The Unorthodox Characters of The Handmaid’s Tale “Rebels defy the rules of society, risking everything to retain their humanity” a quote by Joyce Johnson. Margret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale is a futuristic novel, set in the Republic of Gilead that is a totalitarian Christian theocracy. The men and women are all separated into castes: the men by achievements, and the women by fertility. The novel is based around one of the Handmaids, Offred. She is specifically used to bear children, and that is all in this future. Much of nature has developed diseases and is filled with pollution. This makes many people die, and babies are born with birth defects. Throughout the novel Offred describes how life was before the Republic of Gilead, with knowledge, …show more content…
He is one of the founders of Gilead, and is responsible for the new totalitarian government that is set in place. Although he has high rankings in the Republic of Gilead, he is not able to do everything he wants legally. The first thing that makes him an unorthodox character is his collection of books and other reading material. The Commander keeps his office to himself not telling anyone about what is in it; all walls filled with shelves stacked with books. His books are not just regular books, they are the taboo books in the Republic of Gilead, such as the old version of the Bible as well as other banned items, “It was a magazine, a women’s magazine” (Atwood 156). Another aspect that makes the Commander an unorthodox character in The Handmaid’s Tale is that he invites Offred to come to his office secretly. The Commander and Offred meet up and play Scrabble in his office and just talk. Secretly he does this because he is not able to talk to Serena Joy his wife freely as he is when he is only with Offred in his office. One other part of the novel that tells that the Commander is unorthodox is Jezebel’s. In the novel Jezebel’s is secret club that only the Commanders can go to. He invites Offred to go with him to the club one night, and he gives her “a handful, it seems, of feather, mauve and pink” to wear to pretend to be a prostitute that works there (Atwood 230). Since Jezebel’s is supposed to …show more content…
It is clearly evident that Moira uses her escapes to not only escape from the physical torment that the Republic has forced upon her, but also the psychological hardships that she faced. This applies to both the Commander and Offred as well. The Commander is part of the group that founded the Republic of Gilead, and even though he is a founder he still breaks their rules and has books and magazines for him to read. Offred also risks many things as she tries to keep herself from being brainwashed by the society. She thinks about her past, and still tries to keep her mind agile. Moira, the Commander, and Offred are the three most unorthodox characters in Margret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s
Throughout the Handmaid’s Tale, we come across a plethora of biblical references; also many aspects of the stories’ plot are based on biblical passages. The story is based in the republic of Gilead, a futuristic and dystopian America. This futuristic government isn’t based on loving peaceful messages from scripture; rather, it takes snippets from the violent passages and adopts them to suit their choke-hold of society. We first take notice of this oppressive government in the first few pages of the book when we read “Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle-prods slung on thongs from electric belts.” ( 4) These “Aunts” are older women, who wear habits, whose man function is to brain wash and rule over the “handmaids”. Often referencing from the Old Testament, they encourage a very bleak outlook at life outside of government rule. To meet this end, they often times force the handmaids to view pornos and gratuitous violent acts. The main character in the story is a handmaid named Offred (of Fred), who’s purpose in life, imposed on by the government, is to bear children.
She shows us that there are possibilities for Offred. The reason why Margaret Atwood chooses to continuously show the positive and subdued attitude of Offred, is to show the reader that in Gilead there are ways out and ways of breaking the laws however, there are also ways in which Gilead represses you and its up to the individual in this society to choose whether not to take the risks. The Jezebel sequence on the whole is highly significant to the novel. We many different insights into Gilead in jezebels in contrast to the rest of the novel, which makes it one of the most important sections in the novel of “The Handmaids Tale”.
Offred is one of the Handmaid’s in the Republic of Gilead. This used to be known as the United States of America but now it is Gilead, a theocratic state. Because of an issue that occurred, women lost all of their money and rights. Handmaid’s were then assigned to higher class couples that were unable to have children, that was the new job for the Handmaid’s. Offred was assigned to the Commander and Serena Joy, his wife. Offred was once married to a man named Luke and they had a baby girl together. When this issue started occurring and Offred lost her rights, her, Luke and their daughter tried to escape to Canada but were caught. Offred has not seen Luke or her daughter since that incident. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the most unorthodox characters are Offred, Serena Joy, and The Commander.
In The Handmaid 's Tale by Margaret Atwood, readers are introduced to Offred, who is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. As this novel is
In the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood writes about an alternate universe about America that illustrates our worst fears. Some of the fears depicted in the book can be seen in the world today, such as the distaste for abortion and the mentality that men are supposed to have more power than women. These issues are not only known as social issues but also feminist issues. Feminism is the belief that women and men should be treated equally socially, politically, and economically. This book shows how these issues could get worse in our society. The author uses Offred, the protagonist in the story, to show how the world could change for the worst. Offred, a handmaid in The Handmaid 's Tale, showed how men and society had control over
Character Analysis of The Handmaid's Tale Moira = == == We first meet Moira "breezing into" (P65) Offred's room at college.
