The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a story about Offred surviving the sufferings of her life and becoming a stronger woman because of her sufferings. The following quote portays the idea that through suffering a person becomes stronger: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” Throughout the Handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character Offred faces many challenges. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars” parralels the argument in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood that through vigorous suffering a determined soul can come out victorious with battle scars to tell the story; therefore, Offred becomes a strong woman through the suffering of …show more content…
losing her husband and daughter, seeing dead bodies hung on the wall, and becoming a handmaid to the commander.
Throughout the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the main character Offred encounters the difficulties of losing her husband, seeing dead bodies hung on the wall, and becoming a handmaid for the Commander but through these difficulties Offred becomes a stronger woman who lives to tell her story at the end of the novel. Along the way of Offred’s journey, she loses her husband and daughter. Offred and hur husband Luke try to escape from Gilead with their young daughter to start a new life in a new country. Problems arise while trying to cross the border and Offred’s daughter is taken from her and her husband is taken off by guards never to be seen again. Another suffering Offred faces is seeing the bodies of the dead hanging from the walls of the old Harvard University. Seeing all of the dead bodies everyday is harmful to Offred because she does not know if the body along the wall is the body of her husband. Offred also suffers with being the handmaid to the Commander. Offred feels degraded by the title of handmaid in the Gilead because
now she is only seen as a uterus to hold other women’s babies. Through being a handmaid, losing her child and husband, and seeing dead bodies hanging along the walls, Offred is shaped by her experience into a strong woman fighting to survive to tell her story. Offred expresses her true feeling of fighting to stay alive to tell her story to future generations by stating: “I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance (Chapter 7).” Through all the struggles of her life, Offred manages to come out a stronger woman due to all of her sufferings. Offred embodies the following quotation in expressing her utmost strength and perseverance throughout this rough time in her life: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
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.
Gender inequality has existed all around the world for many centuries. Women were seen as property of men and their purpose of existence was to provide for the men in their lives. Men would play the role of being the breadwinners, whereas women played the role of being the caregiver of the family and household and must obey the men around her. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood portrays how women in society are controlled and demeaned by men, and how men feel they are more superior over women.
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, 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
Before the war handmaids had their own lives, families, and jobs but that’s all gone now; They have all been separated from their families and assigned to A Commander and his wife to have their child. Handmaids did not choose this life but it was forced upon them. 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
Margaret Atwood's renowned science fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale, was written in 1986 during the rise of the opposition to the feminist movement. Atwood, a Native American, was a vigorous supporter of this movement. The battle that existed between both sides of the women's rights issue inspired her to write this work. Because it was not clear just what the end result of the feminist movement would be, the author begins at the outset to prod her reader to consider where the story will end. Her purpose in writing this serious satire is to warn women of what the female gender stands to lose if the feminist movement were to fail. Atwood envisions a society of extreme changes in governmental, social, and mental oppression to make her point.
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...
All women’s rights were removed. They could not read, write, speak freely, or be in love. Their lives were controlled completely by Gilead. We are introduced to Offred, not her real name whose previous life with a husband, child, job, and money have all been taken away. The story begins when she is at the Red Center which is in a school gymnasium, it was here that she and the other woman, known as handmaids
Feminism as we know it began in the mid 1960's as the Women's Liberation Movement. Among its chief tenants is the idea of women's empowerment, the idea that women are capable of doing and should be allowed to do anything men can do. Feminists believe that neither sex is naturally superior. They stand behind the idea that women are inherently just as strong and intelligent as the so-called stronger sex. Many writers have taken up the cause of feminism in their work. One of the most well known writers to deal with feminist themes is Margaret Atwood. Her work is clearly influenced by the movement and many literary critics, as well as Atwood herself, have identified her as a feminist writer. However, one of Atwood's most successful books, The Handmaid's Tale, stands in stark contrast to the ideas of feminism. In fact, the female characters in the novel are portrayed in such a way that they directly conflict with the idea of women's empowerment.
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of Offred: a young woman, born under a different name, trapped in the patriarchal society of Gilead with the role of a handmaid to a commander. Offred’s role as a handmaid is to become pregnant in lieu of the Commander’s wife who is too old to do so. Offred remembers life before she became a handmaid when she possessed the freedom to choose her own career, education, and romantic partners. Handmaids undergo a boot-camp-like training at the Rachel and Leah Center where they teach proper behavior based on misinterpreted Biblical text. Despite the obvious hostilities between Offred and the Commander who is her scheduled rapist, their relationship develops as the story progresses to a point
Offred’s previous life was never really talked about during the novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The Handmaid’s Tale talks about the changes in her life, but we never really have a full understanding of her life before the Republic of Gilead was formed. We never know how happy she was, we only know how happy she remembered being. Offred’s life is described as scheduled, boring, and dangerous. Not necessarily in that order. Much of
The Handmaid’s Tale is oppression through the system and society in which they need to carry out or be part of certain ceremonies. The Handmaid’s don’t get to choose whether or not to participate in these ceremonies, because they are being oppressed by the society they have to do as they are told. Offred however does mention that the option of becoming a Handmaid was hers, but if she had not taken this
In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred is oppressed as a result of residing in the dystopian world of Gilead.
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.
In Margaret Atwood's story, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, the main character, Offred, believes she is making a lot of decisions about her body for herself, just like the character Jig in Ernest Hemmingway's short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”. In order to really understand the process of decision making in these two stories, the reader has to understand that the characters in the stories don't realize that a lot of their decisions about their bodies are coming from different people and pressures, and not themselves.