Imagine being stripped away of your freedoms, your identity, your humanity. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood a woman by the name of Offred is robbed of these very things. The story takes place in Gilead, a religious society that believes safety and reproduction of mankind is most important. Leaders of Gilead turned the world into a psychological prison. Offred a Handmaid is viewed only as a reproducer and nothing else. Overall she is a woman stripped of her identity, not knowing what reality is. “Living outside of yourself, as a coping method employed by one's unconscious to combat psychological trauma” Sigmund Freud.
Offred’s identity was taken from her. Her ability to be different from others is no longer acceptable.
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(Henyan 3) “At the bottom of the stairs, there’s a hat-and-umbrella stand, the bentwood kind, long rounded rungs of wood curving gently up into hooks shaped like the opening fronds of a fern” (Atwood 8) She does this to remind herself this is real and this is really happening. (Henyan 3) Offred must search her unconscious for answers. Identity is represented by difference. “Without difference there is no identity, and without identity there is no difference” (Heidegger 342) Being forced to live as a Handmaid leaves a large amount of space for Offred’s unconscious development on her quest for sanity. Understanding her thoughts, actions, and descriptions of herself and others not only explains her psychological struggles, it also enables an ability to zoom in and examine her conscious behaviors from deep within her unconscious. (Henyan 4) The Handmaid’s Tale is interpreted through the way certain things such as events are described. Throughout the novel Atwood gives the audience a glimpse into the Handmaid’s life through Offred’s dreams, memories, flashbacks, and …show more content…
Offred lives in a society where she is told what to do, what to wear, how to speak, what is right, and what is wrong. She lives her life everyday doing exactly what she is told to do. Although that is her reality, someone is making it. If her reality is being created for her, then is that truly her reality? Knowing what is and is not Offred’s reality makes no difference in the end. “There will be an ending to the story, and real life will come after it” (Atwood 39) Although she may be unaware of it, Offred lives in two very different realities. She has her reality, which is being treated for her and she lives through that by living through her subconscious. Then there is actual reality. The reality when she does not focus on subconscious but instead focuses on her physical reality. She does not do this often because when faced with the outside world Offred realizes the world she lives in and the fact that she can not change it or make her own decisions could destroy her. This is why she stays in her
Although Offred is the heroine of this story, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the hero’s journey can be found in many characters in the story as well. This story is breaking into shambles between the past and the present, however, through the story, readers can still see the signs of the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell has studied. Offred, being a handmaid, has been thrown into a world where women are powerless and stripped away of their rights to read and write. Atwood illustrates a dystopian world where equality is a part of history, not in the present day Gilead. However, Offred is one of the main characters who ceased to live in a degrading world and find means to escape. Thus, Offred begins on her Hero’s Journey, which occurs
In the case of Offred, she does not mention her real name throughout the entire novel. In fact, Offred is probably numbed by the reality that she doesn’t even want to mention her real name, as she once said, “I must forget about my secret name and all ways back. My name is Offred now, and here is where I live.” (p.185) As a result, she is often perceived as an imaginary figure. In a way, she has already lost her original identity, that we are unable to trace her in the future.
There are two possible events that can occur with Offred's arrest and readers have the ability to open the book to new possibilities. If Offred is arrested, she will likely be tried for treason and killed. However, if she escapes into freedom, she will have a new lifestyle away from Gilead. She is different from Winston as she only wants to survive and survives because of her memories of her past Conclusion:
The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded by people being oppressed.
The ability to create life is an amazing thing but being forced to have children for strangers is not so amazing. Offred is a handmaid, handmaid's have children for government officials, such as Commander Waterford. Offred used to be married to Luke and together they had a daughter but then everything changed; Offred was separated from her family and assigned to a family as their handmaid. The society which Offred is forced to live in shaped her in many ways. In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood uses cultural and geographical surroundings to shape Offred's psychological and moral traits as she tries to survive the society that she is forced to live, in hopes that she can rebel and make change.
Offred, among other women depicted in this novel, tries to overcome this dominion. In her own way, she attempts to do this by ensuring the Commander’s expectations of her behavior which could result in her freedom. Thus, there is a present power struggle between the Commander and Offred throughout The Handmaid’s
Incarnation, this shows Offred’s opinion on not only herself but her mother. I think the reason why Offred tolerates being a Handmaid is because she does not want to be like her
Women were purely defined by the men who had complete control over them. In the novel Offred had some control, by keeping her name to herself which maintained a little bit of her independence. As soon as people saw her they knew she was a handmaid, but as soon as people heard her name they knew exactly who her commander was, and from there on only thought of her as belonging to Frederick. Their name affects how themselves and others viewed them which Offred seems to notice when she says this, “I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I could once do, how other saw me” (Atwood 111). She states here that when she had her other name she was a completely different person, her other name gave her the power to be herself, but as soon as her name changed so did she. She also says
Offred from The Handmaid's Tale uses different tactics to cope with her situation. She is trapped within a distopian society comprised of a community riddled by despair. Though she is not physically tortured, the overwhelming and ridiculously powerful government mentally enslaves her. Offred lives in a horrific society, which prevents her from being freed. Essentially, the government enslaves her because she is a female and she is fertile. Offred memories about the way life used to be with her husband, Luke, her daughter, and her best friend Moira provides her with temporary relief from her binding situation. Also, Offred befriends the Commander's aide, Nick. Offred longs to be with her husband and she feels that she can find his love by being with Nick. She risks her life several times just to be with Nick. Feeling loved by Nick gives her a window of hope in her otherwise miserable life.
...entioned forms of Offred’s power were not physical power. She also has the most physical power as she is the person who carries the baby and gets pregnant. Then later in the novel after Serena suggests about seeing Nick. Offred is given a cigarette and then a match and with that match Offred could burn the house down killing the Commander and Serena and then trying to escape. She could burn herself so that she no longer has to live or suffer the indignity of being continually raped by this society.
Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, the author Margaret Atwood gives the reader an understanding of what life would be like in a theocratic society that controls women’s lives. The narrator, Offred, gives the reader her perspective on the many injustices she faces as a handmaid. Offred is a woman who lived before this society was established and when she undergoes the transition to her new status she has a hard time coping with the new laws she must follow. There are many laws in this government that degrade women and give men the authority to own their household. All women are placed in each household for a reason and if they do not follow their duties they are sent away or killed.
Offred’s journey is a prime example of the appalling effects of idly standing by and allowing herself to become a part of the Gilead’s corrupt system. This woman is a Handmaid which was recently placed within a new
This is the way Atwood gets across her feelings about the future world that Offred lives in. She forms a close relationship with the reader and the character, and then shows the reader Offred’s feelings about different aspects of the world. This is not to say that everyone reading the book will get the exact same thing from it.
Offred had been though many mixed feelings throughout this entire book. She has been able to feel, experience and thinks thoughts that she had not ever imagined that she would have. Offred can not escape the fact that in spite of the treatment from Serena Joy and the commander, that they both will have if not already have an impact on her life. Not to mention Nick also. Nick gave her the comfort and the security that she wanted, and at the end nothing done to her by the commander or his wife mattered to her. Living in the Republic of Gilead will always be a memory that she will probably try to forget.
In this manner, Atwood’s characterization of Offred through her individuality and defiant nature, ultimately allow her to present just how societal expectations go hand in hand with gender roles as Offred challenges them just to retain the most basic parts of her identity as a female.