The Handmaid's Tale- Character Analysis

Offred

Unfortunately we know very little about her physical traits, yet the author kindly allows us a peek into her personality and the carefree life she led before the revolution.

I’m rather convinced that she is quite calm and always tries to keep her composure. However, as her constant flashbacks prove the opposite, perhaps that’s just how she tries to ease her violent inner storms: by keeping her emotions at bay at all times. As a part of adjusting herself to the new society, we witness how her red veil serves as a cover not only for her face but also for her emotions. But surely, one cannot abandon his personal traits as easily as hiding behind a veil, thus her sentimental personality is constantly on the watch for an empty moment in order to show its face and to fill that very instant as well as her mind completely. While Offred drifts back and forth between the reality and her flashbacks, we discover that she had an affair with a married man, with whom she ended up getting married (he obliviously divorced his former wife first) and from whom she bore her first child (it’s a girl!). Her selfless affection towards her husband and her daughter can be recognised in the very fact that her only apprehension seems to be about the fate of her loved ones, instead of her own.

Also, to have an affair with a married man, according to my very limited knowledge from other films and books, requires a very persistent character, which may provide you with enough will to overcome the obstacles ahead of you. (Well either that or a soft character which may provide you with enough naivety to overlook the fact that your partner has no serious future plans with you.)

Offred’s another feature which may seem as a positive aspect at first sight is her obedience. She measures her each step, trying not to cross the line and to fulfil her duties as a Handmaid. However I simply fail to comprehend her readiness for accepting the rules enforced on her. Such manners can only be interpreted as a weakness in character. On the other hand, no matter how firmly she is attached to the rules of the new reign, there always seems to be a part of her, desperately looking for “a way out”. But the mere idea of a salvation is enough to scare her away and to tighten her grip on her duties that make her a member of the society, in which she has now found a routine. On such occasions when an opportunity of a salvation presents itself, she chooses to stick to the system, she’s already adjusted herself to (e.g. chapter eleven, the visit to the doctor). All in all I think she has the makings of a courageous and defiant heroine (which she ought to have, as she is the main heroine in the novel and it is obvious that the course of events ought to be changed immediately).

TTFN !

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