AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

This thesis aims to discuss the systematic silencing of women in Margaret Atwoodâs novel The Blind Assassin, using the theories of Dorothy Smith and Thorstein Veblen, the studies of Cynthia Wilcox Lischick and Evan Stark, along with feminist ideas presented by Atwood, Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde as research approaches. The thesis tries to see how the limitations, traumas and sacrifices of Atwoodâs two female protagonists, Iris and Laura Chase, serve to demonstrate the suppressions of femaleâs voices in patriarchal societies. As Smith indicates, social mechanisms in patriarchal societies function to mute females in every level of life. In the first place, patriarchal ideology blinds most characters in The Blind Assassin. As a result, the masses silently accept and unthinkingly support oppressive social orders. Secondly, the status as property and subordinates of men hinders women from issuing voices. The economical, social and legal status of a married woman leaves Iris no choice but to stay silent and tolerate tyrannical reshaping practiced by Griffen siblings since Richard is simultaneously her bread-provider and the guardian of Laura. Last but not least, womenâs voices hardly penetrate the multiple blockades in society to reach others. Though Iris and Laura both try hard to speak, their messages are continuously trivialized, degraded, distorted, and eliminated by the silencing walls of patriarchyâthe invisible yet solid impediments consisted of social deprivation of femaleâs authority, distorting languages, confining and generally rejected writing, as well as psychiatry which negates the experiences and voices of women. In The Blind Assassin, Atwood gives a detailed presentation of the tragedies in the lives of the Chase sisters. The confinements, traumas and sacrifices of the two women, though seemingly case-specific at the first glance, are in fact manifestation of the comprehensive suppression of female voices in patriarchal societies.