If one were to make a scale in human nature, which determines the desired state of man and the role he plays in society, one could apply it through the lens of gender criticism. The left has the unwanted state of man; a life filled with illness, poverty, dissatisfaction, disrespect and unhappiness. As far as law is concerned; a life containing health, wealth, satisfaction, respect and happiness. Many different aspects fall into that scale such as education, gender and class. An author might use this scale to classify the roles of their characters in their novel. Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale through her use of characterization demonstrates that the role of women is determined, but not subject to improvement, by the expectations of society, class, and education. In the mid-1980s, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, a group of fundamentalists decided they would take control of the nation. After killing the president of the United States and members of Congress, they implemented a new form of government in which they stunted the growth of women in society by taking away their credit cards and denying them jobs and education. This new society was called Gilead, "...a conservative and repressive state bent on annihilating homosexuals, abortionists, and religious sects other than its own, and resetting Jews, elderly women, and non-white people into radioactive territories, known as the Colonies " (Snodgrass). In their utopian society, the government has the power to require any fertile woman to subject her body to a government-supervised child production program. The rest were sent to the Colonies to join the cleanup crew (Student Novels). Those who were fertile were taken away from their normal lives and......middle of paper......- 1985 - Feminist Majority Foundation. Np, nd Web. 16 May 2014. .Millman, China. Berkow, Jordan ed. "The Handmaid's Tale Glossary." GradeSaver, August 22, 2006 Web. May 15, 2014. http://www.gradesaver.com/the-handmaids-tale/study-guide/glossary-of-terms/ “The Handmaid's Tale.” Novels for students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 114-136. Literary sources of Artemis. Network. April 29, 2014. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2591700018&v=2.1&u=pl2901&it=r&p=GLS&sw=w&asid=3f5f7234f1a393c70955c579f202013a Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. CliffsNotes on The Handmaid's Tale. May 15, 2014. SparkNotes Editors. "SparkNote on the Handmaid's Tale." SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. April 30, 2014. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/handmaid/