A Comparative Study On The Themes Of Oppression And Rebellion In 1984 And The Handmaid’s Tale

1984, written by a British writer, George Orwell, and the other famous novel The Handmaid’s Tale by a Canadian female author, Margaret Atwood, are both two excellent and representative works as dystopian literature, which enjoy a high prestige in the world. Basically, the two novels describe common people’s miserable lives under oppression and then they gradually fight against the totalitarian power in their respective environments. However, the obvious difference is that their endings have a great distinction. Winston in 1984 is thoroughly brainwashed, and loves of Big Brother forever, but Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale finally escapes the totalitarian world and gets personal freedom.This thesis mainly compares and analyzes the themes of oppression and rebellion from the two works and tries to discover the causes of protagonists’ different endings. Making a comparison of disparate life track of protagonists in two novels, we may find the similar ruling means adopted by the totalitarian states so as to achieve their everlasting dominance. However, due to different objects of oppression in two states, they adopt different oppressive forms and then attain the different goals. Then through the comparison of two protagonists’rebel outcomes, we can find that their rebellious awareness have similar sources. Nevertheless, their different pursuits and methods inevitably lead to different endings. In short, their different rebellious pursuits in similar oppressive environment lead to their different results.By comparison of themes between oppression and rebellion in two novels, readers may better dig out the authors’ purposes:the two authors express their discontent with some problems which existed at that time and warn us that if we do not pay attention, then similar tragedy will played in the contemporary society. Moreover, they also point out the direction for the state’s development:the rulers should create a democratic and free external environment, keep the people’s independent thinking ability, constrain the unreasonable desire, uphold the spirit of solidarity, so as to realize a harmonious and democratic society.