Life Of Offred In The Handmaid's Tale By Margaret Atwood (2023)

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In the story The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the United States has fallen apart. It is now the Republic of Gilead and women have lost everything. They are stripped of their money, freedoms like being able to read, family, and they can no longer work. Fertility rates have decreased, and women are blamed for it. Women who are fertile are taken to the Red Center, where they are trained on how to be a handmaid. Women are assigned to bear children for the commanders. The commanders are high ranking officials in Gilead. Offred, the main character in the story is separated from her daughter and her husband Luke. She is assigned to a commander and is forced to be in that patriarchal society. The overarching theme most prevalent in The Handmaid’s Tale is that of power. This hierarchal struggle also highlights the feminist critical theory through symbolism and events in the novel.…

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8). According to the lecture notes, women should decide about their reproductive rights, and the government should not interfere with it (Lecture notes, p. 9). However, the reproductive rights of many women in novel were taken away from them. For example, the Handmaids are fertile women whose job is to bear children for the wives of the commanders. The handmaids do not have control over their pregnancies and childbirth process. They do not have freedom to decide whether to have a child or not have a child. Other people have control of their body. Offred is handmaid in the home of Serena Joy and his husband. Under the new government, Offred has no choice, but to bear child for this household. The novel illustrates the prison life of these handmaids. Their bodies are treated like an object, which they have no control. Once they are able to produce a baby to one household, they are being transferred again to another…

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The Handmaid’s Tale is an eye-opening tale as horrifying and real as they come. It explores ideas of feminism, the power of literacy, and the connection between sex and politics. Offred is a prime example of an ordinary woman being placed into an extraordinary situation. Offred faces enmity and oppression from other women and the society of Gilead itself while being coddled and engaged by the very men she should be distant from. She grapples with herself and her decisions while trying to hold on to her sense of self and person. Offred may not be the mighty heroine who conquers all her obstacles in one fell swoop, but she is an example to how starkly convincing the world of Gilead…

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The Handmaid’s tale is a feminist science fiction novel by a Canadian, and feminist writer Margaret Atwood. The story depicts psychological and physical struggle of a woman named Offred due to suppression of women by men in her society. Thus, the title Handmaid’s tale is representative of the life of Offred, the Handmaid or a female servant. This novel vividly portrays the cruelty of biological and social categorization. Handmaid’s tale takes place in a futuristic fictional society where revolutionists have wiped out the United States of America and a new totalitarian society called Republic of Gilead is established. In this new society, new orders exist where women are inferior to men and women are only used as a tool for reproduction or “Ceremony”,…

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One of the first acts that Gilead enforced was the loss of women’s rights. Females could not own property, nor have a job, and they were considered the property of male authority. Moira tells Offred the day of the new laws, “Any account with an F on it instead of an M. All they needed to do is push a few buttons. We’re cut off.” (Atwood, 178) Being subject to a patriarchal society was the most common state of women in the Old Testament, but it did not stop with the suppression of women for Offred. When her marriage was voided due to her husband’s previous divorce (an act not allowed with the new nation), Offred became a handmaid. The use of handmaids came from the Bible, where infertile women used their maids as a surrogate. Specifically the story of Jacob’s wife Rachel was applied; Rachel told Jacob to sleep with her maid and that “she shall bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her” (Genesis 30:3), it meant that Rachel would recognize the child as her own, but the Gileadean government took it literally. During the Ceremony, the handmaid would lie between the wife’s legs giving over complete control. In addition to the literal Biblical reference in the Ceremony, the place that trained Offred and other handmaids was named “Rachel and Leah Re-education Center” for Jacob’s wives. Handmaids also had to dress and live similar to nuns: their bodies were covered, they occupied small rooms, and they were not allowed to be alone outside the household. Offred’s life was directly influenced with the religious jurisdiction of…

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In the novel A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood portrays the life of women in the future dystopian society as unpleasant, brutal, and horrific. The women in the novel have no power and are only useful for having babies. Atwood shows her feelings on this matter through the main character, Offred, and the people she surrounds herself with. Handmaid’s, Martha’s, Unwomen, and the Wives are the groups that make up the social hierarchy. Atwood causes us to open our eyes and ask ourselves: are women in today’s society Handmaids, Martha’s, Unwomen, or the Wives.…

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In the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, women have failed to gain more than the life they lived before. This is a result of the regime removing their power through the elimination of rights and freedoms and relationships. Replacing it with roles women wouldn’t choose nor want and a life that failed to meet the standards the regime pledged.…

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The Handmaid’s Tale is a unique novel that raises awareness of society’s problems after the political uprising of Gilead and the new strict regime. The book portrays a life of a handmaid named Offred and the struggles that she goes through in her daily life. Since all women in Gilead are categorized into groups, varying from Unwomen to Wives; Offred has to serve the role of a Handmaid, which requires her to get inseminated by her husband. Handmaids have to recognize their husbands’ authority and have very little rights. In chapter 1, Offred discusses how they are restricted…

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For a period, women were not allowed to work and then that transitioned into there being specific roles for women to play. Handmaids have the role of child bearing for families who cannot conceive. Society’s views on sex and love shifted to fit the new ideals. Love is unnecessary and sex is for purpose and no longer pleasure. Offred has been told that, as a handmaid, she is “for breeding purposes” only (136). When Offred joins the Commander’s household, his wife tells her that, “as far as [the wife] is concerned, this is like a business transaction” (15). It was like a business and the sex was treated as such. There was a time of the month that the ceremony occurred and the wife was a part of the sex between the Commander and Offred. Offred’s ‘job’ was to stay healthy and get pregnant. She is not valued for her strengths or even judged for her weaknesses; she is no longer an individual. Offred has no choice but to embrace the Gilean attitude of handmaids. Handmaids are “two-legged wombs, that’s all: sacred vessels, ambulatory chalices” (136). She and the other handmaids are no longer seen as human. The Aunts tell them that they are necessary to society and therefore respected; however, these women feel no respect. They are expected to do their “duty in silence” (221) while a commander’s wife is watching as “he is fucking the lower part” of their bodies (94). This sex is for a purpose and for an…

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A young woman walks down the street, completely covered in cloth from head to toe. As a female, she is considered beneath all of the men around her. She is only permitted to leave the house under certain restrictions, such as retrieving groceries. Most importantly, conceiving a child is considered the most valuable contribution she can make to society. While the scenario sounds familiar, she surprisingly does not reside in Gilead. As a dystopian novel, “A Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood delivers the genre justice by warning it’s readers over the regressive society they could possibly live in. A few countries located in the Middle East seem to have emulated the structure of the fictitious society. On the other side of the globe, the book…

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Gilead deprives women of their individuality by classifying them based on the colors they wear. Offred, after noticing a mirror, sees herself “like a distorted shadow, a parody of something, some fairy-tale figure in a red cloak” (9). Women are no longer defined by any individual qualities, rather solely by their clothing. In this quote, Offred recognizes her reflection as a facade; she is isolated from her former self and now sees herself in relation to her red clothing. To further accomplish this complete obliteration of identity and simultaneously to promote Handmaids’ subservience to their Commanders, Gilead renames the Handmaids. When Ofglen is replaced with a “new” Ofglen, Offred reflects that, “And of course she is, the new one, and Ofglen, wherever she is, is no longer Ofglen” (283). Names are a representation of identity, and therefore their removal is also a removal of identity. Then, they are given titles taken from the names of their Commanders, defining them solely by the men who have control over them. Offred’s comment reveals how women are considered replaceable commodities and are given no acknowledgement of humanity. To further establish the subordinate position of women, Gilead removes certain words from their lexicon to blame all reproductive failures on women. While at her monthly doctor’s appointment, Offred mentions that “there is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law” (61). Offred’s sentiment reflects a patriarchal ideology that absolves men of any fault in reproduction, whether it be sterility or birth defects. As such, the societal pressure, expectations, and failures are forced onto the women. Through language, Gilead achieves human classification at an inconceivable level where individualism is close to…

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The loss of identity is prevalent amongst the Handmaids when they have to endure the struggle of control with wearing the same red uniformed dress, not showing their faces. Once the women convert to the now freedom less and strict life of being a Handmaid, their name is changed to only one name beginning with “of” from their given birth name. Offred and Ofglen have these names which are used as slave name for their function. Offred’s name is means “of Fred” which meaning that she belongs to her Commander whose name is Fred. This society on the way women are treated and the way they choose to dress is like a flashback to a past era of time, the 1800s. The Handmaids not only choose but also have a desire to become impregnated by the Commander even though they have wives. They want to be the one who has the ability or even chance to carry a child of the Commanders. They make procreation their life and their duty to conceive. "Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. (Atwood, 88)" The only task they are allowed to participate in is procreation and they are not allowed to have any intimacy from that experience. This intimacy involves impersonal and wordless sexual intercourse while another woman, Serena Joy holds the hands of the Handmaid. These handmaids are indoctrinating into the ideology of Gilead. The Handmaids are taken advantage of and are constantly mistreated. The Handmaids are used as for example, like an instrument; they are used beings. They are treated as objects and nothing else, there is not any emotion shown between…

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a book built upon shaky ground. It is a story pieced together years after it occurred by a man who did not care for the heroine--only for her commander. So it makes sense that this shaky account--with its biased interpreter and at times lack of evidence--would conclude with a shaky ending, one where our heroine, Offred, is taken into the unknown, either to safety or insured death. Both possibilities for her ending are equally unsettling, the kind of unknown that sends chills down one's spine, for even if she is taken to safety, her life has been folded over so many times, reinvented then destroyed, that the chances of her becoming the woman she once was is slim to none. In both the conclusion of Offred’s…

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Imagine living in a place where everything you do is heavily criticized and self expression is not allowed. A world in which everyone and everything is closely controlled and you get punished if you go against the rules. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, in the dystopian society of Gilead, the oppressive system forces its citizens to follow assigned roles and rules by being highly critical and manipulative. Throughout the story, Atwoods presents the characters through a series of events which show the impacts on the society. The characterization of Offred, the Aunts, Janine and the other Handmaids reveals how an oppressive community leads to women objectifying themselves.…

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At the time when Atwood was writing her book, she was being influenced by a series of feminist movements that had been occurring around the world, like the National Women's Suffrage Association, which promoted the vote of the women. She began questioning the role, treatment, and status of women in modern society. Through the novel’s setting Atwood introduces her perspective of a world where everything is based on regulation and people live in constant fear. The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in an imprecise future in a newly-created nation called Gilead, which used to be the United States. Here, the totalitarian government segregates the population by categorizing the people based on gender. Gilead is a nation where people live under a regime where there is no freedom or rights, and they are ruled by a structure of suppression and control. As a result, The Handmaid’s Tale stands as a warning of the triumph of totalitarianism in what could be the near future, a "Western Hemisphere Iran." Atwood expresses her concern towards the idea that in the future society will become corrupt and…

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