Unorthodoxy
In a dystopia, all individualism is lost. Everyone is programmed to think in a specific way; that way is the way of the government. The government uses tactics to scare citizens into thinking the way the government wants them to think. Although most people do not question the way of the government, there are always a few people with independent thoughts. In Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, there are many unorthodox characters. Offred, Moira, and Ofglen each have their own thoughts and ideas for freedom.
Offred is a Handmaid. Offred is the main character in The Handmaid’s Tale. Offred never plays by the rules, especially when it comes to relationships. Offred is always going after what she cannot have. She is going after
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all of the married men. In the beginning of the story we meet Luke; Luke is Offred’s husband. Luke is a married man who has an affair with Offred while he is still married to another woman.
After having the affair with Offred, Luke and Offred tie the knot; “We tried to cross at the border…Luke, for instance, had never been divorced,” (Atwood 224). In the society that they live in, people are not allowed to become divorced. Because Offred is in a relationship with a married man, there is much speculation from strangers. One person even tries kidnapping their daughter because they see Offred as being an unfit mother. After being caught, Offred becomes a Handmaid. Every Handmaid must perform the Ceremony with the Commander. When Offred becomes a Handmaid, it is no different; she must perform the Ceremony. During the Ceremony, nothing is personal; “I do not call it making love, because this is not what he’s doing,” (Atwood 94). They only perform the ceremony to repopulate Gilead. The Commander meets Offred outside of the Ceremony, which is strictly forbidden, …show more content…
since the Commander is married. She continuously meets with the Commander to play the game Scrabble; eventually Scrabble leads to other activities. No other Handmaid meets with the Commander outside of the Ceremony: “She’d (Moira) have disapproved…She disapproved of Luke. She said I was poaching on another woman’s ground,” (Atwood 171). Offred does not conform to the way of society. She still meets with Luke and the Commander, even though according to society it is wrong and unconventional. This is her way of being unorthodox. Offred is not the only unorthodox character in The Handmaid’s Tale; there is also her childhood friend, Moira. Moira is a part of a minority; she is a lesbian during a time when most women are trying to become fertile: “Because the balance of power was equal between women so sex was an even-steven transaction,” (Atwood 172). Moira has an untamed spirit. She is fighting for feminine rights: “You can’t work here anymore, it’s the law,” (Atwood 176). The government is eliminating women from the workplace. Men are typically superior and the women are used for repopulating. She promotes pamphlets about equality and the gender discrimination and spreads awareness about the issue. Moira is always breaking rules. While in school, Moira and Offred meet in the bathroom. While in the bathroom, they would touch fingers. Touching fingers seems like it is very insignificant and innocent, but in their school physical contact is not allowed. Physical contact is prohibited because it gives a sense of connection, and connection leads to empowerment. One day Moira wants to get out of the school so badly that she takes apart the toilet and uses it as a weapon against Aunt Elizabeth: “They found out afterwards that she’d dismantled the inside of one of the toilets and taken out the pointed lever,” (Atwood 131). She is cunning and has her own unique ideas, which helps lead her to freedom, at least for a while. Ofglen is not who she appears to be; “‘You were always so stinking pious’ ‘so were you,’” (Atwood 168) Ofglen and Offred are walking one day, making small talk.
They walk past Soul Scrolls. When they walk past Ofglen says “‘Do you think God listens…to these machines?’…In the past this would have been a scholarly speculation. Right now it’s treason,” (Atwood 168). It surprises Offred that Ofglen does not believe in Soul Scrolls. Soul Scrolls are the government’s promotion of prayer. When Ofglen tells Offred about her beliefs, it means that Ofglen does not believe in everything the government wants them to believe in. This is the first sign that Ofglen is unorthodox. Before she admits this, everyone believes that she is strictly orthodox. The two of them talk more and find out that Ofglen is a part of the group Mayday. Mayday is an underground organization that is against the government: “Mayday…Don’t use it unless you have to, It isn’t good for us to know about too many of the others in the network, in case you get caught,” (Atwood 202). Ofglen is trying to overthrow the government so they are free to express there own
opinions. Dystopian societies consist of the same type of thinking. Throughout the story, there are examples of individual thinking and how much power is in individualism. In The Handmaid’s Tale, there were many examples of unorthodoxy, Offred, Moira, and Ofglen were just three examples. These three are all trying to get more rights for a better life, thus making themselves unorthodox.
