Critique of Cosmopolitan Modernity in Atwood’sThe Robber Bride

Abstract

Utilizing the concept of modernity and gender as conceptualized by Jenet Woolf and Bonnie Kim Scott, this research project concentrates upon the difficulties and crises upon female characters in Atwood’s novelThe Robber Bride. Most of the female characters inThe Robber Brideare deviated from their cultural root and individual identity. They feel that the temptation to follow the westernized thought has distorted the taste and attitude of the young generation. The main character of this novel Zenia belongs to the class of handmaid’s fertile women who is forced to bear children for elite, barren couples and rich people. Zeniz forgets her real name, cultural identity and her own background being lost in the midst of western technocratic world. She comes in metropolitan American city to search her better life, but she becomes puppet on the hands of different males in the city simply because she is a woman. Modernity deteriorates Zenia in the level of puppet despite enlightening her. Keywords: City, Dystopia, Flaneuse, Flanuer, Modernity, Women.