Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Handmaid's Tale - Character Analysis

Up to this point in the story, Offred has been a very obviously unsympathetic character; she judges and mistrusts those around her and holds deep contempt for those with whom she is forced to accompany.  This is evident in her treatment of Ofglen and in her thoughts regarding Serena Joy and Rita, among others.  However, Offred has apparently become less cold and inhuman in the preceding chapters, evidenced heavily by her concentration on her past and her adjustment to her surroundings (she used the word ‘my’ to refer to her room). 

These slight developments continue and increase in this chapter; she dislikes the commander and is careful to use explicit language to describe his actions, contrasting them with those of her husband, Luke, and she has an illegal encounter with Nick while exploring the house, which is also forbidden.  These actions seem to show that she is becoming less adjusted to the new society and is devolving more and more into who she was before the change.

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