Essay On Offred's Relationship

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Offred’s continuous struggle to live in a society where she is forbidden to have a personal relationship with a man makes it extremely difficult for her to survive because “nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from” (Atwood 103). A lack of human connection is what allows people to understand others as well as themselves. Emotional connections are how we have learned to feel safe in each other’s presences. The physical component is not the necessity of a relationship, the emotional connection is. Being able to feel comfortable around each other allows people to speak their minds freely. Thinking and discussing without worrying about the consequences of freely speaking helps her feel safe and realize that she is not alone …show more content…

In the beginning her hope of Luke being alive made her persevere through the society. When she started seeing the Commander she could be reconnected with emotional intimacy. The reconnection to emotional connections leads her to be able to be the forceful hand in having a relationship with Nick. Her relationship with Nick started because Offred needed to. Offred was able to survive this society because of human connection. Offred feels that she can trust Nick because it’s “Impossible to think that anyone whom I feel such gratitude could betray me.” (Atwood). Her trust in him gives Offred the emotional connection she needs to survive. This trust finally makes her feel safe in this society. However, her feeling of being safe is not from Nick, its from herself, she no longer is fearful of the consequences. She has accepted her fate if she gets caught with Nick, and is willing to take that risk in order to have this relationship. In this relationship, Nick is not the one that forced it to happen, making him nervous of the outcome. Multiple times he shares his concerns with Offred about how she acts towards the Commander, “Don’t change anything. Otherwise they’ll know” (Atwood 270). Nick is more fearful of the consequences for Offred than she is. Although Offred was willing to do

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