Moira In The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood includes Moira to display both the negatives and positives of idolizing someone. Atwood wants readers to think about how people's idolization of others can blind them to the reality of the person, their actions, or lack of overall goodness. On the other hand, Atwood also wants readers to see how idolizing someone can bring hope and inspiration to people in depressing and oppressive situations. In Offred’s and Moira’s relationships, Moira is dominant and gets what she wants out of Offred when she wants it. The first time we are introduced to Moira, we are shown a power dynamic between Moira and Offred.

In the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood the story is narrated by Offred. She is a Handmaid in the new society of Gilead in a story that takes place in the future. By having Offred narrate the story the readers of the story get to see the important memories of Offred’s old life, including the many different relationships that she had. One of the relationships that she reminisces of is the one between her and her best friend Moira. Early on in the novel, Offred remembers a night that she was with Moira. She was busy finishing a paper and Moira wanted to go out. We also learn that Moira wrote a paper on date rape. That memory of her best friend, Moira, shows how

Unlike Moira, Offred is desperate to conceive the Commanderís child in order to survive. Both women parallel many women in todayís society. On one hand, there are feminists who rebel against society no matter what it costs. On the other hand, there are women who are just trying to survive and find their place in a society in which they are second class citizens. In the novel, Offred is torn between smearing her face with butter to keep her complexion and hanging herself. In the same manner, she is caught between accepting the status of women under the new regime and following her own desires to gain knowledge and fall in love. Offred doesnít know whether to accept the circumstances and die inside, or to fulfill her own desires, set herself free like Moira has done. The contrast between Moira and Offred reveals Atwoodís attitude towards women and their sometimes self-destructive submission. Atwood shows the oppression of women through the extreme setting of the story, but she also allows the reader to see how women passively oppress themselves.

Brainwashing people is one of the techniques used in gilead to control people and this has been really effective. Moira’s spirit of resistance is defeated after being successful with her escaping and later recaptured, tortured. Offred finds her at Jezebel’s

Moira has been an unorthodox woman her whole life. She has always been a fighter and a strong leader. She is openly lesbian in her pre-Gilleadean days, which shows her tenacious and proud personality. Moira and Offred were friends before Gillead took control. Moira is close with Offred’s family; however, the novel never mentions that Offred knows Moira’s family very well. Moira and Offred were an unstoppable team before their lives changed forever when they were forced away from their previous lives and identities. Moira isn’t only a rebellious woman; she also is a voice of reason for many people including Offred and Janine. Offred even says in the novel, “Moira was more logical than [she was]” (Atwood 171). As Moira’s life continues it becomes harder for her to stay true to her nonconformist values.

Without having Moira there with her Offred begins to become slightly more rebellious. Knowing the Handmaids are not allowed to discuss each other, Offred pursues to ask Aunt Lydia if she knows where Moira is. Through this action does Offred also start to look into the rebellious attitudes of her mother.

Moira’s presence in her past. This is paramount to how Offred acts in the book.

Margaret Atwood describes her after her escape as being to the other handmaidens "like an elevator with open sides" (P143). In this simile I believe she is showing that Moira is able to take risks. She doesn't need the security that the others need, she is frightening to them, as she doesn't have the same fears. Another example of Moira's character that shows her nonconformist nature, is in that she made a political decision to become a lesbian.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of tales is presented during a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrims on the journey are from divergent economic and social backgrounds but they have all amalgamated to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas. Chaucer uses each pilgrim to tell a tale which portrays an arduous medieval society. The values, morals and social structures of the society can be examined through the fictitious tales, unravelling a corrupt, unjust and manipulative world, a world that is based around an ecclesiastical society.

Throughout most of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Moira is a character who refuses to be beaten down and conform to the new society that Gilead had created. She is one of only characters that is referred to by her real name, and this is because Moira never really becomes a Handmaid like the others. In lieu of the passivity that the other Handmaid’s come to have, she fights back against the new system. Her resistance can be seen not only in her attitude while she is a Handmaid, but in her two attempts at escape as well. Moira’s refusal to conform to the society that the Republic of Gilead created represents the rebellious spirit of humanity, as well as how an oppressive society such as Gilead can break even the strongest of

Without identity and individuality there are no distinguishing features in people when compared to everyone else. In society, it is difficult to deviate from what is considered ‘normal’. The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood displays the resilience the protagonist Offred exhibits when it comes to preservation of her identity and uniqueness against the oppressiveness of the Gilead regime. The author uses the treatment and observances by Offred to reveal her persistence in preserving her identity through her resistance against the despotic environment surrounding her. She is able to persevere despite the efforts of society to erase her identity through changing her name, defining her purpose in life and control of her body.

When the novel came out, women had just started to gain more rights. Women were seen as weaker than men and were treated differently than men. In the novel “The Handmaid's Tale” by Margaret Atwood and the article “Science Fiction in the Feminine: The Handmaid's Tale” by Coral Ann Howells they both demonstrate how women's rights were taken away from them. Atwood demonstrates a variety of ways women lost their rights.

Women in the past were perceived as insignificant because of the society’s inability to embrace and acknowledge women as of equal importance as men and of those who are wealthy. In Margret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the character by the name of Offred, is a handmaid and tells her perspective of the dystopian life in the community of Gilead. The women of 1985 serve the males and the rich if they are not a wealthy maiden themselves. However, regardless of class, women are always discerned as of lesser significance than men. This is manifested through Offred’s observation that although the women who are a Commander’s wife are entitled of higher authority than the handmaids, they are still seen as insignificant. In order to give them

We should colonize mars because people on Earth are destroying their own plant at a fast rate, also for the following reasons…..

For copping with resistance the government occupied the citizens’ mind with fear, and brain washed the majority of citizens. Government tries to block any mobilization and communication between the citizens, and it forbids them to read or speak freely. Also, the system created spies between people called the “eye” for killing the trust between citizens, and the government is frightening the citizens by gather them and make them watch the outlaws’ execution in the place called “the wall”; this will make the citizens not to think about resisting and fighting against the system. However, there are some citizens that cannot accept the brutality of the government; some of them are in organized groups and some other work individually. For instance, Moira, one of the main characters in the novel, could not accept the restrictive laws of the Red Center, so she managed to escape; she ambushed one of the aunts and wore her clothes, and escaped successfully. In contrast, Offred, the main character, is a bit conservative, and she is afraid of making her move even though she realizes the unfairness of the system; she tries to satisfy her self under the condition. In addition, Stillman and Johnson in “Identity, Complicity, and Resistance in The Handmaid’s Tale” claim, “Offred's complacency is not purely generational regression, however. Offred's contemporary Moira exists almost as her alter ego. If Offred is an everywoman, Moira is her opposite” (Stillman and Johnson: 79). The writers critically describe the Offred’s acceptance for the unfairness of the system, but they give the value for Moira’s