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Offred (She survives with dignity and a measure of self respect, and even…
Offred
She survives with dignity and a measure of self respect, and even manages to embrace the possibility of her escape with hope.
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A heroine of sort, that has won the battle against the numbing and often dangerous practicalities of everyday life in Gilead and remains a witness to freedom and resilience of human spirit
Entrapped, Isolated and afraid. Her individuality is effaced. 33 year old, fertile victim of Gileaden sexist ideology. One of the "two-legged wombs" trapped in Gilead. Imprisoned in the domestic spaces of the home.
Her narration shows us that she can survive traumas of loss and bereavement. Her narration is also highly self conscious, aware of her contradictions and failings within herself. She accuses herself of cowardice and unreliability and even goes on to feel guilty for the betrayal of the very household that imprisoned her.
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Allowed out only with a shopping partner or for official excursions such as prayvaganzas and salvagings.
Her narrative resists diagrammatic simplicity, allowing her to retain a sense individuality and psychological freedom.
She refuses to forget her past as a mother, a wife, a daughter and a friend. It reminds her of her need to survive her present situation. She does this through one of her greatest psychological resources which is her faculty of double vision.
Offred's greatest psychological resource is her faculty of double vision, for she is a survivor from the past, and it is her to remember which enables her to survive in her present.
Her flashbacks are her most effective means of escape from the isolation, loneliness and boredom burdened upon her by Gilead.
She has the ability to see everything through a double exposure, with the past superimposed upon the present. The past allows her to give depth to the present. She simultaneously inhabits two spaces.
She keep her old name like a buried treasure, as a guarantee if her other identity. - "I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I'll come back to dig up, one day"
She has a lively responsiveness to the world around her and is sharply observant of physical details around her.
Offred clings to the value of every individual and consistently refuses to be bamboozled by the rhetoric of Gilead.- "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."
Her attitude throughout the novel is discreetly subversive but never openly rebellious like Moira. She watches for moments of instability which she calls "tiny peepholes" when human responses break through official surfaces.
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As sad as it is her fullest human relationship is her "arrangement" with the commander "the fact is i'm his mistress" only when she is playing scrabble is she at her liveliest and most conventionally feminine. It is only in his company for the first time that she laughs aloud (mainly at the absurdity of this situation"
Part of living in a terrorist state like Gilead, means that you are always alert for the glint of danger that surrounds her.
Offred's relationship with Nick, and their love represents the forbidden combination of desire and rebellion. It allows her to find hope for the future and helps to accommodate herself to her reduced circumstances.