Abstract:
This study explores female oppression and resistance, where women are subjected to multiple forms of inequality, such as racism, sexism, dominance, silencing, and the deprivation of identity. The study aims to reveal how these forms of oppression converge and diverge to portray women's experiences under patriarchy, societal control, and institutional abuse. It also centres on analysing the multiple strategies the characters employed to survive and defend their identities. The research is centred on two prominent novels: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. In This research, I have utilised feminist theory, specifically through an intersectional lens, as my primary framework to analyse systemic oppression in both novels. By doing so, I demonstrate how this oppression is structured and systematised into various forms of control, which makes the experience of dominance and subjugation even more profound affecting all women and representing their entrapment within a gendered, racial world. Moreover, the study incorporates psychoanalysis as a secondary theory to complete my analysis, revealing the mental suffering this oppression causes, leading to broken identities and lost freedoms. This study reveals the women defiance and how their resistance was relevant despite the consequences
