Lsquo Celestial Liquor Rsquo example essay topic

In what ways can The Handmaid&rsquos Tale be considered a feminist novel The Handmaid&rsquos Tale is narrated by an oppressed woman, so it is to be expected that feminism becomes a recurring theme. Women have no rights or money unless they have a valid marriage to a man. They are given few options&ndash if they are fertile they can become sex slaves&ndash&lsquo womb on legs&rsquo to Commanders or choose to go to the colonies. Infertile women or&lsquo un women&rsquo are seen as having no use so they automatically go to the colonies where they will die from disease or radiation. Their use and status is totally dependent on their relationships with men and ability to have children.

Women are used by men and treated as far inferior, in Gilead women are the men&rsquos property. The handmaids especially&ndash&lsquo We are a commodity&rsquo, their names in the household reflect this&ndash Offred&ndash Of Fred. They can be disposed of at will, even the Commander&rsquos Wives have little real importance and are given menial tasks such as ordering prayers at Soul Scrolls and knitting the Guardians scarves&ndash&lsquo Maybe it&rsquos just something to keep the Wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose&rsquo. But this concept of women being extensions and property of men is one used in our own society. Though mostly out dated now, &lsquo Mrs Peter Watson&rsquo is similar to&lsquo Of glen&rsquo.

But practically all terms for women are the extension of the term for men&ndash Mr / 's, fe / male, wo / man. This leads to the idea that Atwood is really just exaggerating the current situation of the world. The second quote at the beginning of the book from Swift&rsquos&lsquo A Modes Proposal&rsquo indicates that The Handmaid&rsquos Tale is Atwood&rsquos own satirical view of present times. In an interview Atwood says&lsquo theres nothing in the text that hasn&rsquot already happened&rsquo. The third quote&ndash&lsquo There is no sign in the desert that says&lsquo Thou shalt not eat stones&rsquo&rsquo indicates that she believes Gilead could never come into existence because of the common sense of people, no one could really believe in its philosophy and beliefs, the society&rsquos flaws are too apparent. Another interpretation of the novel is that it is a reaction against any idea that the woman&rsquos place is in the home, that her sole use is one of reproduction.

It demonstrates where these views could lead if encouraged or entertained. It gives the idea that men would act that way if given the power, that they would like to be in control and superior. That although men outwardly accept and respect women, inwardly they do not see them as equals&lsquo I sense in him (the Commander) none of the animosity I used to sense in men, even in Luke sometimes. He&rsquos not saying bitch in his head. &rsquo This quote shows that the Commander doesn&rsquot feel resentment against her because he&rsquos not expected to treat her like an equal. He is not threatened by her as men perhaps would be in our society. In fact it indicates that he is amused by her will and spirit, he doesn&rsquot take her seriously.

In the novel men control the society outwardly, but the women stay together and support eachother. There is empathy between women of all the classes, though they have varying status they are all secondary citizens. Perhaps this suggests that men wouldn&rsquot act that way, that they are violent and commanding while women make the best of what they can and stay supportive. There are few attractive male roles; Nick and Luke are the only ones who are genuinely kind-hearted and brave. But though the novel is primarily concerned with women and their positions, it isn&rsquot as supportive of feminism as one might expect. Offred&rsquos mother is an extreme feminist and she is often ridiculed and shown as over the top&ndash&lsquo A man is just a woman&rsquos strategy to make another woman&rsquo.

Gilead fulfils many of the extreme feminist&rsquos designs&ndash separate culture for men and women, women valued and protected from rape and male abuse, the banning of pornography, cosmetics, and the idea that magazines are degrading to women. &lsquo You wanted a women&rsquos culture. Well, now there is one. It isn&rsquot what you meant, but it exists. Be thankful for small mercies. &rsquo Moira is also a radical feminist, Offred has a more&lsquo common sense&rsquo stand point and she shows us the paradoxes and dilemmas within feminism. She loves men; she strives for equality as far as possible between the sexes. We see how extreme feminism can be as ridiculous as the notion of female oppression and degradation.

Women suffer in Gilead but men too, though not to such an extreme. Their plight is not concentrated on so much because the main character is a woman, and their problems are not as diverse as women&rsquos are. But men are not ignored by Atwood as much as women are ignored through out the book and at the end, nearly two hundred years later, by Professor James Darcy Pieixoto. The Handmaid&rsquos tale highlights the dangers of all extreme views, they are so extreme that they overlap. Offred represents a responsible and sensible stand point, her only request that of equality and respect, to be seen as a&lsquo valid&rsquo person.

