A-level English essay: ‘Compare the ways the writers of your two chosen texts present the role of gender in the misuse of science’
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Course
Unit 2 - Prose
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
A* A-level English Frankenstein and The Handmaid's Tale comparison essay: ‘Compare the ways the writers of your two chosen texts present the role of gender in the misuse of science’.
‘Compare the ways the writers of your two chosen texts present the role of gender in the
misuse of science’
In both novels, Shelley and Atwood have both purposefully manipulated linguistics, narrative,
themes and imagery to show the role of gender in the misuse of science. Both novels seem to
show a dystopian trend of the misuse of science reflected explicitly through the patriarchal
society of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale and more subtly shown in Frankenstein through the
exploration of multiple characters through different narratives. Although presented in different
ways, both writers exhibit concerns regarding ‘procreation in the patriarchy’ and highlight the
use of scientific justification as a way of oppressing women and appear to attempt to highlight
the masculine and feminine division to show that balance is needed.
Through the exploration of procreating within a patriarchy and the exclusion of women from
the scientific domain both writers exhibit concerns regarding ‘procreation in the patriarchy’ but
these concerns are manifested in different ways. In The Handmaid's Tale Atwood’s frequent
reference to women as ‘fruit’ that is ‘ripe’ or ‘rotten’ simplifies any scientific aspect of the
female body to nothing but an object. Similarly, any medical procedure being cold, clinical and
rushed ‘my breasts fingered in turn, a search for ripeness, rot’ shows the lack of care or
explanation of medical processes to women. Atwood uses imagery of the body to highlight how
experimentation and science in the regime have de-familiarised the Handmaids’ bodies and
detached them from their sense of self. This is evident in chapter 12 where the image of the
‘thigh of cooked chicken’ creates an uncomfortable connection with Offred and reminds us of
the lifeless state of her own body and the distinguished role of her physical self in pro-creating.
Another key image can be observed by Atwood’s…
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