Offred
Handmaids function
● Offred’s individuality is erased as replaced with the status of a generic woman for
breeding “two legged wombs”
● Denied all individual rights - her fate is to be virtually imprisoned
● Victim of Gileadean sexist ideology which equates men with power and sexual
potency and women with submission and reproduction
Significance of her name
● Her identity as an individual is erased and she cannot use her own name
● “I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come
back to”
● She gives her real name to Nick as a love token and he uses it in exchange of trust
● Offred doesn’t trust the reader with her real name, which shows her fear of her
dangerous situation
Psychological freedom
● She reconstructs the past through flashbacks
● The layered image of past and present means her narrative is like a palimpsest
(manuscript where later writing has been superimposed on earlier words)
Subversion vs rebellion
● Offred's attitude is discreetly subversive but never openly rebellious
● She consistently refuses to be deceived on the rhetoric of Gilead as she believes in
the value of every individual
● Ironically her fullest relationship in Gilead is her arrangement with the Commander:
“the fact is that I’m his mistress”. Their scrabble games is where Offred's liveliest and
her most conventionally feminine
Hope for the future
● Offred succeeds in finding hope for the future with her relationship with Nick
● Their love represents the forbidden combination of desire and rebellion
● Offred's narrative shows how she can survive loss and bereavement. It also shows
how she manages to evade and find ways to challenge the absolute authority of her
state
● She is a highly self conscious narrator who’s aware of her town contradictions and
failings
● Despite Offred's own self doubt we are convinced of her integrity - she keeps her
dignity and self respect as she embraces the possibility of escape with hope
Key quotes
● Pg 156 “there’s no way out of here” she’s experienced a moment of freedom in her
laughing fit, yet finally she’s reminded that she is trapped this makes her feel like
having an “epileptic fit” this becomes a moment of pathos a reminder or her
loneliness and isolation
Moira
Female rebel
● Always known by her real name as she never becomes a handmaid
● From Gileaden authorities point of view she is a loose woman and a criminal
● In Jezebels her sexually provocative “bunny girl” costume is absurd and deliberately
distorted. The costume is “government issued” which is ironic as a bunny does not fit
Moiras personality.
Speaking out
Handmaids function
● Offred’s individuality is erased as replaced with the status of a generic woman for
breeding “two legged wombs”
● Denied all individual rights - her fate is to be virtually imprisoned
● Victim of Gileadean sexist ideology which equates men with power and sexual
potency and women with submission and reproduction
Significance of her name
● Her identity as an individual is erased and she cannot use her own name
● “I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I’ll come
back to”
● She gives her real name to Nick as a love token and he uses it in exchange of trust
● Offred doesn’t trust the reader with her real name, which shows her fear of her
dangerous situation
Psychological freedom
● She reconstructs the past through flashbacks
● The layered image of past and present means her narrative is like a palimpsest
(manuscript where later writing has been superimposed on earlier words)
Subversion vs rebellion
● Offred's attitude is discreetly subversive but never openly rebellious
● She consistently refuses to be deceived on the rhetoric of Gilead as she believes in
the value of every individual
● Ironically her fullest relationship in Gilead is her arrangement with the Commander:
“the fact is that I’m his mistress”. Their scrabble games is where Offred's liveliest and
her most conventionally feminine
Hope for the future
● Offred succeeds in finding hope for the future with her relationship with Nick
● Their love represents the forbidden combination of desire and rebellion
● Offred's narrative shows how she can survive loss and bereavement. It also shows
how she manages to evade and find ways to challenge the absolute authority of her
state
● She is a highly self conscious narrator who’s aware of her town contradictions and
failings
● Despite Offred's own self doubt we are convinced of her integrity - she keeps her
dignity and self respect as she embraces the possibility of escape with hope
Key quotes
● Pg 156 “there’s no way out of here” she’s experienced a moment of freedom in her
laughing fit, yet finally she’s reminded that she is trapped this makes her feel like
having an “epileptic fit” this becomes a moment of pathos a reminder or her
loneliness and isolation
Moira
Female rebel
● Always known by her real name as she never becomes a handmaid
● From Gileaden authorities point of view she is a loose woman and a criminal
● In Jezebels her sexually provocative “bunny girl” costume is absurd and deliberately
distorted. The costume is “government issued” which is ironic as a bunny does not fit
Moiras personality.
Speaking out
