Character Studies Second Part

Hi! Here the second –and final- part of the character studies! Hope everything’s clear.

Best, Woutje

Serena Joy
The Commander’s Wife Serena Joy used to be a Gospel star and homemaking advocate. She used to speech about women who must stay at home, looking after their household and children. Now she’s a bitter woman, spending her days knitting or walking through her garden. She’s unhappy, which causes her to take out her frustrations on Offred. Even though, Serena Joy has no problem asking the narrator to betray the Commander and break the law by having sex with Nick, to increase the chance of getting the narrator pregnant. This way she’ll get rid of the Handmaid, and have a child to raise.

Nick
The gardener and chauffeur of the household, and the Commander’s Guardian. He becomes the sign of the Commander, for when the narrator is supposed to visit the Commander in the evening. The narrator is interested in his mysterious personality throughout the novel, and they start an affair after Serena Joy sets them up once to get the narrator pregnant.

Character Studies-Major Characters

Hi there!

If you really want to get insight of this book, you need to know a little more about its characters. I’ll start with the major characters, and add some more characters later. Enjoy!

Best, Woutje

Offred
The protagonist of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. You are shown the story from her point of view. She’s a Handmaid, which is in this society a fertile woman, forced to bear children for the elite group of Commanders and their infertile wives. She always wears red dresses and white wings to protect her face, as all Handmaids do. The name of the narrator, Offred, is not her real one. It’s a constructed name, indicating that she belongs to her Commander; of-Fred. We never get to learn what her real name is or what she looks like. What we do know, is that she has viable ovaries.

Telling us the story, the narrator glances back to the past many times, as her mind is easily distracted by flashbacks; however, she is always trying to listen to others, trying to be kind. She has a hint of a dark sense of humour, mocking some aspects of the Republic of Gilead, sometimes trying to manipulate her world in the little ways she can. She’s interesting in the men living around her, taking small digs at them.  Also, she contemplates stealing things to take back a little of her power, or to use it as a weapon.