Essay On The Handmaid's Tale

In her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explores the poor ideals and horrors of a futuristic patriarchal society. The story is set in Massachusetts at an unspecified time in the future and tells the story of a young lady’s struggles through a change in the way of life after America was taken over by another governing body, Gilead. By Gilead’s traditional rules, women were not allowed to work and own property, and men were far superior to the women. In the story, procreation was difficult because of a reduce in fertility and a mutant strain of chlamydia, so in order to have children, wealthy families often obtained a handmaid to have the man impregnate. Only women were traded because by society’s view, men could not be infertile; …show more content…
She lives in the home of the Commander, and his wife, Serena Joy. The Commander is the man who is trying to get her pregnant and he begins an affair with her, spending time doing illegal things, and flirting with her. Serena Joy used to be somewhat famous, giving speeches all around in advocacy of women’s traditional roles in the home, but her fame was brought to an end and she too is stuck in the home. Serena is a likeable character because she acknowledges the concept that her husband to be infertile and urges Offred to have sex with their gardener and chauffeur, Nick who is simply doing his job but agrees. We learn later in the novel that nick is in a group that wants to overthrow the new government, and helps Offred escape from the Commander’s home. One more prominent character we meet is named Moria. She is a very strong woman who escaped from her destiny of being a handmaid, and serves as a foil to Offred to show how badly Offred wishes to leave and live life on her own. A reader may find Moria to be a particularly interesting character because of her strength and that she was underdeveloped and did not appear as much as one may have