All three of the women in each novel have different attitudes to the rules they are forced to abide by. Each of the female protagonists have certain personal attributes which contribute to their novels narrative. It is important to look at these attitudes and attributes and to note the ways in which they affect the narrative. The attitudes of the women could depend on whether they conform to the regime, or rebel against it. The narration of the novel plays a large part in how the women’s attributes are portrayed. It also depends on the gender of the author. The Handmaid’s tale for example, is written very differently stylistically to the other two novels as it was written by a woman in the eighties, much later than the other two dystopias. It is also imperative to study the ways in which the characters are portrayed visually, this includes the ways in which they are viewed by others and they ways in which they view themselves. Certain personality traits such as speech should also be observed to distinguish the tone it presents in the narrative. The three novels were written in different periods of the 20^th Century. This would have affected the ways in which the sexual laws in the novel would have been composed and also how the women are portrayed sexually. The sexual laws decided for the dystopia are vital to observe when looking at the sexual portrayals of the women and to see if and how the women follow these rules. In Nineteen Eighty-Four the women are stripped of any sexual independence or individuality. No make-up is allowed and all wear overalls. This is similar to The Handmaid’s Tale as the women are stripped of any identity; especially the handmaid’s themselves who can not be called by their birth names. In both of these novels the female protagonists are rebellious when made a victim of their regime. Julia of Nineteen Eighty-Four breaks all sexual boundaries by sleeping with Winston regularly. She even initiates the act, being the dominant figure in their early relationship. ‘He flattened it out. On it was written, in a large unformed handwriting: I love you.’ (pg 113) She leads him to a secluded place, giving specific details as to where it is, showing she is completely in control and has obviously done this before; ‘There’s nothing big enough to hide a mike in. besides, I’ve been here before.’ (pg 125) Once there, the conversation between the two characters becomes interesting. Winston admits he never even knew Julia’s eye colour, emphasising the strictness of the regime, but also showing his desperation for a woman. He has agreed to meet with Julia, knowing nothing about her, not even really knowing her physical appearance. She shows her desperation for a man, ‘“I’m thirty-nine years old. I’ve got a wife that I can’t get rid of. I’ve got varicose veins. I’ve got five false teeth.” “I couldn’t care less,” said the girl.’ (pg 126) Julia proves her dominance once more by deciding when and where they have sex and also she is the first to initiate sex by removing her clothing for him to observe her body. Julia holds more power when she tells Winston she has slept with other men, the information she reveals shocks both Winston and the reader;

“Have you done this before?”

“Of course. Hundreds of times – well, scores of times, anyway.”

“With Party members?”

“Yes, always with Party members.”

“With members of the inner Party?”

“Not with those swine, no. But there’s plenty that would if they got half a chance. They’re not so holy as they make out.” (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, pg 131)

Julia’s knowledge of corruption within the Party helps Winston to hope for a better future. This could be his turning point in the narrative, the place where he takes more of a stand in action, as after this he rents out the room above the shop and meets O’Brien in secret. Julia decides after their first intimate meeting when and where they meet for their later restricted conversations. She seems at this point to have knowledge and some sort of power, which Winston can not quite grasp and neither can the reader. She is surrounded by secrecy, and she possesses knowledge unknown to us or Winston. The reader craves as much as Winston to know more. Things change however, when Julia and Winston’s sexual relationship is moved to the room above the shop, which Winston found. Winston gains the upper hand at this point as he has found a place they can settle their relationship into, without Julia initiating a place for them to meet. After this point it appears that Julia becomes an object of sex to Winston and the reader, the air of mystery she possessed disappears. Julia appears to never really be the dominant and rebellious character we think she is. She has flared conversations about her hatred for Big Brother and the regime, but never seems to take any interest in taking potent action. She is bored by the politics of Oceania and their meetings just boil down to sexual encounters.

“I’m not interested in the next generation…I’m interested in us.”

“You’re only a rebel from the waist downwards,” he told her. She thought this brilliantly witty and flung her arms round him in delight. (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, pg vii)

 As Winston becomes more involved with fighting the regime, Julia becomes more tiresome. Winston becomes almost bored of her and seems independent of their relationship, which appeared so strong at the start. Julia attends the meeting with O’Brien later on, but Orwell chooses to write very little about her presence there. She almost fades away, posing no questions or any feedback. ‘O’Brien had turned himself a little in his chair so that he was facing Winston. He almost ignored Julia, seeming to take it for granted that Winston could speak for her.’ (pg 179) Orwell’s lack of representation of Julia emphasises Winston’s dominance over their situation, Julia has become a small figure in the narrative at this point, when she was previously the character we deliberated over. Julia’s only passion now is for Winston. She speaks only once in the meeting with O’Brien and the reader knows at this point that her thoughts are not with fighting the Party, but just simply continuing the relationship she has with Winston.

