Handmaids Tale Essay

PLANNING

“A character who overcomes difficulties becomes more engaging.”

Offred, whose actions and thought processes give us more insight into who she is as a character

Progression of her feelings towards Gilead as the text advances. Offred becomes more engaging but not necessarily in a positive way

Why is offred engaging? -Intelligent, a lot of insight into the things she thinks about.

Overcomes difficulties: 3 difficulties that show a lot of character development for example:

2. Being taken to jezebels by the commander/seeing moira for the first and last time and hearing her story

3. Her meeting with Nick near the end of the book? Wanting to stay in the red centre because of him/not wanting to spy for her fellow handmaids

Introduction – How certain difficulties made Offred more engaging but also lowered our opinion of her as a character

“But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.” The Handmaids Tale, a dystopian novel written in 1985 by Margret Atwood, details the life of a handmaid by the name of Offred. Atwood weaves many obstacles into the novel which shape and mould the characters as the story progresses. We, as the reader, can see how these events affect the main character Offred through her thoughts, actions and her intelligent nature. The three main events that inspired a change in Offred’s character are the trip to Jezebels, enforced by the Commander, the Arranged meeting with Nick in order to conceive and —****

Body Paragraph One- difficulty number 1 how this started to develop offreds story and give the reader insight into who this character is

The Handmaids Tales actual storyline takes place over quite a short period of time. Margret Atwood skillfully weaves certain scenarios into the story that test Offred’s overall spirit and willingness to overcome these events. One such event that developed Offred’s story was her trip to Jezebels, orchestrated by the Commander and this occurrence can be seen as the climax of their time together. In the book, Jezebel’s is a strip/sex club where women who do not qualify to be a Handmaid or Martha go and references Jezebel, Queen of Israel, from the Hebrew Bible. These women work for the Republic of Gilead, most sharing the opinion that working as a prostitute is a better lifestyle than that of the Handmaids or being sent to the colonies. In being prostitutes, the women also gain a sort of superiority over the men who come to Jezebel’s, as they pose a threat to men through the way in which they can enhance their sexuality. It is for this reason that the Commander dresses Offred up and brings her to Jezebels, for his own enjoyment in seeing- His disappointment when she does not share the excitement he feels about a genuine sexual encounter makes the fantasy of conspiracy fade. [how offered overcame]. Atwood references the notion that a patriarchal society often divides women into two categories: the virgin and the whore.

Body Paragraph Two- A new difficulty later on in the book that may have shown who Offred really is and piqued the interest of the reader, thus making them more engaged in the story.

Offred’s constant exposure to conspiracy and rule-breaking leads her to test the limits on how far she can go. This freedom also aids in her losing sight of how corrupt Gilead really is, because for her, she would rather be content with the bare minimum over a possibility of freedom.

Body Paragraph Three- How these two events made Offred more engaging and whether we liked her more or less because of these experiences. A negative or positive feeling towards her character by the end of the book?

Conclusion- Summary, how its hard to imagine her exact situation and the things she would be feeling but personal real world experiences regarding coronavirus(?) give us more insight into her feeling trapped and controlled by a higher power.

thursday find quotes*

“What the Commander said is true. One and one and one and one doesn’t
equal four. Each one remains unique, there is no way of joining them
together. They cannot be exchanged, one for the other. They cannot replace
each other. Nick for Luke or Luke for Nick. Should does not apply.”

“I was thinking of Nick,” she says. . . “What about the Commander?” I say.
“Well,” she says, with firmness; no, more than that, a clenched look, like a
purse snapping shut. “We just won’t tell him, will we?”

“In order to do this I became reckless, I took stupid chances.”

“The fact is that I no longer want to leave, escape, cross the border to
freedom. I want to be here, with Nick, where I can get at him.
Telling this, I’m ashamed of myself. But there’s more to it than that. Even
now, I can recognize this admission as a kind of boasting. There’s pride in it,
because it demonstrates how extreme and therefore justified it was, for me.”

**Having trouble forming a main statement/question to write my essay around.