e EssaysOffred of The Handmaids Tale I have decided to analyze the main character Offred because she seams to feel trapped in this new society. She speaks very openly about the situation thats she’s in and plays her actions very well. I will do an overall analysis of her actions.
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. There are also times when Offred acts as if she wants to forget who she really is or was. “But thats where I am, there’s no escaping it. time’s a trap, I’m caught in it.
I must forget about my secret name and all ways back. My name is Offred now, and here is where I live. . . .
I am thirty- three years old. I have brown hair. I stand five seven without shoes. I have trouble remembering what I use to look like. I viable ovaries.
I have one more chance. ” Here it seams as if all Offred values is her ovaries because thats what everyone else values and now she feels as if thats her only way to survive through this society. (Atwood pg. 143) Now that Offred has this relationship with the Commander and Nick at the same same time. She feels as if she has power in the sense that she’s the only one that knows whats going on with the Commander.
She loves having something over Serena Joy. “The fact is that I’m his mistress. Men at the top have always had mistresses, why should things be any different now ?. . .
. Sometimes I think she knows. . .
. and is laughing at me as I laugh, from time to time and with irony, at myself. ” She sees this as a joke to the whole center. But this gives her something to look forward to. She enjoys his company and she loves the fact that she has this secret which no one else knows about.
“But even so, and stupidly enough, I’m happier than I was before. It’s something to do. . . .
Something to fill the time, at night instead of sitting in my room alone. . . . I don’t love the Commander or anything like that, but he’s of interest to me, he occupies space.
. . . ” This gives her a sense of power and a sense that somebody actually wants her for more than just her ovaries.
(Atwood pg. 163) Throughout the book Offred delt with her surroundings very well. She never got into trouble until Serena Joy found out about what was going on between her and the Commander. I think Offred was a good character I just didn’t approve of her sleeping with the Commander and Nick in the same time period. But in the end she got what she wanted. She got out of the center and went on to deliver her new baby and take care of it.
