In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood, the main character is a woman known to the audience as Offred. She exists in a sort of dystopian country known as the Republic of Gilead, where men hold the political and familial power, while the women are nothing more than property, maids, and vessels. Offred is one of the few fertile women left in the country, so she is assigned the task of giving birth to babies for specified households and is given to a household headed by a character known as the Commander.
As the novel progresses, the reader learns of the wife’s resentment towards Offred, Offred’s friendship with a woman called Ofglen, and bits of Offred’s life before being forced to become a Handmaid. The reader also learns of the relationship formed between Nick, the chauffeur, and Offred. Using these main characters and the general conflict between Offred and society, Atwood is able to effectively portray a running theme throughout the novel; feminism. In The Handmaid’s Tale, a woman in proper society could be categorized in some the following groups: Wife, Aunt, Martha, Handmaid, or Unwoman.
As David Coad stated, the characters in the novel have “easily recognizable categories based on ender and sartorial distinctions” (Coad 2009). Each of these categories have one common characteristic; none give women power equal to what a man would receive. Women are considered inferior to men in every way. This can even be seen in Offred’s name. Deborah Hooker stated that her name is one of many “names denoting the serialized sexual exchange of Gilead’s handmaids–Of-warren, Of-glen, Of-fred” (Hooker 2006). Like all other women in this society, Offred is unable to go out and get a job.
She is unable to have or manage a bank account. She is simply a Handmaid and is used as property and a sign of ower by the Commander. Since she is a Handmaid, she is unable to keep or raise any of the children she gives birth to. She cannot travel alone. Handmaids are considered one of the most important things for the survival of society, but yet they have even less freedoms than the Wives do. Her lack of freedom is what leads to her inevitable rebellion against society and her relationship with Nick. Nick seems to be more relaxed than other male figures in the novel.
He wears his hat tilted and often risks punishment by winking at Offred. His description also helps for him to seem ess threatening; Atwood describes his face as having “creases around his mouth where he smiled,” while others are described by the clothing they wear that symbolize their ranking in society (Atwood, 28). During the nights, Nick is Offred’s lover, providing a sort of love that she is forbidden to have in this society. Offred’s relationship with Nick eventually replaces the missing relationship that she had with her husband, Luke. The Commander, however, provides her with a different kind of relationship.
The Commander is the most powerful figure that Offred comes in contact with. Because of his high-ranking status, he is able to have a Handmaid. The Commander is a mysterious character in the novel. His motives for his actions, such as playing scrabble with Offred, are often unclear. The reader also is not sure who the Commander actually is and how high he ranks until the Historical Notes. He is only known to the reader as a sort of old-fashioned gentleman that gives her gifts and plays scrabble, and he only asks for a kiss at the end of each night.
When Offred leaves the house for the last time, she sees the Commander as how he really is, “old, worried, and helpless. ” She no longer sees him as a strong authoritative figure as the balance of power between them shifts. The Commander’s wife seems to still maintain her power though as he loses his. Serena Joy is arguably the most powerful woman in Gilead by being the Commander’s wife. Unlike the other wives, Serena is referred to by her own name. She is older and infertile, so, as a result, she needs a handmaid in order to have children.
Her resentment of Offred, however, is made very clear in the novel. She is the reason why society is seemingly anti-feminism. She actively made her ultra-conservative views known, as well as her elief that women belo in the home. It is ironic, because she is now trapped in the world she created, only able to knit scarves and care for her garden to pass the time. Atwood includes in the novel that Offred feels that Serena “she stays in her home, but it doesn’t seem to agree with her” (Atwood 56). Serena lacks femininity, displaying a sort of masculine toughness.
She is both a loyal wife to a privileged and high- ranking Commander, and involved in a corrupt plot of infidelity in order to conceive a child. Serena Joy is a symbol of criticism of an anti-feminist through a feminist perspective. Besides Offred, Serena is not the only female character discussed at length in the novel. Offred’s friend Moira is the only female character described in a positive and admirable light. She represents rebellion and resistance, because she refuses to obey society and never becomes a handmaid.
Offred views her escape from the Red Center as heroic, while society would view it as a criminal act. Moira does what all other Handmaids wish to do but never find the courage. Margaret Atwood writes that she is their “fantasy.. she was us in secret, a giggle; she was the lava beneath the crust of daily life” (Atwood 143). In Offred’s final meeting with Moira, she seems to be broken down by Gilead; however, she still claims to be a lesbian and her feminist values are still seen in her speaking out and challenging the oppression created by society.
Miora is one of two characters in Offred’s past life that outspokenly supported women’s rights. Through Offred’s memories, the reader learns that her mother was an active feminist that regularly attended marches and openly supported women’s rights. She believed in gender equality. In the conversations that Offred discusses, the reader is aware of her mother’s feelings towards men.
She was one of the first that could see the changing tide in society. Shirley Neuman notes that Offred’s mother felt that “women needed to ‘take back the night’ and… eplace kitchen-table abortions with legal freedom of choice” (Neuman, 2008). It is through her that feminism is first presented as a solution to Gilead’s corrupted society. The reader would, understandably, be disgusted with the way society was in the novel. Atwood’s intended response towards such a society was to find a way of preventing such a thing from occurring in real life. Gorman Beauchamp notes that she tried to revent the reader from “being too obtuse to see that Gilead lurked just around the corner” (Beauchamp 2009).
She makes Gilead a more plausible occurrence by not providing much detail about the country itself, relying on the reader’s mind to fill in the blanks. As the fear of such a thing occurring becomes legitimate in the reader’s mind, it automatically searches for ways around losing control to an unknown government. The most likely solution that reader would come to realize is feminism. Without it, what better way would there be to ensure a prevention of such a loss of power?
