Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Feminism in the handmaidestale
Feminism in the handmaidestale
Motif in a handmaids tale
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
c) This quote relates to the theme importance of love and relationships. As Offred sees the Commander more and more frequently, she starts to think about what her close friend Moira would think of it. She remembers how Moira disapproved of her relationship with Luke even though they were in love, simply because he was married. Offred also constantly thinks of her, which shows us the power of human bond and love between friends. She used to talk to her for reassurance, advice and insight. However, that being said, another theme I see present in this quote is the lack of individuality and independence. When Offred was with Luke, it was her choice. She did not belong of him when she made that decision (she was her own individual) and she
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 is a very strange character. She follows the new rules of her society unlike her rebellious friend Moira. But you can also tell that Offred misses her family very much and she always goes back in her head to remember the past. "Our happiness is part memory. What I remember is Luke, with me in the hospital, standing beside my head, holding my hand....." (Atwood pg.126) But Offred has replaced Luke in this new world with Nick who will be the next man standing beside her bedside.
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.
This is important because this makes offred "feel safer knowing that Moira is here." When offred is in the Jezebels she spots Moira who had escaped. "I'm willing so hard, she must look at me...before she disappears." Moira was Offreds only friend. Although Moira is presented in her own voice as she is describing how she escaped. Moira is presented through speech it shows the importance of Moira. Moira fills in a lot of Offred's past and things that Offred is not allowed to find out being a handmaid.
Offred has an inclination that she was part of the rebellion but she was taking a risk by hinting at the idea of it. ‘A password’ I ask. ‘What for?’ ‘So you can tell’, she says. ‘Who is and who isn’t.’ Although I can’t see what use it is for me to know, I ask, ‘What is it then?’ ‘Mayday’ she says” (202). I think that because all of the handmaid’s are put in such a bad postion, they have to stick together and trust one another. Offred feels relief when she realizes that her new frined is someone she can trust. I think Offred is so desperate to find more handmaids who are part of the Mayday rebellion, that she is willing to risk getting in trouble. The last instance when trust is shown in the book is when Nick tells Offred she is going to be captured but that it is safe and she will be okay. “Trust me’, he says; which in iteself has never been a talisman, carries no guarentee. But I snatch at it, this offer. It’s all I’m left with” (294). I think Offred chooses to trust him because she doesn’t know what else to do. Nick has always been there for her, and now she has to have some faith in
The nature of Offred’s lost identity is very drastic. Before the new religious group of Gilead took over the world, she was a very normal every day woman. She did what was expected of her time and continued to do so after the take over. She had a husband and a daughter who she loved very much. In the new society in which she lives, however, love is not permitted. “ If I thought that this would happen again I would die. But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from. There’s nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere”(page?). **Are these words spoken by Offred? ** Offred also had the choice of free will before her civilization changed, but then slowly women began to lose all of their rights and were no longer allowed to have jobs or even to use money.
In this passage, Offred is sitting in the bathtub comparing how she viewed her body in the past with the way she detects her body now. She is reflecting on this memory in terms of menstruation. Her only importance in this time of Gilead is to become impregnated by the commander. If Offred shows any sign of a menstrual cycle, then she has become acquainted with failure. Offred feels disembodied because Gilead only values her for pregnancy and she does not feel a connection with her body any more.
While the white males hold privilege, it is up to the females to try to survive with little privilege or rights. When thinking Moira could cause change, Offred quickly shut her down and claimed, “Men were not just going to go away” (Atwood 215). In order to effect change, Moira would have to consider the men that could stop her. This was their place and not just anyone could stop them. When looking back on her life with Luke, Offred believes she has become his property, “We are not each other’s anymore. Instead, I am his” (Atwood 229). Once losing her job Offred starts to understand that she belongs to her husband. She has become a male property, creating a tension between a husband and wife. At a public event, Commander Fred presents information about man’s nature, “Nature demands variety, for men” (Atwood 298). Fred believes that nature is all for men and does everything to benefit them, even what a woman wears. Talking about women’s clothing, he looks at it to affect men more than a woman. Therefore, a tension between genders will only cause a rebellion, but it is yet to be seen in the Handmaid’s Tale. Ultimately, the tension has caused no one to cause change, even if they hold the
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...
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
Women were purely defined by the men who had complete control over them. In the novel Offred had some control, by keeping her name to herself which maintained a little bit of her independence. As soon as people saw her they knew she was a handmaid, but as soon as people heard her name they knew exactly who her commander was, and from there on only thought of her as belonging to Frederick. Their name affects how themselves and others viewed them which Offred seems to notice when she says this, “I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not; I want to be more than valuable. I repeat my former name, remind myself of what I could once do, how other saw me” (Atwood 111). She states here that when she had her other name she was a completely different person, her other name gave her the power to be herself, but as soon as her name changed so did she. She also says
Offred's Narrative in The Handmaid's Tale "Writing is an act of faith; I believe it's also an act of hope, the
"Each thing is valid and really there." (line 6). Offred is thinking about the man and the tulips. She is beginning to understand that terrible things and good things can live in existence with one another. In the previous line she thinks, "The tulip is not a reason for disbelief in the hanged man, or vice verse." (line 5). She is stating that just because one exists does not mean the other cannot, and, even if someone has only experienced one, they should not believe the other does not exist. This applies to today's society because war and poverty exist, but so do health and love. If a person has only experienced love it would be ridiculous for them to think that war does not exist. "It is through a field of such valid objects that I must pick my way,", (line 6). Offred must decide, to her best judgement, what she is to ignore or act indifferent to, and what she should respond to. In her dystopian life, she witnesses quite a number of horrific incidents, but she cannot express her feelings, as she is an oppressed
The simple idea that someone had had the courage to write this gives her hope, regardless of the meaning of the phrase. She prays these words at church. This sentence and a pillow inscribed with ‘faith’ are the only things she is able to read. Hope also comes in the form of Moira, who had fearlessly escaped the center, and, as far as Offred knows, could still be fighting for her freedom. Offred escapes her reality by losing herself in stories from her past, some jovial, some tragic, and some mundane. Soon, she really does escape and frees herself from the Commander. The audience is left to wonder, in the end, if Offred really is free. In order to be able to tell her own, uncensored story, Offred has to be free, as this is not something women are allowed to do in Gilead. And, in the very act of telling her story, she becomes free from the horrific past she has been bound
... 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.