The Two Sides of Offred

  "My self is a thing I must now compose as one composes a speech. What I must preset is a made thing, not something born."
          

      In this quote, Offred illustrates two contradicting messages about her position as a Handmaid. On one hand, she must act unattached due to the limits of the dress and lifestyle. The comparison of her life to the composition of a speech demonstrates this bleak tone by separating her thoughts and ideals from her body. She begins the separation by stating that her "self" is "a made thing", implying that she has been molded rather than developed naturally or "born".
 
      However, Offred doesn't seem to lose all of her hope. According to the first part of the quote, she must compose and preset herself. Fearing the effects on her unborn child, the officials of Gilead will not beat her into submission. She owns very little, but she still holds implicit power with every thought and slight movement that she makes, such as her accounts of her life and the Latin writing in her room that she doesn't show anyone. Gilead has pressured her into becoming a cautious Handmaid, but she still makes her own decisions, even if they are small and surreptitious.

       These two sides of Offred deepens her character. On the surface, she is a resource who must obey official authority. Under white wings and red dress, she holds tightly onto scraps of the past and aligning them with her present situation to preserve her individual power. The existence of these two sides shows readers of the Handmaids Tale the possible differences between the surface and the true nature of individuals.


Image courtesy of OWNI.eu
Quote courtesy of The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood