Power In The Handmaid's Tale

In “The Handmaids Tale” Margret Atwood’s, character was a Serena Joy playing the role as the head of the household towards the women. She gave orders, and did not want to be around the handmaids unless truly necessary. She made it noticeable to the handmaids by telling Offred, “I want to see you as little as possible,” (Atwood pg. 15). I felt as though Atwood had Serena act that way to show authority because she was the face of Gilead, for the women. Atwood wants the background of the story to seem strict, so we can understand how the dynamic of each role is. That’s why she has Serena show that the rules and traditional values are set in this household, and would be respected. If the girls did not respect her or caused any trouble, she would do something about it. “…this is like a business transaction. But if I get trouble, I’ll give trouble back,” says Serena (Atwood pg. 15). With her attitude towards the handmaid’s it shows she takes it upon herself to establish authority, which is an

immense theme of Atwood’s story.
As we further read in the story we learn that Serena Joy was a gospel singer in her past life she and then became a spoke woman, saying that women should stay home and let the men work instead. When she was saying the women should stay home, she was being hypocritical because she had a job while she told women to stay home. I feel with her being a hypocrite the author played on it, by having her now stay home, and not have as much of a purpose to her life, as she once had in the past. “Sometimes I think these scarves aren’t set to the Angels at all, but unraveled and turned back into balls of yarn. Maybe it’s just something to keep the wives busy, to give them a sense of purpose,” says Offred (Atwood pg. 13). Also, when Offred thinks to herself about Serena and says, “She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word,” (Atwood pg. 46). The reason why I think Atwood made Offred think this is because she wanted Serena to understand that this is exactly what you wanted, but now you’re unhappy because it went farther then you thought it would be. In addition to, that happening to her I feel as though Atwood sent karma her way, just the way she made the story happen, since women are basically nothing and men are everything, and Serena basically asked for that to happen.
The following chapters in the book, we start to see a change in Serena Joy.

She becomes bolder and manipulative, when it comes to her authority over Offred. For reason that, she suggests that the Commander may not be able to reproduce, by saying, “Maybe he can’t,” (Atwood pg. 204). In this time, you cannot say a man can’t do something, it is against the law and also there is only unwomen. As she said that he can’t reproduce she even offers Offred a different solution, by offering Nick to have sex with her. Serena offered Offred something that, Serena knew she could resist, “A picture. Of her, your little girl. But only maybe,” (Atwood pg. 206). I felt as though Atwood did this to show to us that Serena Joy does not care for Gilead. If she did care she would never had said, that the Commander may not be able to reproduce, nor offer Offred a different way of getting pregnant. This all seems to be more about maintaining status, so no one can talk about how the Commander can’t

conceive.
Towards the end of the book, I felt as though Atwood made it seem, as though Serena Joy never cared for the Commander. The reason I believe this is when she says to Offred, “You could’ve left me something,” (Atwood pg.287). She didn’t seem as though she cared for the affair as much, as she cared that she couldn’t have shared the lipstick with Offred. I feel this also proves the point, that she never cared about the Commander nor Gilead. All she cared about was herself, and the power she had over people. In the view of the fact of, she didn’t even call the Eyes to take Offred away, she was going to take care of the problem privately (Atwood pg. 294). Which I believe Atwood’s end goal she had for Serena, she wanted her to be seen as a hypocrite, a con artist, and a power hungry person. Due to the fact how she acted throughout the whole book.