Feminism is hard to define&ndash her mother&rsquos hopes for the redundancy of men and Offred&rsquos wishes to be equal can both be seen as feminist. I think The handmaid&rsquos Tale is one of common sense, irrespective of what the view point may be called. 1004 words The Tempest: Why does Shakespeare include the comic sub-plot Does it add anything to the play The comic sub-plot has various uses for the play. It brings light relief&ndash without it, it would be a very dramatic play, if not boring.

As because Prospero controls the whole island we know that nothing can really happen that he doesn&rsquot want to, so the play is lacking tension and the comic sub-plot prevents it from being a very boring play. Drunk ness is amusing anyway, they fall about and say stupid things which is entertaining for us, plus this is Caliban's first drink and we recognise the feelings he expresses for this&lsquo celestial liquor&rsquo and makes it all the more funny. That Caliban sees these two fools as kings also makes it amusing&ndash&lsquo I prithee, be my God&rsquo as Trinculo says&lsquo A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a poor drunkard! &rsquo. When he sees what they are later he is disgusted with himself&ndash&lsquo What a thrice-double ass Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool! &rsquo As well as providing humour, this trust of Caliban&rsquos echoes his former trust for Prospero. He hasn&rsquot learned from when Prospero turned on him, his naivety shows through his trust and adoration of the wine. Through the&lsquo aside&rsquo comments of Trinculo and Stephano we know they are using and teasing him.

Its in this situation we feel almost sorry for Caliban, this&lsquo abhorred slave&rsquo, this&lsquo demi-devil&rsquo is still very trusting and doesn&rsquot he have reason to hate Prospero He is an animal, with animal instincts and cannot be trained otherwise. Though Prospero is understandably angry that he tried&lsquo to violate the honour&rsquo of Miranda, but he is overly harsh with him. The sub-plot shows us how Caliban is trusting yet again, and we can see how affectionate he would have been to Prospero when he first arrived on the island, and how understandably bitter he would be when his master turned on him. This is an echo of the theme of usurpation, Prospero usurped from his dukedom, Caliban usurped from his island&ndash Prospero tries to get his dukedom back and Caliban tries to get his island back at the first opportunity. It would seem at the end that justice has prevailed, forgiveness over vengeance, good over evil, but really just Prospero has prevailed, he successfully usurped and successfully got un-usurped. Caliban is shown as the most nave of the three, but he is the cleverest.

He knows Prospero&rsquos power is in his books, he knows that the robes Stephano and Trinculo are duped by are&lsquo but trash&rsquo and above all he speaks some of the most beautiful poetry of the play. This shows Shakespeare has sympathy with the character and wants us to feel it also. This is linked to the issue of colonisation, Prospero assumes he was doing good for Caliban when he tried to educate him, but&lsquo You taught me language; and my profit on&rsquot is, I know how to curse&rsquo. Prospero thinks Caliban is completely ungrateful for what he did for him, but he came and immediately took charge as he thought he was superior, taking Caliban&rsquos island from him.

The sub-plot makes us give thought on why Caliban has reason for seeking to kill Prospero, other than just assuming he is evil. The comic sub-plot also echoes the theme of man&rsquos greed for power. Sebastian and Antonio have an obvious greed for power, Stephano and Trinculo do as well. They are just a butler and a jester, when the possibility for power arose they took it immediately and without conscience about using Caliban. I think the theme of class and&lsquo natural hierarchy is there also, they are duped by the trash Prospero sets for them, indicating that they aren&rsquot cut out for power naturally, if they were meant to rule they would see that it was superficial and real power is more than that. Which is presumably what Prospero would see as he is meant to be in power.

What the sub-plot also touches on is the idea that left unattended evil will grow. Sebastian and Antonio at the end aren&rsquot remorseful, they stop because they are caught not because of their conscience. Evil has to be watched constantly or else it will start to work. This applies to Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, it is the idea that because they are away from their masters they all plot together to overthrow them. This reflects the mistrust and disrespect the&lsquo noble&rsquo men of the time had for their servants. Overall the sub-plot is a comical undramatic version of the main events, giving relief to the fiery vengeance of Prospero and allowing comparisons to be drawn&ndash why do we think Prospero should have his revenge but not Caliban his.