Angels and sisters no more: Power among women in Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale', 'Cat's Eye', and 'The Robber Bride' (Margaret Atwood)

Margaret Atwood's writing reveals her interest in the issue of power. In her earlier works, her female protagonists were engaged in power struggles with their male lovers or with patriarchal systems. In The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Cat's Eye (1988), and The Robber Bride (1992), however, Atwood focuses on the use and misuse of power in women's relationships with each other. Each consecutive novel portrays an increasingly powerful female figure who victimizes women, often with the help of other women. While this portrayal of women's treatment of each other is unsettling, it also debunks two myths of womanhood--the Victorian Angel in the House and the feminist Sister. Viewed in this light, the trio of books illustrates Atwood's belief that "Equality (for women) means equally bad as well as equally good."...