“You are prepared, the two of you, to separate and never see one another again?”

“No!” broke in Julia.

It appeared to Winston that a long time passed before he answered…Until he had said it, he did not know which word he was going to say. “No,” he said finally. (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, pg 180)

Winston has partly broken away from his relationship with Julia here. This emphasises the fact that she has been objectified into an entity of sex. For a small amount of time, Winston feels he could leave Julia to fight the Party. She is not his priority anymore. Julia is once again shown to ‘disappear’ when Winston reads to her from O’Brien’s book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Here we learn that through Winston’s reading of the book, Julia has fallen asleep. We see the intensity and need for more knowledge on Winston’s behalf as Orwell has written all of the knowledge Winston gains and the questions he asks over nearly forty pages of the novel, but Julia does not even pose any questions or stirs at anything she hears, she has effectively been tired to sleep by Winston’s reading. She disappears entirely from the narrative when Winston and she are caught and sent to the Ministry of Love. Once inside, the reader is only able to follow Winston’s ordeal. The reader is made to question if Julia maybe did not have to endure as much suffering as Winston, as she may have been easier to manipulate into betraying their relationship. We assume that since she became bored of his interests in following the rebellion against Big Brother and the politics of Oceania, then she would not have taken much convincing to admit her wrongs and become a follower once more. Maybe Winston’s hesitation to defend their relationship in front of O’Brien at the secret meeting placed things into perspective for Julia. Orwell makes it clear that Julia is a talker but carries out very little action. Her defence of their relationship could have only been words. The reader is made to question her emotional attachment to Winston. Did she genuinely love him, or was it a relationship based on sexual encounters and subtle rebellion? We can never truly know as Orwell does not provide us with Julia’s tribulation at the Ministry of Love.  Julia is re-introduced near the end of the novel; once again the reader is reminded of the dominant Julia we see at the start of the novel, she seems to have regained Winston’s interest and need for her. He notices a change in her person; he compares her to the corpse he dragged away when a bomb exploded. She is portrayed as quite a clumsy figure, who has lost all the sexual attractiveness Winston idealized in her originally. She is also full of hatred for him, which he does not seem to retaliate. Her hold is still over him, but she does not want him. ‘“I betrayed you,” she said baldly. “I betrayed you,” he said. She gave him another quick look of dislike.’ (pg 305) Orwell has made clear, at the end of the novel that Julia is the one person who kept Winston rational and she gave him the drive to achieve all he did when disobeying Big Brother. His one weakness turned out to be her, and she was all he had to defeat O’Brien, but failed, knowing she probably did too. Winston’s need for Julia returns when he sees her, he notices her all over again like he did earlier on in the novel. However, it seems that he needs her, even though her sexual attractiveness has faded. Orwell emphasises that without each other, they each would have no purpose.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Gilead is a society of strict sexual laws. Radiation has stopped many men and women from being able to conceive their own children. Women are placed into certain groups depending on their sexual history and situations. Handmaids are women who have committed so called, ‘sexual crimes’ such as having affairs with married men before the regime. The handmaids then are sent to work for different Wives in an attempt to try and conceive and carry a baby for them. They are forced to have sex with the Commander every week. This society presents a horrifying image of dystopia, where women are stripped of all identity and freedom, and placed in different social positions depending on their past. The handmaids are made to cover their faces and bodies and can leave the house once a day to collect shopping. They are dressed in the colour red symbolising the menstrual cycle and the blood of childbirth. Each woman is sectioned into a specific colour group depending on their purpose. Wives are in blue, probably to symbolise their past purity, as they did not commit any sexual crimes, but it could also represent the coldness which surrounds them. They have no physical or loving relationship with their husbands. Men are the figures shown to have power, they are guards, commanders and of other professions which require authority and control. The commanders are dressed in black to emphasise their authority, but also their restrictive positions of power.

