ICLLL2017, 7 November 2017 A Deleuzean Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale: Active and Reactive Forces Shirin Parchami 1 , Morgan Eyvazi 2 , Shahram Afrougheh 3 1 Shirin Parchami, M.A. English Department, Payam-e-Noor University, Arak, Iran; shirinparchami@gmail.com 2 Mojgan Eyvazi, Assistant professor, English Department, Payam-e- Noor University, Tehran, Iran; mehkade@gmail.com 3 Shahram Afrougheh, Department of English literature and Language, Boroujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd, Iran; shahram.afrougheh@gmail.com Abstract In this paper The handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is studied with the Deleuzean approach. What is very significant in The handmaid’s Tale from Deleuzean point of view is the exercise of power over people. In order to better understand what this exercise of power draws on society The Handmaid’s tale is a very tangible sample. In order to better understand, the key terms around force and exercise of power are found in Deleuze’s approach and matched with them in The Handmaid’s Tale. This paper studies to what extent it is possible to read The Handmaid’s’ Tale in the light of Deleuzean theories about active and reactive force. This study searches for theories of Deleuze about Force in the Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and suggests the signs of the society under the strict control and boundaries of such governments. Fortunately the elements of force which described by Deleuze are fully matched with items in the novel. Keywords: force, active, reactive, becoming Introduction whereas Gilles Deleuze (1995) is the twenties philosopher and close to us, reading Gilles Deleuze can be something awesome in order to find the answers of the most questions philosopher asked about life in twenties and twenty first century about the exercise of the power around the world. Amalgamation of these two, Deleuze and Atwood may help us to answer some issues of these days which diffused around the world. War is a part of our daily routines news. Of course justly war with oppressive party or an unjust war with oppressed. Every country is searching for their own benefits and may plunder the oppressed ones in order to be powerful. Daily increasing attention of human rights despite wars weather civil wars or out of borders and also future of the human as crown of creation is the matter that these days are issues of the high importance. Force: In reading Deleuze Force is any capacity for action, there is interaction between these forces and these interactions results in body of events and changes in the world. Forces depend on Quantity and Quality and by these divide into categories of dominant, dominated and active, reactive. [1] Force means any capacity to produce a change or ‘becoming’, whether this capacity and its products are physical, psychological, mystical, artistic, philosophical, conceptual, social, economic, legal or whatever. Every force exerts itself upon others. No force can exist apart from its inter- relationships with other forces and, since such associations of struggle are always temporary, forces are always in the process of becoming different. “In Deleuze’s and D&G’s reading of Nietzsche and Spinoza, a becoming which involves a modification in a characteristic relations of forces (a capacity of the will to power) or of speed and slowness, which in turn increases or decreases the capacity for action."[3] When the story goes on between Ofglen and Offred we can find a capacity for change and a kind of interaction between these them is ignited: Ofglen and Offred see a priest and two homosexuals—in Guardian uniforms—who had been hanged. When they leave, Ofglen remarks that it is a beautiful “May day”. Offred responds perfunctorily, but she then remembers that Mayday used to be a distress signal. She recalls Luke once telling her that it comes from the French m’aidez, which means “help me”. [2] Because of the interaction between Nick and Offred and also Commander’s request she thinks that maybe something changes the situation and she became closer to the event which is death: Offred