Friendship in the Handmaid’s Tale
Introduction: In Atwood’s 1983 novel, the Handmaid's tale, friendship between women is
explored through the lens of survival against the odds. By posing polar opposite friends in an
oppressive patriarchy, Atwood exposes the reality of oppression through the archetypes of
the everywoman and the feminist, revealing through their friendship that what unites women
is more than oppression, and meditating on the lasting impact of friendship. Atwood uses the
speculative dystopia of Gilead to oppose the value of friendship, its enduring reality against
the odds and the impact of friendship on personal identity.
1) Gilead vs Friendship
AO1: Gilead thrives on division and destruction of transgressive relationships. Even before
Gilead, female friendships are taboo (Luke points out no female equivalent of fraternise
es
exists) but are weaponised in the Salvaging to destroy dissidents. Consider the destruction
of friendships of Moira/Offred (who repeatedly meet in toilets, which shows stigma),
Ofglen/Offred and the lack of solidarity between Marthas and Handmaids.
ot
AO2: “we aren’t supposed to form friendships, loyalties, among one another”, “Fraternise
means to act like a brother. Luke told me that. He said there was no corresponding word that
meant to behave like a sister”, “the only danger was from others. Some were believers and
en
might report us”
AO3/4/5: Offred embodies the Everywoman in the New Right Nuclear family, which divides
her from Moira’s oppression even before Gilead. “We live in a cultural milieu that promotes
ur
motherhood and subverts sisterhood” Sandelowski, “Defeated but still defiant. Gilead is not
within her” Stilman, Judith Fetterly’s theory of female friendship benefitting women.
2) Hope
at
AO1: Moira symbolically haunts Offred, who imagines her actions and reactions in free
indirect discourse. Moira is also reactionary to statements by her foil Aunt Lydia, who acts as
er
a device to disable female friendships. The post modernist nature of the text favours stream
of consciousness, but for Offred, moira pervades that consciousness, embodying the
persona of permissive American past, where Aunt Lydia is the even earlier Puritan past. The
lit
direct addressivity of Offred’s narrative creates a hopeful and possible future friend with the
reader. The fact that Moira and Offred talk through a hole in a toilet wall suggests the
el
pervasiveness of male sexuality to block female socialisation but also the relentless nature
of female rebellion.
AO2: “if I could just see Moira, just see her, know she exists,. it’s hard to imagine now,
ev
having a friend”, “small glances like a sip”, “Moira was our fantasy”, “I expect Moira said
something like that”, Moira is a “giggle”, “lava beneath the crust of daily life”
AO3/4/5: Aunt Lydia is like the thought police in 1984, pervading Offred’s conscience to
al
disable friendship, “So few want to be rebels anymore” Fahrenheit 451.
3) Identity
AO1: When robbed of friendship, the Handmaid's agency but also their identity is lost, why
Janine cries and Offred begins to derealise. Friendship as a point of reference to the self,
perhaps the reason why Offred survives so long is that she can root herself in both the past
and the present, but has Moira as a reference point to both.
AO2: “We hugged [Moira] to us, she was with us in secret”, “Gilead also adopts measures
specifically aimed against women, their individuality and identity” Stilman. “I intend to last”
AO3/4/5: Henry Tajfel’s social identity theory (1970)- our socialisation is shaped by those
around us, Comparison of Moira to Syme in 1984 (both rebels unlike the Everyman
archetypes of Offred and Winston)
Introduction: In Atwood’s 1983 novel, the Handmaid's tale, friendship between women is
explored through the lens of survival against the odds. By posing polar opposite friends in an
oppressive patriarchy, Atwood exposes the reality of oppression through the archetypes of
the everywoman and the feminist, revealing through their friendship that what unites women
is more than oppression, and meditating on the lasting impact of friendship. Atwood uses the
speculative dystopia of Gilead to oppose the value of friendship, its enduring reality against
the odds and the impact of friendship on personal identity.
1) Gilead vs Friendship
AO1: Gilead thrives on division and destruction of transgressive relationships. Even before
Gilead, female friendships are taboo (Luke points out no female equivalent of fraternise
es
exists) but are weaponised in the Salvaging to destroy dissidents. Consider the destruction
of friendships of Moira/Offred (who repeatedly meet in toilets, which shows stigma),
Ofglen/Offred and the lack of solidarity between Marthas and Handmaids.
ot
AO2: “we aren’t supposed to form friendships, loyalties, among one another”, “Fraternise
means to act like a brother. Luke told me that. He said there was no corresponding word that
meant to behave like a sister”, “the only danger was from others. Some were believers and
en
might report us”
AO3/4/5: Offred embodies the Everywoman in the New Right Nuclear family, which divides
her from Moira’s oppression even before Gilead. “We live in a cultural milieu that promotes
ur
motherhood and subverts sisterhood” Sandelowski, “Defeated but still defiant. Gilead is not
within her” Stilman, Judith Fetterly’s theory of female friendship benefitting women.
2) Hope
at
AO1: Moira symbolically haunts Offred, who imagines her actions and reactions in free
indirect discourse. Moira is also reactionary to statements by her foil Aunt Lydia, who acts as
er
a device to disable female friendships. The post modernist nature of the text favours stream
of consciousness, but for Offred, moira pervades that consciousness, embodying the
persona of permissive American past, where Aunt Lydia is the even earlier Puritan past. The
lit
direct addressivity of Offred’s narrative creates a hopeful and possible future friend with the
reader. The fact that Moira and Offred talk through a hole in a toilet wall suggests the
el
pervasiveness of male sexuality to block female socialisation but also the relentless nature
of female rebellion.
AO2: “if I could just see Moira, just see her, know she exists,. it’s hard to imagine now,
ev
having a friend”, “small glances like a sip”, “Moira was our fantasy”, “I expect Moira said
something like that”, Moira is a “giggle”, “lava beneath the crust of daily life”
AO3/4/5: Aunt Lydia is like the thought police in 1984, pervading Offred’s conscience to
al
disable friendship, “So few want to be rebels anymore” Fahrenheit 451.
3) Identity
AO1: When robbed of friendship, the Handmaid's agency but also their identity is lost, why
Janine cries and Offred begins to derealise. Friendship as a point of reference to the self,
perhaps the reason why Offred survives so long is that she can root herself in both the past
and the present, but has Moira as a reference point to both.
AO2: “We hugged [Moira] to us, she was with us in secret”, “Gilead also adopts measures
specifically aimed against women, their individuality and identity” Stilman. “I intend to last”
AO3/4/5: Henry Tajfel’s social identity theory (1970)- our socialisation is shaped by those
around us, Comparison of Moira to Syme in 1984 (both rebels unlike the Everyman
archetypes of Offred and Winston)
