Female Dystopias as a Warning How the Female Role in the Dystopian Narratives, The Stepford Wives (1972) by Ira Levin and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood, is Portrayed, Including a Comparison to their Audio-visual Adaptations Word count: 26,471 Tara Van Den Neste Student number: 01300386 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jasper Schelstraete A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature English and Spanish Academic year: 2017 – 2018 Female Dystopias as a Warning How the Female Role in the Dystopian Narratives, The Stepford Wives (1972) by Ira Levin and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood, is Portrayed, Including a Comparison to their Audio-visual Adaptations Acknowledgements I would like to thank several persons that have been important to me in the writing process of this thesis. First, I want to express my appreciation towards Dr. Jasper Schelstraete of Ghent University who has supervised me and has guided me during my writing process. Thanks to his feedback, Dr. Schelstraete steered me in the right direction without imposing his own point of view. His commentary allowed me to write the dissertation I had in mind. Next, I want to thank my boyfriend Laurens Guilbert, who not only had to deal with my stress but also read through the dissertation and gave comments whenever he thought it necessary. He helped me with certain parts that needed more support and with grammatical inconsistencies. Thanks to him, I kept going and never lost hope. A thank you to my parents, who support me at all times, cannot lack here. Thanks to them I am able to study at the University of Ghent and their endless faith in me never decreased throughout my entire career. I would also like to thank Pieter Lemmens, who has read this dissertation and provided me of useful feedback. Table of Contents 0. Intro ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1. The Origin of Dystopia and the Feminist Role ................................................................................. 7 1.1. What is a “Dystopia”? .............................................................................................................. 7 1.2. The Causes of Dystopian Writing ............................................................................................ 9 1.3. The Main Goal of Dystopia .................................................................................................... 10 1.4. The Feminist Role in Dystopia ............................................................................................... 11 1.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 13 2. Gender/women in The Stepford Wives and The Handmaid’s Tale ............................................... 14 2.1. Analysis of The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (1972) ............................................................... 14 2.1.1. The Characteristics of the Stepford Wives .................................................................... 15 2.1.2. The Feminist Joanna Eberhart and her Friends ............................................................. 20 2.1.3. The Practices of the Men’s Association ......................................................................... 22 2.1.4. Joanna’s Husband Walter .............................................................................................. 26 2.1.5. A Doubtful Protagonist .................................................................................................. 27 2.1.6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 28 2.2. Analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985) ............................................. 29 2.2.1. The Female Oppression: the Handmaids ...................................................................... 31 2.2.2. Procreation as a Main Goal ........................................................................................... 34 2.2.3. The Novel’s Symbols ...................................................................................................... 35 2.2.4. Reflective Flashbacks ..................................................................................................... 36 2.2.5. The Two Influential Men ............................................................................................... 38 2.2.6. Sexual Desire ................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.7. The Female Power ......................................................................................................... 41 2.2.8. The Female Resistance .................................................................................................. 42 2.2.9. Utopia or Dystopia? ....................................................................................................... 43 2.2.10. An Open but Hopeful Ending ......................................................................................... 45 2.2.11. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 46 2.3. Comparison between the novels of The Stepford Wives and The Handmaid’s Tale............. 47 3. Audio-visual Adaptations .............................................................................................................. 52 3.1. The Popularity of Audio-visual Media ................................................................................... 52 3.2. The Creativity of Adaptation ................................................................................................. 53 3.3. The Stepford Wives (2004) and The Handmaid’s Tale (2017) versus The Stepford Wives (1975) and The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) ........................................................................................... 54 3.4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 56 4. The Audio-visual Adaptations of The Stepford Wives and The Handmaid’s Tale ......................... 58 4.1. The film of The Stepford Wives (2004) in comparison with the novel .................................. 58 4.1.1. The Ambitious Women .................................................................................................. 59 4.1.2. The Gay Community ...................................................................................................... 60 4.1.3. A Light-Hearted Parody ................................................................................................. 60 4.1.4. The Romantic Plot ......................................................................................................... 62 4.1.5. The Overpowered Men ................................................................................................. 63 4.1.6. A Positive Ending ........................................................................................................... 63 4.1.7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 64 4.2. The series of The Handmaid’s Tale (2017) in comparison with the novel ............................ 65 4.2.1. The Sensational Aspect.................................................................................................. 66 4.2.2. The Romantic Plot ......................................................................................................... 67 4.2.3. The Heroic Characters ................................................................................................... 68 4.2.4. The Multiple Perspectives ............................................................................................. 68 4.2.5. The Problem of Infertility .............................................................................................. 72 4.2.6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 72 5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 74 6. Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 80 Word Count: 26,471 0. Intro This dissertation focusses on the female role in dystopian fiction. Dystopian novels are valuable to humankind since they present a catastrophic future, warning us for dangerous tendencies in our present-day society. The cases of this particular research alert us for “the notorious backlash of neo-conservative and religious-fundamentalist anti-feminism (…) in the mid-1970s” (Lauret 71). “Women’s dystopias” reflect a feministic fear as they “foreground (…) the denial of women’s sexual autonomy. They show women trapped by their sex, by their femaleness, and reduced from subjecthood to function” (Lefanu 71). This paper will analyse and compare the ways in which women are oppressed in two dystopian narratives: Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives (1972) and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Moreover, this investigation will also take into account the novels’ most recent audio-visual adaptations.