The Handmaid's Tale

One of the main topics in this particular novel was religion and whether or not the good intentions it sought forth after were in fact for the greater good of mankind. The countries religion is the base and ground working for the government. They create a world that was meant to be safe for women and protect them and help lives and the population of the world. The women are safe but with major consequences. They had almost all of their freedoms taken away and for the handmaid's they even had to give up their bodies for procreation to a man they never met. It is disgusting to even imagine what life must be like in their shoes because of all of the laws that prohibit them from living their lives. These women are monitored so closely they can't even be trusted to have any objects that could be potentially used as a weapon to kill themselves.


Another topic is that the religion itself isn't even taken seriously. They only follow it because they have to. The people don't have faith in the religion or believe in what the teachings teach. For example the part of the novel where Offred is watching the Soul Scrolls, "Ordering prayers from Soul Scrolls is supposed to be a sign of piety and faithfulness to the regime, so of coarse the Commanders' Wives do it a lot. It helps their husbands' careers." (167). The people can order a scroll and have a machine repeat it for them. This alone proves how unimportant religion is for people. They only do it to get farther ahead the social ladder.


One of the only quotes I enjoyed in this novel was near the end of Chapter 7 on page 39, "I would like to believe this is a story I'm telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it's a story I'm telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off."

I like this quote a lot because this relates to many people in different areas of the world. It is a defense mechanism she is using to save herself from herself. Without the stories she tells herself, then there really only would be reality for her; a reality that could cause her to take her own life.

The Importance of Being Earnest

In Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde focuses on the ridiculousness of the Victorian era and their etiquette they had to follow. In his play, he creates characters who follow all the rules and makes them out to be very shallow people who don't care about anything other than the materialistic belongings and superficial meanings, such as the importance of being named Earnest. The characters who follow the edicts exactly all seem alike because of all the social rules set upon them. Jack, Algy, Gwen, and Cecily all are similar to the point where they argue the same way about almost the exact same thing. Such when Gwen and Cecily argued about how much sugar in tea is sufficient and when Algy and Jack were auguring about the proper way to ear muffins, both arguments took place while a very important event was happening that they did not care about. For the girls, they found out they were both engaged to Earnest Worthington. Then the men had their argument right after they told their betrothals the truth about their names not being Earnest. These people do not care about something that is life altering because it would be unaccepted to show so much emotion, as Lady Bracknell would most likely have put it. The authors message of how ridiculous the people of that era was well exampled and portrayed all of them as ignorant people who do not care about anything under the surface of things.


A quote I enjoyed in this play was on page 40 when Jack is confessing to Gwen the truth about his non existing brother,

"Gwendolen--Cecily--it is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth.
It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful
position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind."

This quote makes me laugh because Jack had just confessed he is not use to telling the truth and he is not "experienced" in the way of speaking it fluently. This quote proves the authors point in how shallow these people were. They were so use to lying and digging no deeper than the surface that telling the truth is harder than coming up with a story to cover a lie. It is also humorous because he talks about telling the truth as lowering himself and his standards.


I really enjoyed reading this play. I loved the fact that the author was ridiculing the etiquette of the Victorian era and the superficial beliefs they had. I also like it because you can relate it to today's' society. In today's society it is all about looks and higher standards and the importance of having the fanciest item and latest trend. For the women in the play it was all about getting a man named Earnest, today it's all about getting a rich man. Also, with the men, Algy and Jack, they switched identifies to get away from their lives and to fool around, which is found in the present day. Although we have come very far, we still see many examples of extremely shallow and ignorant people today who could relate closely to the main characters to this play.