The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

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Imagine growing up in a society where all women are useful for is to reproduce. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is an excellent novel of what could potentially be the fate of the future one day. The main character, Offred, moves into a new home where she is there to perform “rituals” with the Commander, head of the house, so she can hopefully reproduce herself. Basically, she is a sex slave and birthing a healthy child is all she is wanted for. Also if she does have a child then she will be treated better, so it can be stressful for these women. The Commander and his wife are higher up in society and have all the power over Offred. The Commander is a key character, for he can get rid of Offred if he does not like her and he has all the power. The two end up having a secret relationship where Offred begins to trust him. In the book the Commander is portrayed as a pretty trustworthy character to Offred, however the movie adaptation was the complete opposite. In the novel the Commander wanted someone he could talk to that was not his wife and he confided in Offred. The movie however makes him to be just wanting to have some fun and only using Offred for a short time. There are three important scenes that portray the Commander differently from the movie in comparison to the book, serving to create a different mood.
The first scene that created a different mood from the movie adaptation from the original mood was when Offred first goes to meet the Commander in his office. In this scene there is tension between the two characters in both the movie and novel. The movie had differences that made the Commander come off as having alternative motives. As the scene continues in the book, however, the mood started to get more relaxed a...

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...n trouble, there was no hatred towards him and did not lead to him getting murdered as it did in the movie version.
The movie adaptation created a whole different mood when it involved scenes involving the Commander. It depicts this character to be something completely different than how he is portrayed through the books. By having the Commander portrayed differently and then created a major difference within the relationship that Offred had with him. Also, because that one character was creating a different mood during those certain scenes it lead for the movie to play out differently than originally intended in the novel. It shows how a movie adaptation can completely change the context of the novel and create a whole new mood based on how they decide to portray each character.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale . Ballantine Books, 1985. Print.

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