14 PAGES OF A* GRADE 'THE HANDMAIDS TALE' CHARACTER PROFILES - AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE B ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROTEST - This document includes 5 character profiles for the main characters in 'The Handmaids Tale' (Offred, Serena Joy, The Commander, Aunt Lydia and Moira.) These character p...
The Handmaid's Tale AO5 Key Critical Quotes Revision Grid
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EDEXCEL ENGLISH LITERATURE- An essay on the presentation of setting in The Handmaid's Tale and Frankenstein
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THE CHARACTER OF OFFRED
• By only having O red’s perspective, the reader gains insight into her thoughts and memories;
this is particularly important because, as Handmaids, women are unable to read or write and are
expected to be generally subservient.
• O red is a dynamic and complex character who changes from someone who evolves from
submissive to subversive.
SYMBOLISM
O red’s memories:
• O red’s memories are used to juxtapose the happier times in her past with the oppression of
the present. She often remembers her family and her friends, but also details the events that
made her current reality possible, such as the Rachel and Leah Centre (or Red Centre).
• 'I want everything back, the way it was. But there is no point to it, this wanting’. (C20)
O red’s name:
• In the novel, Handmaid’s are not permitted to use their real names. Instead, they take on the
names of their Commanders, known as patronymics. In this case, O red’s name literally means
“Of Fred,” which symbolises female subservience and male dominance.
• O red’s name also references the colour red (‘o red’) as an allusion to the red dress that
Handmaids are required to wear.
• Both of these things further tie her to her identity as a Handmaid, and reinforces the idea that
Handmaids exist solely for the bene t of men and patriarchy.
• ‘My name isn’t O red, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it’s
forbidden. I tell myself it doesn't matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful
only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter’. (C14)
The colour red:
• In Gilead, women’s identities are broken up to represent di erent patriarchal values. By
attaching a woman’s identity to a single colour, she becomes one-dimensional. The Wives dress
in blue to symbolise purity and serenity, and to invoke imagery of the Virgin Mary.
• In contrast, the Handmaids dress in red to symbolise menstrual blood, which further represents
fertility and life. Red can also symbolise violence and desire. This is ironic because sexual
attraction, especially towards a Handmaid, is sinful in Gilead.
• ‘I listen to my heart, wave upon wave, salty and red, continuing on and on, marking time’.
(C13)
CHARACTER IN CONTEXT
Reagan-Era Conservatism in the United States:
• Atwood intended for The Handmaid’s Tale to be a warning against this rising extremism.
Handmaids are meant to serve as a personi cation of Christian ideals. One of Atwood’s key
aims in writing The Handmaid’s Tale is to show that a dystopian, oppressive patriarchy is
possible. Ultimately, it is meant to serve as a cautionary tale.
Parallels with American slavery:
• Slaves were unable to read or write and relied on oral storytelling to pass down
knowledge between people: Handmaids are also forbidden from reading or writing, so O red
relies on oral storytelling.
• The Underground Femaleroad is an allusion to the Underground Railroad: a network of
houses that escaped slaves could follow when escaping to the North.
• Slaves often had ‘slave names’: where their owners would replace their birth names with
something else. This parallels the way Handmaids take the names of their Commanders to
convey that they are their property.
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, KEY CHARACTERISTICS
Dynamic:
• O red begins the novel in a place of resignation. In other words, she recognises that she
doesn’t have much power over her situation and is complying with Gilead’s rules out of self-
preservation. Throughout the novel, we see her evolve and attempt to take back her power in
any way she can. This is particularly evident in her relationships with men. While she takes joy in
wielding power over the Commander during their evening games of Scrabble, she also uses
Nick as a way to demonstrate her power and sexual autonomy.
Intelligent:
• O red is clearly smart. She is able to pick up on cues from her environment and adapt to them
to ensure her own survival. When she plays Scrabble with the Commander, she lets him win
once, even though she can beat him. Her ability to win at Scrabble shows that she is intelligent
in an academic sense. By letting the Commander win, however, she shows that she also
understands the power dynamics of the relationship. Once O red realises she can manipulate
the Commander, she uses this to her advantage, showing her cleverness.
Resilient:
• O red’s evolution from a submissive character to a subversive one shows how she can adapt to
her environment. From her internal monologue, we can see that she understands the world
around her and how to navigate it. She knows what to say to people in order to survive. This
resilience is crucial to her survival and is re ected in the mantra ‘nolite te bastardes
carborundorum’ (‘don’t let the bastards grind you down').
RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Characters in her present…
The Commander:
• He is well-dressed, respectable, and occasionally sympathetic. This is meant to show that evil
and oppressive people can appear to be normal, similar to how Nazi o cers lived normal lives
while working in concentration camps, a direct comparison that Atwood makes in Chapter 24:
‘He was not a monster,’ she said. ‘People say he was a monster, but he was not one’, whether
intentional or not, this is a central idea around the concept of the banality of evil.
• The banality of evil is a term introduced by Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt in her report
on Adolf Eichmann’s trial. Arendt’s central idea is that Eichmann wasn’t a fanatic or a sociopath
but was an average person whose complacency with oppression allowed for unspeakable
horrors. While in The Handmaid’s Tale, the Commander was driven more by ideology than
Eichmann arguably was, the comparison is still relevant, as even if a person is not explicitly evil
on an individual level, they can still perpetuate, advocate for, and enforce evil and oppressive
ideas for their bene t.
• ‘I ought to feel hatred for this man. I know I ought to feel it, but it isn’t what I do feel. What
I feel is more complicated than that. I don’t know what to call it. It isn’t love’. (C10)
Nick:
• Through her sexual relationship with Nick, O red is able to reclaim some of her identity as a
sexual being and have sex for pleasure, instead of just procreation. O red often nds herself
longing for connection, love, and touch and through Nick, she is able to get those things - at
least in part. By breaking the rules, O red’s relationship with Nick is also subversive, which
gives O red a sense of empowerment. Ultimately, O red’s relationship with Nick allows her to
escape from her one-dimensional role as a Handmaid and allows her to exist as an individual. At
the end of the book, Nick helps O red escape, but it’s unclear whether he gives her to the Eyes
or to Mayday.
Ofglen:
• At the beginning of the book, O red doesn’t trust Ofglen. After she reveals herself to be a
subversive, however, the two become allies. Ofglen encourages O red’s resistance, telling her
to get more information from the Commander (C34). Ofglen is a key part of O red’s transition
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