Before the war handmaids had their own lives, families, and jobs but that’s all gone now; They have all been separated from their families and assigned to A Commander and his wife to have their child. Handmaids did not choose this life but it was forced upon them. 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
In The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, there is an apparent power struggle between Offred and the Commander. The Gilead Society’s structure is based off of order and command. This is what creates a divide between genders and specifies gender roles in this novel. Without this categorization of the roles and expectations of women, the society would fall apart at the base. Thus, the Commander, being the dominant gender set forth by the society, has control over Offred.
Thanks to the commander, she also meets Moira, her long time friend from Gilead. This act of resistance from the commander brings Offred a lot and if he were caught, would face serious charges. Both men and women are severely controlled throughout everyday life in "The Handmaid's Tale. " Recreation is minimal, sexual intercourse is purely for creation, and the nuclear family is a thing of the past. Elizabeth Atwood provides a dystopian world full of wrongdoing, manipulation and emotional numbness stemming from a government in Gilead that controls all aspects of life for its people.
Throughout 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale we get to see what runs through their heads and how they think. We get to feel what they are feeling and hope that they get what they dream of. Thinking like this is dangerous because if they are caught they could be severely punished. Winston does not care that he thinks this way, even though he does not want to get caught, he knows that if he dies hating the party it will be worth it. “He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage” (27-28). Offred does not wish to be caught and fears her punishments because she wants to live to be able to see her daughter again. This, however, does not stop her from sneaking into her commander’s private office to see him and going on a getaway pretending to be his wife. By getting closer with the commander she believes she can find out information to bring Gilead down, along with the others who want life to be as it was before. It is a very dangerous choice on her part, but it is a very smart move since the commander is showing great interest in her. Both of these characters, as well as everyone around them, just want to be able to live their lives in peace as well as being able to think and speak freely again. Everyone, no matter who they are, wants
Offred has not portrayed any heroic characteristics in The Handmaid’s Tale, through her actions of weakness, fear, and self-centredness. This novel by Margaret Atwood discusses about the group take over the government and control the Gilead’s society. In this society, all women has no power to become the leader, commander like men do. Offred is one of them, she has to be a handmaid for Serena and the Commander, Fred. Offred wants to get out of this society, that way she has to do something about it. There wasn’t any performances from her changing the society.
The Handmaid’s Tale shows acts of rebellion throughout, but when we as an audience first see a sort of rebellion push through the strict control of Gileadean society is when the Commander and Offred have their first evening together. Offred’s metaphor “If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see myself clear.” is a foreshadowing of the idea that maybe through these evenings with the Commander she may be able to ease her way out of Gileadean society. “It’s like a small crack in the wall, before now impenetrable.” Use of simile in her language gives the audience a glimpse into the hope she feels, that maybe she may be able to escape, maybe she has another chance at a normal life. Offred’s first time seeing the Commander’s
(Hodson 1). As a result of Reagan’s political views, he manufactured women and their bodies into mere political instruments through anti-abortion and reproductive rights campaigns thus repudiating women the choice of managing their bodies and sexuality. Atwood voices her boundless concern of these anti-feminist politics conducted by men through the handmaids in her novel by examining several debates embodied in the feminist movement (Hodson 1). In the novel, the handmaids have been stripped of many of their rights and sexuality leading to the constant dehumanization of women. This dehumanization is portrayed when Offred mentions that she has lost her rights of socializing and having a family: “There's nobody here I can love… They might as well be nowhere, as I am for them. I too am a missing person." (Atwood 103). The ruling Gileadean men have deprived the handmaids of their rights by not only tearing them from their prior lives and turning them into slaves of reproduction, but have even taken away their names, exhibiting more of the subhuman treatment of women that Atwood was trying to portray. This is proven when Offred says “All the people I could
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 of each 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. Atwood bases the irrational laws in the Gilead republic on the many
During the times the commander and Offred were seeing each other secretly, he began to develop some feelings for her that he tried to hide. Somewhere along the times when Offred and the commander began having secret meetings with each other, Offred too began to develop some feelings for the commander. Offred is also a special handmaid, because she has actually experienced love, the satisfaction of having a child years before. She knows what it is to feel loved, to be in love and to have someone love you. That is all when she has knowledge, a job, a family and money of her own.