Discuss the presentation and importance of Moira and the narrator's mother in the novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'

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Beth Jackson

Discuss the presentation and importance of Moira and the narrator’s mother in the novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

In the novel ‘ The Handmaid’s Tale’ Margaret Atwood uses both the characters of Moira and the Handmaid's mother to give a real insight of the Gilead regime, women’s roles in society and how these roles have changed over the years. Atwood uses these characters to present two extremes of the feminist view.

The character of Moira is strongly individual and represents the ideal of friendship in the novel. Throughout the novel Moira is referred to both in nostalgic memories of the handmaid, but also as a main character who challenges the regime .She is portrayed in the handmaids memories as a rebel even before the Gilead regime began ‘in her purple overalls, one dangly earring, the gold fingernail that she wore to be eccentric. She could be classed a modern women experimenting with her sexuality and campaigning for issues through her education papers on ‘Date Rape’. Atwood uses the character of Moira to comment on a particular type of young feminists that were active in the 80’s. These extreme feminists believed very strongly that it was men that were the enemy. Moira is presented as a beacon of hope and normality for Offred when she is first is brought into the Rachel and Leah centre she is still wearing jeans and declares ‘This is a loony bin’ Moira, always known by her own name because she never becomes a Handmaid. Moira as a character can be viewed in two ways, From Offred's point of view she is the embodiment of female heroism, though from the Gileadean authorities' point of view she is a 'loose woman', a criminal element

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Atwood presents Moira as strong willed character that will not be terrorised into even outward conformity, succeeding to escape from the centre. The character of Moira is not only important in the sense of a single character but also the effect that she has on other characters in the novel. To the other women at the Centre she represents all that they would like to do but would not dare: 'Moira was our fantasy. We hugged her to us, she was with us in secret, a giggle; she was lava beneath the crust of daily life. In the light of ...

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