A Creative Compare and Contrase of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale and the 1970′s film, A Clockwork Orange.
And the first thing that flashed into my gulliver was that I’d like to have her right down there on the floor with the old in-out, real savage. – Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
Sex. Plain and simple, Stanley Kubricks’s adaptation of A Clockwork Orange focuses primarily on rape, and “ultra-violence” all while being put to the lovely classical music background. Alex has an evident psychopathic obessesion with rape, and sexual violence… only towards women. His immediate thoughts when put in a situation with women, those of whom he does not even know, is doing the “old in out” with them, which is what all of us know as sex. I believe that Alex has the temptations to overtake innocent, helpless women as a way of displaying his power, and feeding his cravings to be in charge. This need to be in charge of others is displayed in the way he deals with his other gang members, Pete, Georgie, and Dim, as he must always be in charge of them. In certain circumstances, Alex has even resorted to beating his fellow gang members as a way of teaching them he is in charge, and they must respect them. The sexual assaults on women also display a particular aspect that is associated with a number of dystopic societies such as the Handmaid’s Tale, which is fact that men are superior to women. The men in these socieites must be better, more respected, and hold all power and control over the women.
In The Handmaid’s Tale, the behaviour of the Commander can be easily compared to that of Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Both men have an obvious need for power over the women in their lives, ensuring that all rights and freedoms be taken away from them. The women are then left defenceless, and with no choice but to comply to the commands of both Alex, and the Commander. Despite their many similarities, there are some differences between the Commander and crazy psycho Alex. The Commander feels a certain amount of pathos for Offred, as he invites her to his room to play scrabble, gives her forbidden facial cream, and allows her to read a “sacred” magazine. This shows the reader that the Commander does indeed have a heart, and still has true emotions despite the society he lives in. Both the novel, and the film are completely twisted, delusional, and just plain weird. Within both dystopic societies, there are certain aspects of the way of life that are can very likely come true within our socities. However, I believe that A Clockwork Orange is more realistic for our society, as extreme violence and rape are alreayd prevelant issues in our world.