Every human being needs certain rights to survive. There are the fundamental ones; food, water, air, shelter, but there are also other ones that are equally important to survive: love, communication, compassion, freedom. In many dystopian societies one of these fundamental needs are missing because the society is afraid that they will break the control that they have over the people. In the novel The Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood the society is no different. Narrated by a woman named Offred who once was happy who had a family and a job, she shows the reader that to keep people quiet the society takes away people 's freedom, their ability to choose, their ability to be with and talk to who they want, even their ability to read and write,
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
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.
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
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
In The Handmaid’s Tale, a woman named Offred is introduced. Offred lives in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that replaced the United States. (Atwood 21). In this state there is low reproduction rates so Handmaids are assigned to these exclusive couples in order...
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 is one of the main characters in The Handmaid's Tale. She was the faithful wife of Luke, mother of an eleven month old child and a working woman, before she entered the Republic of Gilead. She was given the name "Offred", when she entered Gilead. This was to make it known that she was a handmaid. Offred becomes psychologically programmed in Gilead as a handmaid, and the mistress of the commander who is in power of all things. She was used for her ovaries to reproduce a child, because they are living in an age where birth rates are declining. Offred was ordered by Serena Joy, the handmaid's barren wife who develops some jealousy and envy towards her to become the lover of Nick. Nick is the family chauffeur, and Offred becomes deeply in love with him. At the end of all the confusion, mixed emotions, jealousy, envy and chaos towards her, she escapes the Republic of Gilead. Offred is given treatment and advantages by the commander that none of the there handmaids are given. 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. That is when her life was complete. Because all of that has been taken away from...
Offred finds herself believing that she failed as a mother, seeing the photograph of her daughter, Offred realizes that she would be just as good as dead and considers herself as “erased”, this could lead to changes in her character by her thinking it’s futile to keep being suppressed by Gilead’s laws and try to challenge them. In the following chapter Offred is noticed taking a risk by accepting a request from the commander, she finds her life dull and boring even if she does communicate with the commander. In the novel Offred reaches her breaking point, “ I know without being told that what he’s proposing is risky, for him but especially for me; but I want to go anyway. I want anything that breaks the monotony, subverts the perceived respectable order of things” (Atwood 231). Offred decides to go on a date with the commander because she is tired of living an isolated, dull life, and all of this is caused by her believing she doesn’t have anything to live for since she lost connections with everyone in her past.
Offred is a Handmaid in what used to be the United States, now the theocratic Republic of Gilead. In order to create Gilead's idea of a more perfect society, they have reverted to taking the Book of Genesis at its word. Women no longer have any privileges; they cannot work, have their own bank accounts, or own anything. The also are not allowed to read or even chose who they want to marry. Women are taught that they should be subservient to men and should only be concerned with bearing children. Margaret Atwood writes The Handmaid's Tale (1986) as to create a dystopia. A dystopia is an imaginary place where the condition of life is extremely bad, from deprivation, oppression, or terror. Three ways she displays the dystopia are through the characters, the language and the symbolism.
They have to come round in their own time.” Montag simply is willing to listen to before everybody else is; he goes a step further than Clarisse by seeking answers to his questions. In the Handmaid’s Tale however, Offred, though certainly more rebellious than her counterparts therefore in this sense a nonconformist, is not necessarily a rebellious character. Inside her lies an internal struggle against the totalitarian regime, which she quietly defies through small acts such as reading or glancing at Nick when she shouldn’t. Offred, is not fully indoctrinated by Gilead’s regime, unlike the character of Janine, who she refers to as “one of Aunt Lydia 's pets,” the use of the word ‘pet’ indicating her bitterness towards the system.
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
Though Offred is developed as a character through her opinions on female sexuality, she is further characterized by her individuality and willingness to defy her social expectations as a female, assigned to her by her government. In Atwood’s work, the narrative is told by an intelligent individual named Offred who is oppressed by Gilead’s female expectations but is not afraid to defy these assigned roles despite not being a traditional heroine (Nakamura). Even as Offred’s previous identity is stripped away from her, she retains small pieces of her womenhood and individuality through defiant actions such as manipulating men with her feminity from swaying her hips slighty in their line of sight to making direct eye contact with certain men, which she is forbidden from. On the other hand, a major act of rebellion from
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