Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale presents a disturbing future dystopia where all power is stripped from women and left in a male-dominated power structure. Throughout the novel, betrayal remains the dominant theme, seen in men's betrayal of women, as well as the reason behind abandoning all sense of self and previous relationships. The betrayal of women by society as a whole leads Gilead to a hierarchy of power that leaves the handmaids, particularly June, with no choice but to betray themselves by giving in to the society that strips them of their identity and leaves them without personal relationships and with a constant test to stay. live. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Stuck in a society that has stripped all meaning and emotion from sex and justified by self-preservation in a power-ridden ménage-trois, June commits acts she is ashamed of and dislikes. Driven only by the need to survive, she continues to follow these orders, blocking them from her mind as much as possible. During the time June is known as “Offred,” the stratification of Gilead society has shifted solely to accommodate an act made superficial and shameful. The “Ceremony,” as it is called, is emotionless and exists simply as an obligation to procreate. “What he's fucking is my lower body… Nothing happens here that I didn't sign up for. There wasn't much choice but there was some, and this is what I chose” (94). This is June's account of the ceremony around which her life is now entirely based. Even so early in the process, she has separated herself from what she once knew and created a new knowledge of what happens, recognizing that this is not like the passionate sex she once had with Luke, but boils down to the simple act of insemination . . For the entire community, sex has lost the meaning it had before and has shifted to this monthly ritual: “This is not recreation, not even for the Commander. This is serious. The Commander also does his duty” (94-95). This change in thinking is one of the most serious of the new society. While nothing vital has been eliminated and procreation will continue, what was removed from society may well have been an essential part of life. Without it, June, and even the Commander, struggle to know where the boundaries lie and how relationships should exist. The Commander orders June into his office, breaking any semblance of structure and tenants by thinking he is above the law, and putting June in a position where she has no choice but to follow him, but could still be killed for following his orders. She has no way out, and although the Commander realizes this, she sees her need for companionship as a higher priority, knowing that the cycle of handmaids will continue well beyond June and caring more about establishing a true bond with someone. In his office the Commander doesn't want sex or inappropriate behavior, but rather something that becomes even more intimate, real companionship. Every night, as his visits continue, the Commander asks June for a kiss “She moves away, looks at me. There's the smile again, the embarrassed one. How candid. “Not like that,” he says. “As if I meant it.” It was so sad” (140). This look at the Commander's true desires shows that more than being a corrupting authority, he too has difficulty in this vacuum society he helped create. The restructuring that has taken place has shifted the focus from that of love and relationships to the need forreproduction, making Serena Joy's sole purpose to be expecting a child. His status in society depends on June's pregnancy, creating a strange power dynamic between the two of them, as they are completely dependent on each other. In her desperation Serena Joy proposes the idea of ​​breaking the rules and having June have sex with Nick, intending to improve her chances, and once again showing the corruption that exists in the society it was created to be. free of corruption. “This idea hangs between us, almost visible, almost palpable: heavy, shapeless, dark; a sort of collusion, a sort of betrayal” (205). The irony of the commander and his wife asking June to break the rules is both overwhelming and frightening, as she could be betrayed and killed at any moment for anything she does, even following their instructions. She is forced to decide whether to follow the rules set for her by society or follow orders from her superiors to break these rules. Knowing that either path could lead to her death, June chooses the more interesting path and follows her Commander's orders, even if she sometimes despises his actions. With the Commander, June separates herself from her actions as much as possible, considering it a duty rather than an experience. “I close my eyes with the Commander, even when I'm just kissing him goodnight. I don't want to see it up close” (269). June's separation from intimacy with the Commander is her way of maintaining hope that one day she can return to a life where she is with someone she loves. The Commander's request for June to accompany him to Jezebel, while an interesting experience for her, highlights the reality that there is no room for intimacy in this society that has made it obsolete and necessary. There is no middle ground between procreating and making love in Gilead, where personal relationships have no place. «The problem is that with him I can't be different