Offred is the female protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale and is part of this society, but as a handmaid, hated by all other women of different statuses. Handmaid’s are frowned upon for the acts they have to carry-out with the Commanders, and also because they are a sign of wealth to the Econowives. Offred hates her role as a handmaid and rebels in many different, but subtle ways to begin with. She is also a non-conformist within her regime. Her core method of rebellion is through her thoughts. The novel is written in first person, and emphasises the space in time through the large memory episodes that Offred describes in her stream of consciousness. She remembers back to the Aunts where she was conditioned into becoming a handmaid. Usually in her memories she mocks the Aunts, laughing at their physical features and their displays of false emotion. Offred recounts their advice back in her narrative, with mocking tones. ‘Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen – to be seen – is to be – her voice trembled – penetrated.’ (pg 38) She constantly embarks back on the Aunts’ advice, comparing it to her own actions and thoughts. They have had a lasting effect on her, but not in the way desired. Offred uses them to rebel even more, instead of following their advice she belittles it. Her memories are also concerned with her past, where she remembers her everyday life with her husband, best friend, daughter, and mother. Atwood emphasises the normality of Offred’s life before the regime began. She writes of Offred’s conversations with her feminist mother and rebellious lesbian friend Moira. She talks of her childhood memories which are fragmented, as a child’s would be. The reader is drawn into the narrative through Offred’s re-remembering; the memories emphasise her isolation and the dramatic change in society that the regime has introduced. She has no freedom whatsoever and no time to herself, like she did in the past,

The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will, as long as I am quiet. As long as I don’t move. As long as I lie still. (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, pg 47)

Offred breaks this restriction upon her, by wandering the house at night and taking small unnoticeable items for herself. Her wanderings later lead to meetings with the Commander in his study. Offred rebels in subtle physical and sexual ways, an example of this is when she teases the guards in Gilead by wiggling her hips as she passes the gate, knowing they’re watching but can not come into contact with her.

As we walk away I know they’re watching, these two men who aren’t yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt sway around me. It’s like…teasing a dog with a bone held out of reach. (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, pg 32)

Unlike Julia, Offred is not a symbol of a failed rebellious figure. She defies the regime by caring for herself in a cosmetic way by storing segments of butter in her shoes to use as hand moisturiser. She then later rebels in intense ways; such as when she visits Jezebels with the commander and when she sleeps with Nick for pleasure, after making a deal with Serena Joy. Unlike Julia, sex is the last thing Offred desires as she is fighting to be free of being forced into sexual relations. Offred searches for love, instead of just sex she tries to recreate her past by falling in love with Nick. He is a replacement for her husband Luke, and he re-introduces feelings of love, which had been stripped from her by the regime. The fact that That Handmaid’s Tale is written by a woman and also in a first person narrative, different feminine aspects are introduced which are not found in the other two novels. One of these aspects is a maternal facet found in Offred and the other women in the novel. Offred is suppressed by the regime and by the way she is forced into carrying a stranger’s child, however she is still shown to have mothering instincts. She frequently talks and hopes for her unnamed daughter, who was cruelly taken away from her. She remembers one incident in particular where she recounts Luke telling her to tidy away a carrier bag, which could be harmful to their daughter. She remembers as if she was a bad mother because of this one mistake. It is almost as though she blames small occurrences like this, for her daughter being taken away. It could also be interpreted that she remembers these occurrences to make her daughter more real to her. It has been so long since she saw her that her only memories of her are when she was a small child. By the time Offred is a handmaid her daughter would have grown up. Her maternal instincts are disappearing and remembering these small episodes helps her to feel more human and still have some kind of connection with her daughter. Offred is also shown to remember the trauma of childbirth when she watches Janine give birth. She talks of how her breasts feel as though they are leaking milk, missing the child she nursed before. She also feels ghost pains of childbirth,

It’s hard work, you’re supposed to concentrate. Identify with your body, said Aunt Elizabeth. Already I can feel slight pains, in my belly, and my breasts are heavy. (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, pg 134)

Offred is the only character, of all three novels, who does not enjoy the sex instigated upon her by the regime.

What’s going on in this room, under Serena Joy’s silvery canopy, is not exciting. It has nothing to do with passion or love or romance or any of those other notions we used to titillate ourselves with. (Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, pg 105)

Offred’s fight is against sex as a function, whereas Julia turns sex into a function as a form of rebellion. Lenina from Brave New World is conditioned to believe sex is as important as eating or drinking, it is a function, but for pleasure.      

