A lonely woman, that had her daughter and significant other taken away now lives a lonely, confined life that only ends her up in being a mistress. Each woman has a role in the restricted society they live in and most stress about the priority of giving birth. She looks for excitement with the man she finds interest in, even if it can lead her to her death, this is the life of a lonely, defenseless, handmaid. Sometimes in her sad, lonely life she gets pushed to her breaking point in which she resorts to extreme measures. In Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the internal conflicts a character experiences with oneself, and inner thoughts of Offred depict how loneliness through the perspective of someone can lead to impulsive thoughts …show more content…
Since Offred’s daughter was taken away from her, she desires to see how much she aged, this can only cause more trouble for Offred making her believe she is nothing, only feeding on her isolation of the cruel society she lives in. Serena Joy, the second in command of the household, shows Offred a picture of her daughter, Offred then finds herself conflicted thinking, “A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become. You can see it in her eyes: I am not there. Still, I can't bear it, to have been erased like that. Better she’d brought me nothing” (Atwood 228). 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. Certain events can lead to new ones, especially changes in one’s
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.
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.
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:
Offred is consistently cautious when it comes to interacting with the Commander. She feels as though she has to present herself in a way that will allow her to gain his trust and utilize it in her favor. Offred says, “The Commander likes it when I distinguish myself, show precocity, like an attentive pet, prick-eared and eager to perform” (Atwood 183). When Offred poses herself in the way that the Commander expects, it shows how his power influences Offred’s actions. The connection of Offred to that of “an attentive pet” also shows how the Gilead Society has taken away her humanity. Without her humanity, Offred loses her sense of self-worth which leaves her vulnerable to the Commander’s power. Along with this constant fear of portraying herself in a manner that would upset the Commander, Offred is also afraid to give away too much information about herself which could potentially end with the Commander ceasing their private meetings together. Offred expresses, “And if I talk to him I’ll say something wrong, give something away. I can feel it coming, a
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 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.
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.
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.
She loathes Offred and her own position. She even ends up going against her own morals and beliefs by advising Offered to have sex with Nick since the Commander was most likely infertile. This shows hypocrisy in this new society and even a slight change in beliefs. In life people’s opinions and beliefs are often subject to change and can be swayed based on the circumstances.
While she is going through this she realizes all of the things she did in her past life she took for granted and now they are gone. Prior to the take over by Gilead, the feminist movement was strong and growing daily. Similar to modern times here. Offred’s mother was an active feminist and instilled similar qualities into Offred. Although Offred was not as devoted as her mother, she still was allowed to do what she wanted and wear whatever, all things that were taken away by Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel, written by Margaret Atwood, about Offred’s experience in an oppressive government and how she deals with it. Atwood expresses her thought on the possible oppression brought by a government through generic dystopian conventions. The Handmaid’s Tale conforms
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.
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
... is only alive in her dreams, she aches for her and fears that her child will not remember or even she is dead. Atwood writes about motherhood, and the irony lies in the fact that Offred did not have an ideal relationship with her mother even though Gilead’s system was not established, yet Offred who is separated for her daughter shows affection towards her child by constantly thinking and dreaming about her. Even though Offred felt pressured from her mother, she still misses her, ‘I want her back’ and she even reminisces about when she used to visit her and Luke.