THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TOWARD PATRIARCHAL CULTURE IN THE TESTAMENTS BY MARGARET ATWOOD

Abstract

In this paper, the writer analyzes women's resistance toward patriarchal culture as reflected in The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. The Testaments depicts patriarchal culture in the Republic of Gilead where oppression towards women occur. The novel also portrays how women resist the circumstance. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to describe oppression and women's resistance in a patriarchal culture. Feminist theory is applied for this study. Feminism refers to way of expressing disapproval of male domination with the purpose of understanding women's oppression in relation to race, gender and class and sexual preferences also the restrictions on women being low-level positions by the patriarchal culture [1]. The concept of oppression names the endless and profound injustices a few groups endure as a result of as often as possible oblivious presumptions and responses of well-meaning people in conventional intuitive, media, and social generalizations, and auxiliary highlights of a bureaucratic chain of command and advertising instruments, in brief, the typical continuous forms of existence [2]. Resistance is one way of realizing equality, dignity and rights (such as the right to education, the right to family planning, the right to divorce, and decision making) to reject the domination treatment received by women from men in a patriarchal culture [3]. There are still a lot of women in a patriarchal culture that experience oppression. For that reason the writer considers this study essential to be studied.