Handmaid's Tale Research Paper

As hinted by the quotation, Offred felt guilty for having enjoyed the sex she had with Nick. At first, Offred agreed to have sex with Nick because of a pact she made with Serena Joy. Getting pregnant by Nick would save Offred from shipment to the colonies. However, after the act transpired, a revision occurred within Offred, which saw the return of her old identity. The identity that Offred had throughout most of the novel was a precarious one that Offred created to conform to Gilead society. It was difficult for Offred to conform because she came from the transitional generation that remembered the old United States before it was seized by Christian Fundamentalists. Since she was from that generation, Offred had to cover herself with a veil of ignorance and repress the memories of the past. This would start to unravel once the Commander took interest in her. Through showing her old magazines, and allowing her forbidden vices such as hand lotion, the Commander chipped away her Gilead identity. When he took her to the old hotel, with women dressed in provocative clothing to …show more content…
“They cannot replace each other. Nick for Luke or Luke for Nick” (192). On a subconscious level, she has replaced Nick with Luke, and as the romance becomes more heated, Offred becomes more reckless. Here Atwood is commentating on the mechanism of romance as a tool of control. Society sees romance as the most desirable good for women, and that the ultimate end goal is the transfer of authority over the women from their fathers into their husbands. Once they are under the authority of their husbands, their goal is to have children. This does not change when the Gilead Republic replaces the United States. When Offred falls in love with Nick, her desires to die go away. “I would like to be ignorant” then is a rational subconscious plea on her part, because ignorance is a form of