Censorship In The Handmaid's Tale

A country under totalitarian regime shows no respect for peoples individuality and freedom. The Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood, and Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell, are satirical novels that illustrate the danger of a totalitarian government and the dystopia that is being constructed. Censorship, defined as The act of hiding, removing, altering or destroying copies of art or writing so that general public access to it is partially or completely limited , plays a significant role in helping the authors to create a dystrophic atmosphere in both novels. The governments of Gilead and Oceania make use of censorship in order to achieve total control over the societies, by limiting the power of language, using deception, and denying the
In The Handmaids Tale, the government of Gilead does not allow freedom of expression or speech. By restricting the privilege of speaking freely, the government can easily suppress and dictate its people. Handmaids are fertile women whose social function is to bear children for the upper class women.They are forbidden to speak in public, such an example occurs when they go shopping: I take the tokens from Rita 's outstretched hand. They have pictures on them, of the things they can be exchanged for: twelve eggs, a piece of cheese" (Atwood 11). The handmaids can only show a picture of the item when buying groceries; their voices are not allowed to be heard. Offred is the narrator and protagonist of the story, who is assigned to the Commander as his handmaid, she remembers that some songs cannot be sung in public anymore; especially the ones that use words like free. They are considered too dangerous (67). Words are forbidden by the government of Gilead because they believe that by removing certain words, the actions associated with these words are also eliminated. When Offred undergoes her monthly medical test, she surprisingly hears the doctor speak of male sterility. I almost
Party of Oceania realizes the power of Old English and thus works to develop a new language: Newspeak. Newspeak is determined to limit the expressiveness of the English language by reducing its vocabulary, it is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year (Orwell 55). Syme, works for the Ministry of Truth to create a new edition of the Newspeak dictionary, says: Dont you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller (55). Evidently, this new language helps the Party to achieve its objective of controlling the people. When Newspeak comes into use, people will not think about rebelling or acting against the government, because there are no expressions which are related to those actions. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted, a heretical thought should be literally impossible (78). This effect results in strengthening the Partys control over the minds of their people. As a result, the Partys control over the society is secure. It is only through words that man is capable of expressing his potentially dangerous wishes since at least so far as thought is dependent on word (56). The usage of language is the most powerful expression of individuality;