  Huxley’s Brave New World is considered to be an ironic utopia. It is completely contrasting with Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale in that promiscuity and vanity are encouraged, the term ‘Every one belongs to everyone else’ (pg 38) is used frequently. Things appear ideal on the surface, but there are underlying problems in that culture has been removed with items such as literature, art and history being taken away giving individuals nothing educational or cultured to think about. Natural birth has also been abolished – very different to The Handmaid’s Tale where natural birth is a fixation craved for by all the women, even the handmaids who know it will save their lives. The women are also encouraged to take pride in their appearance, with the men of the utopia discussing it frequently. This is contrasting with Nineteen Eighty-Four because the women are dressed the same and cannot wear make-up. The main female protagonist Lenina appears, on the surface, to be a conformist to the utopian society, however; she does subtly break the traditions. As a reader we never know Lenina’s thought processes as the narrator is omniscient, and the narrative is more concerned with the male characters. From Huxley’s writing Lenina appears to be a law abiding individual, but she does begin the novel by mentioning in her conversation with Fanny that she has been seeing Henry Foster for a long period of time, and he is the only man she has been seeing.

“Only four months! I like that. And what’s more,” Fanny went on, pointing an accusing finger, “there’s been nobody else except Henry all that time. Has there?”

Lenina blushed scarlet; but her eyes, the tone of her voice remained defiant. “No, there hasn’t been anyone else…And I jolly well don’t see why there should have been.” (Huxley, Brave New World, pg 35)

This instantly breaks the reader’s certainty about Lenina’s characterization as when first introduced she appears proud of her sexual attractiveness, and seems to be a conventional woman in a society in which comfort, pleasure, and materialism are the only values. When we learn of her prolonged relationship there is a slight hint that maybe there are cracks in the ‘perfect’ society, and she is just one of many taking advantage of the sexual freedom granted to them. During her conversation with Fanny, Lenina refers back to the phrase ‘Every one belongs to everyone else’ (pg 38), but with hesitation. She sighs during saying it. The way she pronounces it re-enforces the intensity of her conditioning she does not completely trust and depend on everything she says. Lenina is then seen to rebel when she chooses her next sexual partner, Bernard Marx. Bernard is a social misfit due to his appearance, which is abnormal for someone of his birth status. Lenina dates him even though he is cast aside in Fanny’s opinion and that of many others, showing she can see past the social ideals of what is good-looking. Huxley constantly reminds the reader of her doubts about Bernard’s physical appearance and we learn later that she only agrees to go to the native’s area to make another man jealous, but we still wonder whether she is conscious of her rebellious attitudes. Unlike Julia, Lenina never takes a sideline. The reader is always aware of her presence as she is almost the main focus of the narrative. All the male characters admire her sexually. She is the centre-point of the narrative, joining all the male characters introduced, together.

It is vital to study Brave New World’s narrative voice when looking at Lenina. Lenina is usually only explored from the point of view from three separate men. The first is Henry Foster, who views Lenina as a sexual object, with good looks and he focuses very little on her personality.

“Lenina Crowne?” said Henry Foster, echoing the Assistant Predestinator’s question as he zipped up his trousers. “Oh, she’s a splendid girl. Wonderfully pneumatic. I’m surprised you haven’t had her.” (Huxley, Brave New World, pg 39)

Bernard Marx is another character to present a different perspective of Lenina. At first when he hears Foster discussing Lenina, Bernard is angered by the way they refer to her, ‘From his place on the opposite side of the changing room aisle, Bernard Marx overheard what they were saying and turned pale.’ (pg 39) He dislikes the way that the men discuss Lenina as though she ‘were a bit of meat’ (pg 40) As the narrative progresses, Bernard’s opinion of Lenina changes. He becomes frustrated by her lack of personality and is sometimes disgusted by her lack of self-respect. He is more angered by the way she regards herself as ‘meat’ more than he is angered by the men who talk about her. ‘“Like meat, like so much meat.”… “And what makes it worse, she thinks of herself as meat.” (pg 47) As the narrative progresses, Marx outgrows his admiration for Lenina; he was similar to Foster in that he was attracted to her by her outside beauty alone. This is similar to Winston in Nineteen Eighty-Four as he tires of Julia’s lack of will-power in changing their world and her preoccupation with sex. He realises later he does not love her, and this is confirmed by John the Savage’s portrayal of love for her. John is so in love with Lenina, that he self-punishes in the end of the novel to hinder his sexual thoughts for her. He also refuses sex with her, and is the only man in the narrative to do this. She is not an object of sexual desire to him. In the end John gives in to his desires – but only because he is forced to by society. This act then forces him to commit suicide. He has publicly destroyed his self-control. It should also be taken into account that Brave New World has a male author, unlike The Handmaid’s Tale. They were also written in different periods of time, where views of women have changed. Atwood is commenting on the ways women are viewed, whereas Huxley is simply corresponding to these views. The novel was also written before the Second World War, when views of women changed dramatically.