Gender Discrimination in Language in The Handmaid's Tale

石雪竹

（利茲大學，英國 利茲LS2 9JT）

Abstract：The Handmaid's Tale was written by Margaret Atwood and published in 1985.The novel describes a dystopian country—Gilead.In recent years,this feminist novel has had a huge impact on the public in appealing to female discourse power.Based on Fairclough's theory of"language and power",this essay analyzes the female oral language in Gilead and tries to find the reasons why women are oppressed.

Keywords：The Handmaid's Tale；feminism；language

一、lntroduction

The Handmaid's Tale constructs a story that the birth rate in Gilead had dropped sharply.Therefore,those in power tried to alleviate the population crisis by use of spreading the special religious belief,to consolidate its regime of centralism.This essay attempts to explain that the religious belief and the language control in Gilead are complementary,and then figures out the importance of female discourse power and self-consciousness in hegemony systems.

二、The language control in Gilead

Ideology is rooted in various social systems.For instance,the Bible was adopted as the essence of governing the people in Gilead.Because language is the basic medium of communication,it can also influence social behavior imperceptibly.Fairclough(1989.P.2)considered that ideologies and power are closely linked,and he also points out that“Ideologies are closely linked to language”.Therefore,women were given different responsibilities based on different"functions"in Gilead.For example,when they meet each other,a Handmaids say"blessed be the fruit",the other must reply"may the Lord open",which reminds them that they are a tool of pregnancy.In consequence,the ideology becomes"common-sense".

Ideology is the key to control the power.Fairclough(1989)mentioned that“common-sense”is a significant complement to economic and political power.Thus,he puts forward two main patterns to control power—coercion,and consent.These two patterns can be regarded as the supervisor modes towards the Handmaid by language.

1.Coercion：discriminated language

As Fairclough(1995)considered the features or levels of language and discourse may be changed through coercion.The author created many new words and given them new meanings,which emphasizes the disadvantaged female status.

(1)Insulting words

The authority of Gilead created a lot of new terms for the Handmaids,such as"two-legged wombs","sacred vestals","ambulatory churches",which are the taunts of the protagonist.Besides,there are some female images and places discriminated against by men.For example,they compare the Handmaids to"weed",and they also call the whorehouse"Jezebel's".According to the story of Leah in the Bible,a new proper noun"Ceremony"is created,which is the process that compelling the Handmaid to be pregnant.

(2)Compulsive words

According to their unique hierarchy,every type of woman in Gilead has its own special titles.Such as"Econowives","Martha"and"handmaid".To make the Handmaids understand their responsibilities,each Handmaids’name was composed of"of+their commander's name",such as"Offred"and"Ofglen".Women were humiliated by these titles because of centralization and gender discrimination.

2.Consent：influence language

The rulers of Gilead knew that the methods of forcing people were not strong enough to control the country,so"Policy of conciliation"was also an indispensable method.In other words,the ideology they defined needs to be"agreed"by the public unconsciously.Pennycook(1994.P.1)proposed that language use was an instance of discovery.Therefore,these Martha were teachers that enlighten Handmaids.For a long time,these Handmaids were affected by daily expression and its ideology.Consequently,female self-consciousness would be eliminated.

三、The importance of female discourse power

Generally speaking,gender discrimination roots in history and culture,and basically according to the centralism system that is dominated by males.As a result,the emergence of resistance has gradually developed a consciousness to seize back power.However,it is far from developing overwhelming female power to eliminate discrimination,women could pay more attention to discourse power initially.Therefore,discourse power plays a vital role in setting up the awareness of gender equality.On the one hand,power and ideology are the main reason for female discrimination.The linguistic hegemony not only leads to the loss of female discourse power but also lead to synthetic personality(Fairclough,1995).This means that women lose their personalities because of inequality.However,200 years after the fall of Gilead,there still are researchers who only believe the history recorded by men.To some extent,the struggle of women is still difficult.On the other hand,it cannot be ignored that the linguistic habit is a method of oppressing women.The insulting meaning of terms and the ideology behind the discourse power both are the oppression that established by rulers.This novel provides a typical governing mode of controlling thought and self-consciousness.Nevertheless,the linguistic hegemony on wiping of female self-consciousness is not for temporary influence,but imperceptible.Thus,this kind of long-term language violence needs to be vigilant.

四、Conclusion

In conclusion,power can consolidate the regime of centralism through ideology by using language to oppress women,and it can also damage discourse power and the self-consciousness of females.This novel creates several terms and linguistic habits to insult and materialized females.Under the oppression of hegemony,the common resistance of women deeply affects the awareness of female discourse power,which can be used as a great example of the feminist movement.