from how I usually am. I'm usually inert. Surely there must be something here for us, besides this futility and the bath” (255). June's separation from her actions has become so deeply ingrained that she can't overcome it to take part in anything more than she has for the past five years. Her goal remains to stay alive, limiting herself to breaking the rules, but internally distancing herself from her actions to maintain the hope of being herself and having control of her body and mind again one day. In the novel, June manages to maintain hope, however faint, and finds vicarious rebellion in Moira and Ofglen, even in a society so stripped of everything hopeful. June searches everywhere for even a shred of evidence that suggests hope and inside her wardrobe she finds it: “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum”. Even without knowing its meaning, June uses this as a motto and as a word of inspiration, left by a woman who knew all too well what she was going through. “I pray in silence: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. I don't know what it means, but it sounds good, and it will have to do” (90). The writing on the closet is forbidden, so June treats it as a secret she keeps, seeing it as her little piece of power and connection with someone else, however distant they may be. Moira becomes his lifeline, starting in college before the new company took hold and continuing through the Red Center and Jezebel's. Her rebellion and irreverence stay with June even when they are apart for so long, offering a kind of optimistic heroism and hope that there is a way out of the hell that her life has become. Moira's escape from the Red Center was impressive, she manages to escape by threatening and posing as an aunt. She was known forto be the disobedient one, but this level of dangerous risk-taking was unheard of. “Moira had the power now, she had been freed, she had freed herself. Now she was a dissolute woman” (133). June's passive attitude led her to experience rebellion through Moira and the more exciting and dangerous choices of others. Moira's bold approach, however, wore thin, and by Jezebel (ironically June's moment of living dangerously) she confided to June that she had given in, that she was content to be a man's plaything. Because she had been allowed to have more freedom than those confined to homes. Moira's courage and ingenuity far surpassed that of most people, so when she gave up her dream of escape and admitted she was part of a society that exploited her, June felt like she, too, had no hope left. . His acceptance that he only had three or four years left, instead of seeking another escape plan, showed June that her hero had faded and was broken, just like her. “I don't want him to be like me. Give up, move on, save her skin. That's the point. I want gallantry from her, bold heroism, one-handed fighting. Something I miss." (249)Moira wasn't June's only hope. Indeed, as exciting as Moira's life was in June's mind, Diglen offered an even greater sense of hope. Ofglen's hope was almost tangible in its accessibility and June, although wary of becoming part of the group, found herself relying on the “Mayday” group for hope of future escape. June was drawn into the group by the sense of belonging and power in such a group greatness and secrecy, although her reverence for this group did not overshadow the fear she still felt for the social structures that bound her. Diglen's status in this organization meant that she was both a friend and a threat to June, offering companionship and information during their outings, but also the possibility of revealing what she knew about June's secret meetings with the Commander if she were ever captured Ofglen demonstrated incredible perseverance through her suicide, knowing that she would expose the others and hanging herself as. last vestige of self-control in the society that has deprived her of it in all other ways. Similar to the disappointing ending felt with Moira's acceptance of how things were, Diglen's suicide, while a relief, also exposes June to the enormity of the influence society truly has on all of them and it affects her even harder than Diglen's death. “I want to continue living in any form. I freely entrust my body to the uses of others. They can do whatever they want with me. I'm abject. I feel, for the first time, their true power” (286). Despite her hope and fantasies of one day being with Luke and her daughter without strings attached, June abandons everything she once believed and hoped for and resigns herself to the same conclusion Moira has arrived at; it has been destroyed by society. June feels immense guilt and pain over her betrayal of Luke, even with the knowledge that she will never be with him again; Gilead's society has cultivated a shame that envelops it even in its simple desire for pure human connection. Even following the instructions, June feels guilty about being with Nick. Society has stripped all meaning from the act, but her feelings for Nick, despite human nature, are still forbidden in her mind because she hasn't found a solution with Luke, and a part of her heart still belongs to him, or at least he thinks so. Should. “And I thought afterwards: this is a betrayal. Not the thing itself but my response. If you knew for sure he was dead, would it make a difference?” (p.263). The denial of every.