if unconscious how they may be retrieved and understood. The analysis of conscious and unconscious faculties of the mind, and the mind’s tripartite structure (ego, id and superego), underlie Freud’s master theory on the human psyche: psychoanalysis. Much of Freud’s grand theory is laid down in his dream theory. He believed that dreams were “the royal road to the unconscious” (Storr, Freud: A Very Short Introduction). This method can help to further grasp Freud’s theories on the mind. Discarded as Freud’s theories may be in psychology today, they remain influential in literary studies. Freud’s theoretical framework illuminates clearly the psychological workings of the Gilead regime, as exemplified particularly in Offred’s case. This thesis tries to understand at a psychological level how Offred functions within her society, and how she reacts to it. Therefore, like Freud would analyse a patient, this thesis will analyse Offred and her surroundings. The aim is not to simply identify Freudian elements, such as anality, orality, denial etc, but to show how these underlie an understanding of Offred, and of the novel as a whole. An analysis such as this creates and understanding of Offred’s narration and narrative, making her tale more narratable. This thesis will therefore explore The Handmaid’s Tale in a Freudian context.Show less

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A Body Caught in Crossfire: A Freudian Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale