Decay In The Handmaid's Tale

Similar to Atwood’s presentation of Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale, Tennyson’s poem Mariana is a dramatic monologue which depicts a passive woman who, it would appear, cannot cope without a man, and believes she lacks purpose. The poem concerns the decay of the world Mariana lives in, such as ‘the lonely grange’ and the moss crusting over the flowerpots, as well as her own psychological decay as she anticipates and yearns for her absent lover. Her own decay is apparent through the repetition of the same phrase at the end of each stanza ‘I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!’ insinuating possible sexual frustrations as well as other frustrations due to her lover’s absence. Both Offred and Mariana are characters who are presented as women
Society at the time focused heavily on marrying based on class and wealth, something Lady Bracknell heavily values and supports. Her views are evidently different from Gwendolyn’s, who believes one should be able to marry purely based on love, rather than which category of class the man falls into. Furthermore, in relation to Victorian ideals, Gwendolyn also fits into this category as she cares less about a man’s personality, and would rather marry this man as long as his name is Earnest. It is the ideal she desires and will firmly stay true to her expectations of her potential husband- Jack. According to critic Russell Jackson’s article, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, ‘Gwendolyn announces, and proceeds to enunciate the reduction to absurdity of such notions: that marriage with a man called Earnest can be a goal in life”. Gwendolyn does not love Jack for who he is as a person, she loves him simply for his name, as well as the idea of loving a man accepted by society because of his name. When Jack attempts to hint to Gwendolyn that his name is not Earnest, she discourages Jack from confessing his real name due to her being lost in the idea that the name Earnest fits into her ideals. This is an example of a character who, in this case, does not fight against the constrictions of Victorian society because of how she prospers on the idea that a name could be the difference between marrying a person. Instead of considering Jack’s personality, she relies heavily on his name to fulfil her ideals, which may have been influenced by the Victorian society. Similar, to Lady Bracknell, both of these characters fit into the typical traditions due to the way they both care less about personality, and consider men only based on how it would effect that