Offred's Relationship

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.

Gilead is a society not far from the present and it based around one central idea, control of reproduction by using women’s bodies as political instruments. Handmaids are women who the state took complete control of through their political subjugation. They are not allowed to vote, hold property, read or do anything that can make them independent from their husband and the state. These handmaids are reduced to their fertility and treated like nothing more than a set of ovaries and a womb. They lose their identity and become an object of the state. The narrator of The Handmaids Tale is a handmaid by the name of Offred. The novel takes place in first person point of view and this allows the readers to see how she is treated and all the events that take place for her. First person point of view allows the reader a closer view as to how a central theme develops by giving the reader a firsthand experience from the mind of the narrator.

If the whole story is just a memory, many of the “facts” are again adjusted to fit the narrator’s ex-post perspective. The Handmaid even offers three versions of the story of her and Nick having sex for the first time – here, Atwood again addresses the stereotypical expectations of romantic love and depicts three possible realities which play on Offred’s wishful thinking”2. Offred’s unreliability as narrator is furthered due to the that the fact that the tapes have been ordered by somebody else , but also because she is telling the story after it has happed. Hindsight surely must have shaped her opinions in some form. As well as exploring natural conflict within the human mind, as the novel progresses it becomes clearer that Offred does not always reflect the typical aspects of what is deemed as a normal mentality. As Offred’s perceptions of reality seem to merge more and more with her imagination we are made aware that isolated under the regime of Gilead, sanity is at least something Offred has to now fight for. "Sanity is a valuable possession; I save it, so I will have enough when the time comes." Insanity has always had in place amongst the control of totalitarian regimes ‘following the fall of the Soviet Union, it was often reported that some opposition activists and journalists were detained in Russian psychiatric institutions to intimidate and isolate them from

The Handmaid’s Tale is about Offered as she shares her thoughts and experiences in a journal-like form and provides some advice. Offred is a lower class female who has been taken from her husband and daughter at 5 years old to be a handmaid for the red commander at the red center. The point of this center is to reproduce with the Commander

the novel is a role model for Offred and serves as a part of Offred’s conscience. The

Offred is the protagonist in The Handmaid’s Tale, and one of the main reasons for the use of time shifts is for Margaret Atwood to help the reader dig up the past to discover the situation in which Offred is found. There are several other substantial reasons behind Atwood’s intentions of using time shifts which are also evaluated within this essay question.

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred recalls her past life before and during the creation of the Republic of

In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Offred recounts the story of her life and that of others in Gilead, but she does not do so alone. The symbolic meanings found in the dress code of the women, the names/titles of characters, the absence of the mirror, and the smell and hunger imagery aid her in telling of the repugnant conditions in the Republic of Gilead. The symbols speak with a voice of their own and in decibels louder than Offred can ever dare to use. They convey the social structure of Gileadean society and carry the theme of the individual's loss of identity.

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood utilizes various elements of fiction to develop and question the concept of power and control in the patriarchal society of Gilead. Offred, the main Handmaid, is the instrument of which Atwood delivers her message about corruption and power. Offred’s vague diction, unreliable characterization, and erratic tone illustrate the distress of this transitional society (Abcarian 1403-1404). In the beginning of Chapter 23, the role of memory in the novel expands, and the readers test the narrator’s creditability. Offred concludes that all of her memories are “reconstructions”, and that she will continue this practice even if she escapes Gilead. She continues to relate fluid memories to forgiveness and forgiveness to an unnaturally complacent and obedient population (Atwood 134-135). Identifying a powerful relationship between memories, forgiveness, and power, Offred suggests that the main source of Gilead’s totalitarian power is the regime’s ability to manipulate its citizens’ will to forgive past transgressions.

Throughout the first 15 Chapters we are provided with information, as narrated by Offred, with glimpses of her past life and her journey to the life she is now facing. These glimpses are not logical in their sequencing or chronological in the narration, therefore creating a feeling of disorientation among readers, a feeling matching that experienced by those living in this society. This also provokes many questions in the reader’s mind along with creating tension and expectation as to the nature of the procreation which we have come to

One of the most universal symbols of beauty is the flower. Their delicate buds hold such great beauty, while being so fragile and temporary. Despite their magnificence, flowers must remain stationary. It is a prison, yet no one thinks beyond the simplicity of a pretty flower. Like women, flowers are seen at face value without any concern for the lack of freedom, opportunity, and expression they have. Women are meant to be seen just how society expects and not any other way. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, female characters face the serious consequences of societal expectations and views on sexuality. Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses the motif of flowers to symbolize women and their virginity to demonstrate the confinement of women in society.

One of the many prevailing themes in literature is that power is gained and can be manipulated when restraints are placed on natural desires of the individual. This passage is significant because it is an example of this theme, for it shows how power and manipulation have completely changed and restricted the people, especially women, of Gilead. Due to this, the passage reveals the shared anger that the Handmaids possess, and the cruelty that has been brought upon the society. The use of similes, diction, syntax, and illustrate the impact that this event had on Offred, for she feels such anger towards the unknown man and the crime he has supposedly committed. These literary and rhetorical devices additionally serve to make this event seem as

Despite the little dependence on women, they are still objectified and subjected to injustice because of their gender, regardless if they were a female in general or as a poor female. As something as simple as what a person is born with affects the respect that is given to them. Margaret Atwood formulates Offred’s personality much like any other handmaid in the community. Offred becomes familiar with the functionality and role of women in the community, therefore she adjusts herself in order to be up to par with the unethical standard. “I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born. (Atwood, 75). To be what is required of her, Offred must act unhuman because the expectations of females exceed the

Her relationship with the commander is transient--one of convenience and necessity. Her feelings for him are ambiguous, and confusing even to her. She muses: "I ought to feel hatred for this man. I know I ought to feel it, but it isn't what I do feel. What I feel is more complicated than that. I don't know what to call it. It isn't love" (76). So we see that Offred sets up this relationship as the antithesis of romantic love--a foil for her relationships with both Luke and Nick. It is forced: a physical act devoid of desire, and in it she feels dominated and trapped. How she describes herself in relation to this situation, even at her most empowered (when she is with him in her office), is very revealing. Calling herself "an attentive pet, prick-eared and eager to perform" (238), she tolerates this relationship for the tiny bit of power it can afford her in this dystopic society. And yet, there is something more to this, because she admits to taking an interest in their social interaction: "I don't love the commander, or anything like it, but he's of interest to me, he occupies space, he is more than a shadow" (211). This last

The Handmaid’s Tale is a story told in the voice of Offred, who is the character of the “handmaid”, which is described best by women who are being forced and used for reproduction because they can make babies. In the Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood uses symbolism, which is the use of symbols to represent ideas, to show the reader the handmaid’s role in society of Gilead. The handmaids were women who had broken the law of Gilead, and forced into having sex and reproducing for the higher class. They had no rights and were watched constantly so this created a very nervous atmosphere. This horrible way of living is most likely why Offred never fully made the reader aware of the horrible life she was forced to live because