Handmaid's Tale

A detailed Summary of Handmaid's Tale


MAN, in a feminist novel, is SATAN. He embodies all that is fear, evil, violent, hating, and oppression. More often than not, authors portray their protagonist?s male oppressor as a chauvinistic pig. They are cruel, evil and immoral. But behind this mask of macho manliness always lies a real human being that the reader must extrapolate. Every bruit has an inside that makes him such. In Atwood?s The Handmaid?s Tale, the Commander, even though he possesses a stern and powerful image, is an old, dying, lonely man. If observed outside the role he is supposed to serve, the reader pities him. However, within the turmoil and paranoia of modern Gilead, the reader sees the Commander as the enforcer and not as a victim and product of an unjust world.

A social hierarchy structures the Commander as the center of power. Everyone, man and woman, answers to him. Inevitable, the reader responds with fear and animosity. Offred?s evil antagonist is the slave driver, Commander Fred. He is a monster who wields his manly might over helpless women, destroying their freedom and treating them like dogs. With


Rape of the body is a minor formality. An equivalent to an inappropriate inter-office relationship, the Commander invites Offred to the ?forbidden room where [she] has never been; where women do not go? (136). Entrapped in a relentless catch-22, Offred can either submit to a possible trap or face the consequences of refusing a senior officer. The Commander should never force such a situation upon anyone. From first glace, doing so is a precise attack by a power-hungry man with an inferiority complex. Unable to achieve anything of particular merit, he immorally targets a defenseless handmaid. Again, Commander seems to use his power indiscriminately, immorally, and maliciously. But is this act not understandable? In a setting that forbids most instinctive social contact, a simple date cannot be take for granted. A child develops social instincts early in life. However, he is unable to implement those instincts towards a productive cause because he does not have the means or knowledge to do this. Likewise, if society takes away the means or knowledge of basic and necessary human interaction

Some common words found in the essay are:
Commander Fred, Tale Commander, , Furthermore Offreds, unwilling sex, sex offred, means knowledge,

Approximate Word count = 736
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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