Both The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Scarlet Letter written by Margaret Atwood, and Nathaniel Hawthorne respectively are novels that explore self-development within a dystopian society through a feminist lens. They also examine the idea of having self-consciousness under an extremely controlling and oppressive environments. Both of the protagonists, Offred from The Handmaid’s Tale and Hester from The Scarlet Letter derive their idea of the “self” and “self-consciousness” through more secular beliefs, over a higher spiritual world. R.D. Laing in Self and Others describes 'self-identity' as the 'story one tells oneself of who one is' (Laing 77) and that “self-consciousness” and “awareness to self” is the ability to acknowledge and confirm oneself’s individuality.
Put simply, self-identity is the characteristics that make someone unique, and self-consciousness is the ability for someone to recognize those characteristics within themselves. How is a someone living in such an oppressing world able to do that, as the rest of the world beats them into a cookie cutter? This is the question that these novels hope to answer. First, I would like to discuss The Handmaid’s Tale - a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel set in the future following Offred and her life in the Republic of Gilead. Gilead is a totalitarian and theocratic state which has replaced what we know as The United States of America due to multiple conflicts ultimately resulting in the shattering of the States.
Due to huge population declines from dangerously low birthrates, the state has assigned certain women with the role of “Handmaid”, thus the title. They are forced to bear children to the elite couples of their state, should they have trouble conceiving a child. Offred, the protagonist of this novel is one such handmaid. As a result, she has very limited freedoms. For example, she is banned from ready any sort of books, she is unable to form friendships with anyone, and most importantly, she is taught to live without thinking. That alone is enough to stop anyone from having self-consciousness, let alone even having any form self-identity. In this world, women are rigidly defined by their ability or lack thereof to conceive, and nothing else. In fact, if anything, handmaids specifically are incredibly oppressed, because not only do they not have control over their own thoughts, they also have no control over what happens to their body.
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There is evidence scattered everywhere throughout the novel, even within her own name: Offred. At a first glance, it might just seem like some unconventional name to have, but it is much much more than that. If you look closely, Offred can be broken up into two parts: “Of” and “Fred”, or in other words “Property Of-Fred”, Fred being the Commander of Offred. Additionally, her surroundings are oppressive towards her. We reached the first barrier, which is like the barriers blocking off roadworks, or dug-up sewers: a wooden criss-cross painted in yellow and black stripes, a red hexagon which means stop. Near the gateway there are some lanterns, not lit because it isn't night. Above, us, I know, there are floodlights, attached to the telephone poles, for use in emergencies, and there are men with machine guns in the pillboxes on either side of the road. (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale) As we can see here, Gilead is doing everything it can to stop Offred from becoming self-aware, as self-awareness will lead to situational awareness, which will lead to a revolt within the borders.
However, later in the book, Offred does manage to get her hands on some books, which begins her journey of forming, and recognizing her self-identity, and eventually making an escape from Gilead. As for Hester a character in The Scarlet Letter written by American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, she live in a similar, oppressive setting. The novel is set in 17th century Boston, MA which, in the book is a Puritan settlement. It begins with Hester, the protagonist of the book walking out of a prison with a baby in her arms and a scarlet letter “A” stitched into her dress. An onlooker remarks that this is her punishment for committing adultery, hence the letter “A”. She becomes alienated from society, because she had a child with a man (Dimmesdale) with whom she was not married to. From the viewpoints of the Puritans, the only salvation Hester had from her sins was to publicly name the father of her baby, an action which she strongly refused.
Instead, she decided to isolate herself from the rest of society, just as they decided to shun her for her sin. This gave her the opportunity to grow intellectually, however, to deepen her self-identity, she had to deal with the isolation, and inability to interact with anyone despite her temptations. Throughout the novel, we see that the moral environment in Puritan Boston is incredibly harsh on its inhabitants. Anyone who breaks the moral code is scorn and shunned, just like Hester. She has a feeling of her own being and, in this way, she has a feeling of what conduct is important to guarantee her own mental survival. Hester affirms her uniqueness by mentally rejecting societal proclamations. Amusingly, it is the ladies in the oppressive, seventeenth-century New England climate who most intensely bolster an arrangement of laws and religious mentalities that demand the subordination of the female. This woman has brought shame upon us all,and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the 13 Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray. (Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter) The patriarchal codes of behavior have practically been burnt into their subconscious.
Eventually, Hester leaves Boston with her daughter, and no one knows what happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns to the place where she lived in hiding for so long, still wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. She still occasionally recieves letter from her daughter, who has married a European aristocrat, and created a family of her own. When Hester dies, she is buried next to the man she had an affair with, under a single tombstone with the letter “A” etched into it.
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